The Turkish Cup is a footballcup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was Fortis Türkiye Kupası. Now Ziraat Bankası is the sponsor and the sponsored name for the cup is Ziraat Türkiye Kupası. The cup was created in 1962 and has taken place every year since then. Many different formats, including a pure knockout competition and group stages, have been tried and finally for the 2012–13 season, an expanded tournament format has been adopted. A record 156 teams compete in the tournament. After five knockout rounds, a round-robin group stage is contested. Group winners and runners-up play in semi-finals and finals. Trabzonspor are the current holders of the cup.
Tournament format
The current format of the Turkish Cup consists of 156 clubs from the top four leagues of the Turkish football league system and the Turkish Regional Amateur League. The first round consists of 86 clubs from the TFF Third League and Turkish Regional Amateur League. The second round consists of winners from the first round alongside clubs from the Süper Lig, TFF First League and TFF Second League. Teams playing in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League enter at the fourth round. After the fifth round, 8 winners are drawn into two groups of four teams and play in a round-robin tournament. Winners and runners-up of the groups play in semi-finals as two-legged ties. Winners of the semi-finals play the final match in a neutral ground. The final consists of a single match that takes place in a neutral setting. The winner of the cup earns a spot in the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League, and also plays in the Turkish Super Cup against the Süper Lig champions. If the winner of the cup has already secured a spot in a European competition because of their league finish, the runners-up are sent to compete. Because of this, Kayseri Erciyesspor competed in the 2007–08 UEFA Cup despite being relegated to the TFF First League that season.
Round
Clubs remaining
Clubs involved
Winners from previous round
New entries this round
Leagues entering at this round
First round
156
86
none
86
TFF Third League & Turkish Regional Amateur League
awards the Turkish Cup trophy to the winners of the final. Cup winners and runners-up receive 50 medals each. Also prize money is given away. TFF awards prizes not by winning a round, but just by reaching the round. The final match is an exception, where runners-up receive less than cup winners. The prize money is in United States dollars. A sum of $10,500,000 worth prize money is awarded to participating teams. As an honour of the tournament, the cup winner club wears a roundel of the Turkish flag in the next footballing season.
Bülent Korkmaz