Ukrainian Cup

About Ukrainian Cup

Ukrainian Cup History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage

The Ukrainian Cup is an annual knockout round tournament for professional clubs in Ukraine. It was founded in 1991 and features mostly professional-level teams, with all teams in the Premier League and the First League included, while most of the teams in the Second League also gain access plus a handful of high-performing, lower-tier, amateur clubs.

Since the 2003/04 campaign, the winner of the Ukrainian Cup has the chance to compete against the winner of the Ukrainian Premier League in the annual Ukrainian Super Cup -
assuming the same team does not win both the UPL and the Cup. If the same team does win both the UPL and the Cup, then the Super Cup will feature that team versus the runners-up of the Ukrainian Premier League (as of 2015).

In addition, the winner of the Ukrainian Cup also gains access to the UEFA Europa League (provided that the team has not qualified instead for the UEFA Champions League based on its standing in the Premier League table).

Given their dominance of Ukrainian football since the early 1990s, it is no surprise that two clubs: Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv are the most successful teams in Ukrainian Cup history.

Media coverage for the Ukrainian Cup in Ukraine has varied over the past decades. In the early years of the competition, broadcasts were mostly controlled by state-owned media. However, starting in the 21st century, a series of paid-TV providers secured media rights, and as of the 2020s, providers such as Setanta Sports broadcast and live-stream Ukrainian Cup matches for viewers all across Ukraine.