The 2023–24 Cupa României is the 86th season of the annual Romanian primary football knockout tournament. The winner will qualify for the first qualifying round of the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League. It is the second season in which the Round of 16 was replaced by a play-off, immediately followed by a group stage. After the group stage, the classic Quarter-Finals format continues.
Round dates
Phase Round Clubs remaining Clubs involved From previous round Entries in this round Dates Teams entering this round First stage Regional qualifiers 167 42 none 42 Group Stage 12, 15, 19 July 2023Finals 22 July 2023 42 Liga IV teams First Round 132 76 7 69 2 August 2023 69 Liga III teams Second Round 94 60 38 22 9 August 2023 16 Liga III teams4 Liga II relegated teams2 Liga II current teams Third Round 64 48 30 18 16–17 August 2023 18 Liga II teams Play-off Round 40 32 24 8 30 August 2023 8 Liga I teams (9-16) Second stage Group Stage 24 24 16 8 27 September 20231 November 20236 December 2023 8 Liga I teams (1-8) Third stage Quarter-finals 8 8 8 None 3 April 2024 None Semi-finals 4 4 4 None 24 April 2024 None Final 2 2 2 None 15 May 2024 None
First Stage Second Round The draw for the 2nd round took place on August 3, with the matches taking place on August 9.
Third Round
The draw for the 3rd round took place on August 10, with the matches taking place on August 16 and 17.
Play-off round
Pot 1 contains 4 teams that finished 9–12 in the play-out stage of the 2022–23 Liga I season, 2 teams that won the Promotion/relegation play-offs and 2 teams that won direct promotion (places 1 and 3 as Steaua București were ineligible) at the end of the 2022–23 Liga II season. Pot 2 contains the teams that won the Third qualifying round.
Pot 1 FC Voluntari Universitatea Cluj FC Botoșani FC Hermannstadt Oțelul Galați Politehnica Iași UTA Arad Dinamo București
Pot 2 Argeș Pitești Chindia Târgoviște CS Mioveni Steaua București Gloria Buzău Unirea Dej Concordia Chiajna FK Miercurea Ciuc CSC 1599 Șelimbăr Unirea Slobozia CSC Dumbrăvița Metaloglobus București Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț CS Tunari CSM Alexandria Corvinul Hunedoara FC Bacău Viitorul Ianca CSM Deva Viitorul Șimian Progresul Pecica Phoenix Buziaș Bihor Oradea SCM Zalău
The draw for the play-off round took place on the 23rd of August.
Group stage
The 6 teams from the play-off stage of the 2022–23 Liga I season and the 2 teams that finished 7–8 in the play-out stage of the 2022–23 Liga I season will be joined in the group stage by the 16 teams that will win the Play-Off round.
The 24 teams will be divided into 3 pots, which will form 4 groups of 6 teams each, with 2 teams from each pot added into every group. Each team will play 3 matches, once against a team from each of the 3 pots.
The teams that finish 1st and 2nd in each group advance to the Quarter-Finals.
The qualified teams were divided into 3 pots.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3
Times are EET or EEST.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Third Stage Bracket
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Notes
References