The 2025–26 Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 80th season of Scotland's second-most prestigious football knockout competition. Celtic were the defending champions, but lost 3–1 to St Mirren in the final.
Schedule Round First match date Fixtures ClubsGroup stage 12 July 2025 80 45 → 16Second round 15 August 2025 8 16 → 8Quarter-finals 19 September 2025 4 8 → 4Semi-finals 1 November 2025 2 4 → 2Final 14 December 2025 1 2 → 1
Format The competition began with eight groups of five teams. In addition, the five clubs initially competing in the UEFA Champions League (Celtic and Rangers), Europa League (Aberdeen and Hibernian) and Conference League (Dundee United) received a bye to the second round. The group stage consisted of 40 teams: all remaining teams that competed across the SPFL in 2024–25, the 2024–25 Highland Football League champions (Brora Rangers) and runners-up (Brechin City), and the 2024–25 Lowland Football League champions (East Kilbride).
The winners of each of the eight groups, as well as the three best runners-up, progressed to the second round, where they were joined by the five teams given byes (last 16; 8 + 3 + 5). At this stage, the competition reverted to the traditional knock-out format. The three group winners with the highest points total and the European entrants were seeded.
Bonus point system Three points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw. In addition, in each group stage match that finishes in a draw, there is a penalty shoot-out, with the winner being awarded a bonus point.
Group stage
The teams were seeded according to their final league positions in 2024–25 and drawn into eight groups, with each group comprising one team from each pot. The draw for the group stage took place on 28 May 2025 and was broadcast live on the Premier Sports and SPFL YouTube channels.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Best runners-up
Knockout phase Second round Draw and seeding Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hibernian and Dundee United entered the competition at this stage, due to their participation in UEFA club competitions.
The draw for the second round was made following the St Mirren v Ayr United match on 27 July 2025, and broadcast live on Premier Sports 1.
Teams in bold advanced to the quarter-finals.
SeededUnseededAberdeen Celtic Dundee United Heart of Midlothian Hibernian Partick Thistle Rangers St JohnstoneAlloa Athletic Ayr United Falkirk Greenock Morton Kilmarnock Livingston Motherwell St Mirren
Matches
Quarter-finals Draw and seeding
The draw for the quarter-finals was made following the Rangers v Alloa Athletic match on 16 August 2025, and broadcast live on Premier Sports 1.
Teams in Italics were not known at the time of the draw.
Teams in bold advanced to the semi-finals.
PremiershipChampionshipAberdeen Celtic Hibernian Kilmarnock Motherwell Rangers St MirrenPartick Thistle
Matches
Semi-finals Draw and seeding
The draw for the semi-finals was made following the Partick Thistle v Celtic match on 21 September 2025 and was broadcast live on Premier Sports 1.
Teams in bold advanced to the final.
Celtic Motherwell Rangers St Mirren
Matches
Final
Media coverage The domestic broadcasting rights for the competition were held exclusively by Premier Sports, who broadcast between 12 and 16 live matches per season, as well as highlights. Premier Sports further announced they would stream up to 25 additional games from the group stage on their website. The broadcaster also broadcast all games live from the second round onwards, either streamed or televised, subject to blackout rules.
The following matches were broadcast live: Round Date Match Group stage 12 July 2025(Matchday 1) Arbroath v St Mirren (streamed)Brechin City v Falkirk (streamed)Brora Rangers v Kilmarnock (streamed)Clyde v Motherwell (streamed)Dundee v Airdrieonians (streamed)East Kilbride v St Johnstone (streamed)Heart of Midlothian v Dunfermline Athletic 15 July 2025(Matchday 2) Forfar Athletic v St Mirren (streamed)Hamilton Academical v Heart of Midlothian (streamed)Motherwell v Peterhead (streamed)Kilmarnock v Livingston (16 July 2025) 19 July 2025(Matchday 3) Alloa Athletic v Dundee (streamed)St Mirren v Annan Athletic (streamed)Inverness Caledonian Thistle v St Johnstone (streamed)Stenhousemuir v Motherwell (streamed)Livingston v Brora Rangers (streamed)Stirling Albion v Heart of Midlothian 22 July 2025(Matchday 4) Falkirk v Queen's Park (streamed)Kelty Hearts v Kilmarnock (streamed)Partick Thistle v Queen of the South (streamed)St Johnstone v Raith Rovers (streamed)Motherwell v Greenock MortonHeart of Midlothian v Dumbarton (23 July 2025) (streamed) 26 July 2025(Matchday 5) Dundee v Montrose (streamed)Falkirk v The Spartans (streamed)Kilmarnock v East Fife (streamed)Livingston v Kelty Hearts (streamed)Ross County v Partick Thistle (streamed)St Johnstone v Elgin City (streamed)St Mirren v Ayr United (27 July 2025) Second round 15 August 2025 Celtic v Falkirk 16 August 2025 Greenock Morton v Aberdeen (streamed)Partick Thistle v Ayr United (streamed)St Johnstone v Motherwell (streamed)St Mirren v Heart of Midlothian (streamed)Rangers v Alloa Athletic 17 August 2025 Kilmarnock v Dundee United (streamed)Livingston v Hibernian (streamed) Quarter-Finals 19 September 2025 Kilmarnock v St Mirren (streamed) 20 September 2025 Aberdeen v MotherwellRangers v Hibernian 21 September 2025 Partick Thistle v Celtic Semi-Finals 1 November 2025 Motherwell v St Mirren 2 November 2025 Celtic v Rangers Final 14 December 2025 St Mirren v Celtic
References