The 2025–26 Northern Ireland Football League Cup (known as the BetMcLean Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 39th edition of Northern Ireland's football knockout cup competition for national league clubs, and the tenth edition of the competition as the Northern Ireland Football League Cup. The competition was contested by the 38 member clubs of the Northern Ireland Football League, commencing on 12 August 2025 with the preliminary round and concluding with the final on 15 March 2026. The competition was sponsored by McLean Bookmakers, the title sponsors of the cup since the 2017–18 season.
Cliftonville F.C. were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Glentoran in a rematch of last season's final.
Format and schedule
The competition is open to the 38 members of the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL). The 14 NIFL Premier Intermediate League clubs entered the draw for the preliminary round, with 12 of those clubs being drawn to face each other in six ties and the remaining two clubs receiving byes.
The six preliminary round winners and the two clubs which received byes joined the remaining 24 clubs from the NIFL Premiership and NIFL Championship in the first round. The 16 highest-ranked clubs from the previous season's league system (all 12 NIFL Premiership clubs along with the top 4 NIFL Championship clubs) were then seeded in the first round to avoid drawing each other.
The first round is the only round of the competition in which seeding is used. From there on the competition used an open draw with a standard knockout format, with the remaining rounds consisting of the second round, quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.
Replays are not used in the competition, with all matches using extra time and penalties to determine the winner if necessary.
RoundFirst match dateFixturesClubs Preliminary round 12 August 2025 6 38 → 32 First round 7 October 2025 16 32 → 16 Second round 4 November 2025 8 16 → 8 Quarter-finals 2 December 2025 4 8 → 4 Semi-finals 13 January 2026 2 4 → 2 Final 8 March 2026 1 2 → 1
Rounds The competition takes place over six rounds; a preliminary round and five rounds proper.
Preliminary round
Six preliminary ties featuring twelve teams from the third-tier 2025–26 NIFL Premier Intermediate League. Ties were played on 12 and 16 August 2025.
First Round
The six preliminary round winners join the 12 NIFL Premiership (tier 1), 12 NIFL Championship (tier 2) and the remaining two intermediate teams in the First Round Proper. Ties to be played on 7 and 8 October 2025.
Second round
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
BetMcClean NI League Cup final
References