Explore the Challenge Cup, a Scottish cup competition covered on Xtra-Stats. This page brings together live scores, fixtures, results, standings and player and team statistics, giving you a clear way to follow matches and review competition performance across the seasons covered on the site. Visitors can use this information as a quick reference for comparison and review.
Upcoming matches, Challenge Cup
Group Stage - 4
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- Group Stage - 4
East Fife
Motherwell U21
MGM Timber Bayview Stadium -
- Group Stage - 4Fraserburgh
Cove Rangers
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- Group Stage - 4
Alloa Athletic
Hibernian U21
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- Group Stage - 4
Stirling Albion
Cumbernauld Colts
Forthbank Stadium -
- Group Stage - 4
Queen of the South
Annan Athletic
Palmerston Park -
- Group Stage - 4
Kelty Hearts
Hearts U21
New Central Park -
- Group Stage - 4
Gala Fairydean Rovers
Spartans
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- Group Stage - 4Formartine United
Montrose
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- Group Stage - 4
Forfar Athletic
Peterhead
Station Park -
- Group Stage - 4
Elgin City
Dundee II
Borough Briggs
Latest played matches, Challenge Cup
Group Stage - 3
Challenge Cup Standings
Challenge Cup Statistics
Top scorers 2026
| # | Player | Goals |
|---|
Top assists 2026
| # | Player | Assists |
|---|
Top key passes
Top tackles
Top yellow cards
Top red cards
Challenge Cup teams participation since 2019
History
| Team | Nb participations |
|---|---|
| Partick | 6 |
| Inverness CT | 6 |
| Dumbarton | 6 |
| Morton | 6 |
| Queen of the South | 6 |
| Raith Rovers | 6 |
| Ayr Utd | 6 |
| Dunfermline | 6 |
| Alloa Athletic | 6 |
| Arbroath | 6 |
| Forfar Athletic | 6 |
| Montrose | 6 |
| Airdrie United | 6 |
| Stirling Albion | 6 |
| Aberdeen U21 | 6 |
| Annan Athletic | 6 |
| Clyde | 6 |
| Cove Rangers | 6 |
| East Fife | 6 |
| East Kilbride | 6 |
| Edinburgh City | 6 |
| Elgin City | 6 |
| Hearts U21 | 6 |
| Hibernian U21 | 6 |
| Kelty Hearts | 6 |
| Motherwell U21 | 6 |
| Peterhead | 6 |
| Queen's Park | 6 |
| Rangers U21 | 6 |
| St. Mirren U21 | 6 |
| Stenhousemuir | 6 |
| Stranraer | 6 |
| Hamilton Academical | 5 |
| Falkirk | 5 |
| Brechin | 5 |
| Albion Rovers | 5 |
| Spartans | 5 |
| St. Johnstone U21 | 5 |
| Celtic II | 5 |
| Cowdenbeath | 4 |
| Brora Rangers | 4 |
| Formartine United | 4 |
| Fraserburgh | 4 |
| Livingston U21 | 4 |
| Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic | 4 |
Challenge Cup top scorer teams
Challenge Cup About
Challenge Cup is a Scottish domestic cup competition within the country’s professional football ecosystem. It sits alongside the league structure and other major national competitions overseen within the Scottish professional game, providing clubs with an additional route to competitive fixtures, sporting achievement and domestic recognition.
Role in Scottish football
The competition belongs to a football system centred on the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). Established in 2013 through the merger of the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League, the SPFL governs Scotland’s four primary professional divisions and represents 42 member clubs. Its wider structure is designed to sustain meaningful competition across the professional game, with promotion, relegation and cup football giving clubs objectives beyond their weekly league position.
A national cup has a different sporting purpose from a league campaign. League football rewards consistency over a long season, while cup competition creates the possibility of decisive progress through individual ties and successive rounds. That contrast gives the Challenge Cup a distinctive place in the Scottish calendar and allows clubs to pursue a separate domestic honour alongside their divisional ambitions.
Competition identity and governance
Challenge Cup is recorded as a cup competition in Scotland. The wider professional game operates under the rules and regulations of the SPFL, within the broader authority of the Scottish Football Association. Those bodies establish the framework in which Scottish clubs compete, including club eligibility, player registration, stadium standards and the administration of domestic fixtures.
Participation in Scottish professional football is linked to a merit-based pyramid. Clubs can move between the SPFL and the regional Highland and Lowland leagues through the pyramid play-off route, subject to the relevant sporting and infrastructure requirements. This connection helps place professional cup football within a broader national structure rather than treating it as an isolated event.
Format and match context
The specific entry stages, draw arrangements and progression rules for the Challenge Cup are edition-dependent and should not be confused with the format of the SPFL’s league competitions or other domestic cups. In Scottish football, cup regulations determine how clubs advance, how drawn matches are settled and whether extra time or penalties are used. These details can vary between competitions and seasons.
The standard principles of the Scottish professional game provide the wider context. League matches use three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat, while knockout fixtures require a winner when a tie cannot remain level. In such matches, regulations may provide for extra time and a penalty shoot-out. The applicable competition rules remain decisive for each Challenge Cup edition.
Seasonal place and sporting importance
Scottish football normally runs from late July or August through May, with domestic cup fixtures integrated around league commitments and, for some clubs, European schedules. Midweek windows are an important part of the calendar, enabling cup matches to be staged without displacing the main weekend league programme.
Progress in a cup can bring clubs additional high-stakes fixtures, greater visibility and the opportunity to challenge opponents from different levels of the professional structure. For clubs outside the top flight, that opportunity can be particularly valuable: a strong run can provide meaningful competitive experience and a platform for players, managers and supporters. For established professional sides, the competition offers another route to silverware and a test of squad depth across a demanding season.
Recorded coverage
The available competition record covers six seasons between 2019 and 2025. That period places the Challenge Cup within the modern SPFL era, when Scottish professional football has continued to combine a four-tier league pyramid with a programme of national cup competitions. Results, appearances and progression should therefore be assessed by edition, since entrants, scheduling and regulations may change from one season to the next.
The Challenge Cup’s enduring value lies in that combination of national setting and competitive variety. It forms part of Scotland’s long-established cup tradition while operating in a modern professional structure built around sporting merit, club sustainability and meaningful matches.