About Suomen Cup

History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage

The Suomen Cup, also known in English as “the Finnish Cup,” is Finland’s premier domestic knockout football cup competition. Founded in 1955, it is open to all Football Association of Finland member clubs.

The Suomen Cup has changed structurally throughout the years. In recent years, the competition involves over 300 teams from the country’s football pyramid and is typically held from February until September of the same year.

Seven rounds—from Round 0 to the Sixth Round—are first held, with the eight remaining teams entering the quarterfinal stage after the Sixth Round. The competition follows a one-legged knockout tournament format, and the participants are divided into geographical groups for the draw until the Fifth Round.

Clubs from Ykkösliiga, the Finnish second-division football league, enter this cup in the Second Round. Meanwhile, teams from the Veikkausliiga – the Finnish football top-flight – competing in UEFA competitions are given a bye to the Fourth Round. The Suomen Cup champion earns qualification for the UEFA Conference League.

The competition has changed format and scheduling over the years. Throughout most of the 2000s and 2010s, the Finnish Cup was held within the calendar year before switching to a fall-spring schedule for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. The tournament eventually reverted by 2019.

The Suomen Cup returned to a traditional knockout tournament format in 2022, the first time since 2016. For a period, the competition was restricted to clubs from Finland’s top two divisions.

Finnish heavyweight FC Haka dominated the first few editions of this tournament, winning three out of the first six titles and becoming the first club to win back-to-back Suomen Cup trophies in 1959 and 1960. Fellow Finnish powerhouse HJK had to wait over a decade to clinch its first title, winning this competition in 1966. Reipas Lahti famously dominated the Finnish Cup in the 1970s, winning five consecutive trophies between 1972 and 1976.