Svenska Cupen

About Svenska Cupen

Svenska Cupen History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage

The Svenska Cupen, commonly referred to as the Swedish Cup, is Sweden's premier domestic knockout cup competition. The tournament was founded in 1941, with Helsingborgs IF lifting the inaugural title after beating IK Sleipner 3-1 in the final.

Svenska Cupen’s format involves 96 teams from various tiers of Swedish football competing for the title, with clubs from the Allsvenskan (the top tier) and Superettan (the second tier) joining in the latter stages while lower-division teams compete from the beginning.

Following the 2011 edition, Svenska Cupen returned to the fall-spring schedule previously seen in 2000-01 and also reintroduced a group stage for the first time since 1995/96. Under this format, Allsvenskan and Superettan teams enter the competition in the second round. After the second round comes the group stage, with the 32 remaining sides being split into eight groups of four in a single round-robin format.

The eventual champions of the Swedish Cup earn a ticket to the Europa League qualifying stage if they had not already secured one via the top-flight league.