Format
The competition is open to all clubs in Northern Ireland with intermediate or senior status. Clubs obtain such status by meeting minimum criteria laid down by the Irish Football Association in respect of facilities, etc. Each club, for example, must have its own enclosed ground. The twelve senior clubs of the IFA Premiership are exempt until the fifth round, which consists of 32 clubs and is played in January. The 30 members of the IFA Championship enter in the fourth round. The competition begins in September with the first round, and ends with the final in May. In 2012–13, 121 clubs entered the competition.
The competition is contested in a knock-out format. Teams are drawn against each other randomly. The team who is drawn first from each tie is the home team, except in the case of an intermediate team from outside the Championship drawn first against a senior team, when the tie is played at the ground of the senior team. Prior to the fifth round, if the match finishes in a draw, extra time is played and (if necessary) penalties are used to decide the winner. From the fifth round until the seventh round (the quarter-finals), if the match finishes in a draw, there is no extra time and a replay is played at the ground of the second-drawn team (except in the case of a tie between a senior team and an intermediate team, in which case the replay will always be at the senior team’s ground). In the replay, if the scores are still level at full-time, extra time is played and (if necessary) penalties. At the semi-final stage, the two ties are played at neutral venues, with a draw resulting in extra time and penalties as necessary. The final is now traditionally on the first Saturday in May, and is played to a finish, with extra time and penalties as necessary.
In the early years of the competition, the final was played at various venues, including the Oval, Solitude, Grosvenor Park, Dalymount Park in Dublin, and Celtic Park. However, since 1996, the final has always been played at Windsor Park.
Different formats and rules have been used in the past in respect of eligibility to enter the competition, the number of teams and rounds, replays, extra time, penalties, etc., but since its inception in 1881, the competition has always been a randomly-drawn knock-out competition, and has always been, and continues to be, considered the most important such competition in Northern Ireland (and, prior to 1921, Ireland), second only to the IFA Premiership. The Cup Final is the climax of the domestic season in Northern Ireland and usually attracts the biggest attendance of any club match.
The winners of the Irish Cup qualify to represent Northern Ireland in the following season’s UEFA Europa League, except when they have also qualified for the UEFA Champions League or Europa League via the IFA Premiership, in which case the losing finalists are entered into the Europa League. If both finalists have already qualified via league position, then the 4th-placed club in the IFA Premiership are awarded the place. Similarly, the winners (or runners-up if the winners have already qualified via the IFA Premiership) also qualify for the next season’s all-Ireland Setanta Cup.
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