Cup Formats & Structures

Domestic cup competitions are an extremely important part of the club football landscape, bringing together top and lower division clubs in the same competition. In all cases the main cup competition is the property of the National Association, whereas the domestic league in Europe is the property of either the National Association or a seperate League body (roughly 50:50). In a small number of cases a secondary domestic cup competition is operated by the League. Cup competitions are at the centre of the battle for crowded calendar space, together with national team, domestic league and cross border UEFA club competitions and the recent tendency is for the national cup competitions to adapt. Domestic cup competitions are an extremely important part of the National Association’s activities but very little comparative information is available on cup competitions, hence the importance of this topic for the Intelligence Centre.

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Supporting Data

The Intelligence Centre Domestic Cup Competition Landscape brings together real-time on-pitch results (To be added to the Intelligence Centre in Q4 2019) with off-pitch data on the structure of all the cup competitions. This topic combines data from a range of sources including national association submitted data (SGS audits), OPTA, and reviewed Wikipedia feeds. Some of the key data sets utilised for this type of project include:

All-time domestic cup winners and runners-up
Cup calendar dates and scheduling
Cup match regulations (home team determination, extra time, penalties)
Real-time match results (to be added Q4 2019)
Cup formats and format changes
Cup player regulations (to be added Q4 2019)
Attendance and stadium data (to be added Q4 2019)
Domestic cup competition match squads (to be added Q4 2019)
Domestic cup commercial and TV rights

Example Questions We Can Answer

By combining our network of databases together with professional industry experience, the Intelligence Centre can provide answers to a range of strategic off-pitch football questions.

Sample Analyses and Trends