Serbian Cup

Serbian Cup

Organising body	Football Association of Serbia
Founded	2006 (2006)
Region	Serbia
Number of teams	37
Qualifier for	UEFA Europa League
Current champions	Partizan (6th title)
Most successful club(s)	Partizan (6 titles)
Television broadcasters	Arena Sport
Website	Kup Srbije
2017–18 Serbian Cup

The Serbian Cup (Serbian: Куп Србије, Kup Srbije) is the national football cup of Serbia. For sponsorship reasons it was referred to as Lav Cup of Serbia from 2006 to 2010.

The winner of the competition gets a spot in the UEFA Europa League qualifying round.

Sponsorship

The Serbian FA agreed the marketing rights with popular Serbian brewery from Čelarevo Carlsberg Srbija and cup was named after its main brand Lav pivo. The Carlsberg affiliate signed a deal to support the Serbian Cup for 4 years. The company will take out a sum of €1,000,000 which will be divided in four for every year of competition. That means that the awards annual budget is going to be €250,000. Along with the rewards from endorsements the winner of the Serbian Cup gets a spot in the UEFA Europa League if they are not already qualified through Serbian SuperLiga.

History

Serbia's cup tournament is the legal successor to the Serbia and Montenegro Cup and in turn of the Yugoslav Cup. This cup tournament lasted for four seasons up until the dissolution of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. The tournament was dominated by Serbian clubs with no Montenegrin sides reaching the final. Belgrade giants Red Star were easily the most successful club reaching the final all four years winning twice and losing in the final the other two seasons. Surprisingly, Red Star's cross-town rival Partizan did not appear in a single final.

After Montenegro left the state union with Serbia in 2006 both football associations got to work on organizing a new tournament. The Football Association of Serbia formed a deal with Carlsberg affiliate Lav Beer and quickly formed the Lav Kup Srbije.

Trophy

Before the tournament even began it was decided that Serbia's cup would have a new trophy and that the old one which was won by Red Star the year before would remain in its museum. However the association decided that the championship trophy would remain the same. To find a new trophy for the cup they decided to make a contest at Belgrade's Art College where students would each make one and then a trophy would be selected. The Serbian Football Association officials presented the new trophy of the National Cup competition on Monday December 11, 2006. Artist Mihajlo Mlinar defeated 50 other students in the contest held at Belgrade's Art College. The trophy which is heavily inspired by Eastern Orthodox Christianity as well as Serbian history was proclaimed as the perfect trophy for the biggest football competition in Serbia.

When the press asked Mlinar which club has his support, the 25-year-old answered that he simply never had a day of football training and that his only favorite is Serbia. Everybody present agreed that the student was the perfect candidate for making the trophy, and that he fully deserved the cash prize of 250,000 Serbian Dinars. Mlinar immediately became one of the most recognized faces across Belgrade. On May 15, 2007 at Partizan's stadium Red Star defeated Vojvodina to be the first ever Serbian Cup winner and the first team to lift the trophy that Mlinar created.

Cup winners

Note: The Serbian Cup has been derived from two defunct cup tournaments the first being the Yugoslav Cup and the other being the Serbia and Montenegro Cup. The 2006–07 season was the first one that Serbia has ever held as an independent football association. For a list of previous Serbian cup winners during those tournaments visit their respective pages.

Key

Key to list of winners

(R)	Replay
	Two-legged tie
*	Match went to extra time
	Match decided by a penalty shoot-out after extra time
	Winning team won The Double
Italics	Team from outside the top level of Serbian football

Results

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Location	Venue	Attendance
2006–07	Red Star	2–0	Vojvodina	Belgrade	Partizan Stadium	25,000
2007–08	Partizan	3–0	Zemun	Belgrade	Partizan Stadium	13,950
2008–09	Partizan	3–0	Sevojno	Belgrade	Partizan Stadium	13,434
2009–10	Red Star	3–0	Vojvodina	Belgrade	Partizan Stadium	23,000
2010–11	Partizan	3–0 (offic. res.)1	Vojvodina	Belgrade	Red Star Stadium	25,000
2011–12	Red Star	2–0	Borac Čačak	Kruševac	Mladost Stadium	11,000
2012–13	Jagodina	1–0	Vojvodina	Belgrade	Partizan Stadium	15,000
2013–14	Vojvodina	2–0	Jagodina	Belgrade	Partizan Stadium
2014–15	Čukarički	1–0	Partizan	Belgrade	Rajko Mitić Stadium	10,000
2015–16	Partizan	2–0	Javor	Gornji Milanovac	Metalac Stadium	4,500
2016–17	Partizan	1–0	Red Star	Belgrade	Partizan Stadium	20,000
2017–18	Partizan	2–1	Mladost Lučani	Surdulica	Surdulica City Stadium	3,000

¹ The match was abandoned in the 83rd minute with Partizan leading 2–1 when Vojvodina walked off to protest the quality of the officiating. Originally, this was declared the final score and the Cup was awarded to Partizan, but on May 16th, 2011, after further investigation from Serbian FA concerning the match, the result was officially registered as a 3–0 win to Partizan.

Old logos

Till now there was two logos used in the Serbian cup competition.

• 
  Logo 2006 – 2010
• 
  Logo 2011 – Present

Sponsorship

Period	Sponsor	Name
2006 – 2010	Lav pivo	Lav Kup
2010 –	No main sponsor	Serbian Cup

See also

• Serbian SuperLiga
• List of football clubs in Serbia
• Serbia national football team
• Yugoslav Cup
• Serbia and Montenegro Cup

External links

• Official page (in Serbian)
• Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro - Cup Finals, RSSSF.com