Setanta Sports Cup
 |
|
| Organising body | Irish Football Association Football Association of Ireland |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Abolished | 2014 |
| Region |
 Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland
|
| Number of teams | 6–8 |
| Last champions | Sligo Rovers |
| Most successful club(s) |
Drogheda United Shamrock Rovers (2 titles each) |
| Website | Setanta Sports Cup |
The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from the Republic of Ireland and the NIFL Premiership from Northern Ireland. The cup is sponsored by Setanta Sports, the Irish subscription sports television network.
The Setanta Cup is the first cross-border competition since the 1980s. Previous competitions include the Dublin and Belfast Intercity Cup 1941–42 to 1948–49, the North-South Cup 1961–62 to 1962–63, the Blaxnit Cup 1967–68 to 1973–74, the Texaco (All-Ireland) Cup 1973–74 to 1974–75, and the Tyler Cup 1978–1980. The inaugural Cup was played between March and May 2005 at the start of the League of Ireland season and the end of the IFA Premiership season.
The competition was launched with Setanta providing support for prize money (€350,000) and sponsorship (€1.6 million over four years). In June 2009, the company went into administration and ceased broadcasting in Great Britain, putting the future of the competition in doubt. The draw for the 2009 tournament was postponed for a month but the competition eventually continued. The competition has seen instances of crowd violence at its games since its inception.
The cup has featured a varying number of teams taking part since its inception. It began as an eight-club competition in 2005, before being expanded to nine clubs in 2009–10. From 2011 until 2013 the competition featured twelve clubs, before being reduced back to its original number of eight clubs for the 2014 competition. The champions and runners-up from the respective leagues, and the winners of the respective cup competitions (FAI Cup and League of Ireland Cup from the League of Ireland, and the Irish Cup and NIFL Cup from the NIFL Premiership) qualify. If a club qualifies via a cup win and would also qualify by league table position, one of the spots is awarded to the next highest club in the league table that has not already qualified. The competition is played in a two-legged knock-out tie format up until the final. All four clubs from each league participate in the quarter-finals, with clubs from the same association being kept apart in the draw. The quarter-final winners again play a two-legged knock-out tie in the semi-finals for a place in the final, which is a single game.
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