1922–27: Unofficial National CupsStarting in 1922, unofficial cup competitions were held in Mandatory Palestine on an annual, national basis under the sponsorship of Britain's military garrison there. The first national cup title was won by Lancashire Troop Haifa, and the following year a team representing the Royal Air Force detachment at Ramla won the final. The next four editions of this competition were won by a Royal Air Force team drawn from across the Mandate, which beat the Ramla side in the 1927 decider. As these cups pre-date the existence of a national football association, they are not considered official by the Israel Football Association. Between 1923 and 1927 there was also a national cup organised by the Maccabi organisation, the Magen Shimshon, but this only included Maccabi clubs.
1928–47: People's CupThe Eretz Israel Football Association was founded in August 1928, and the first officially sanctioned national tournament was held the same year as the "People's Cup". The first People's Cup final ended with Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Hasmonean Jerusalem sharing the trophy following an incident involving an ineligible Hapoel player. Tel Aviv clubs dominated the cup during this period, with Beitar, Hapoel and Maccabi Tel Aviv winning all but two of the annual competitions. The Jerusalem-based British Police side won in 1932 and Maccabi Petah Tikva lifted the cup three years later. During this period Hapoel Tel Aviv won three consecutive cup titles, which remains a record to this day. At the end of the Mandate period, Maccabi Tel Aviv were the most successful team in the national cup, with six final wins; their city rivals Hapoel followed with five. The People's Cup trophy was stolen at the end of the chaotic 1947 final and has never been recovered.
1943–45: Unofficial "War Cup"In the 1943 and 1944–45 seasons, during the Second World War, a version of the competition called the "War Cup" was held which was not considered official by the Israel Football Association. Despite this, the People's Cup trophy was awarded after the 1943 final to the victorious team of British artillerymen, Gunners. The 1944–45 War Cup was controversial both at its beginning and at its end—it was boycotted from the start by clubs of the Beitar organisation and its final match, held on 13 January 1945, was abandoned. With Hapoel Tel Aviv leading Hapoel Petah Tikva 1–0 with one minute remaining, one of the Hapoel Petah Tikva players began targeting the referee with abusive and obscene language. The official sent the offending player off, but he vehemently refused to leave the pitch, causing significant disruption. The referee abandoned the match and declared the 1–0 scoreline final. Nowadays, the IFA recognize these cup editions as part of the competition's history.
| Season | Winners | Result | Runners-up | | 1943 |
1948–present: Israel State CupWith the termination of the British Mandate and the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, the association dropped "Eretz" from its name, renamed its cup competition the Israel State Cup and commissioned a new trophy. The scheduling of the cup was initially sporadic, and several editions took well over a year to complete—over the 15 seasons between 1951–52 and 1964–65 only 11 competitions took place. Two clubs from Haifa, Hapoel and Maccabi, won their first cup finals in successive years, starting with Maccabi Haifa in 1963. Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv first lifted the trophy in 1968, and Hakoah Ramat Gan did the same a year later. Maccabi Tel Aviv lifted the cup three times during the 1960s, and brought their overall tally to 14 with a further final win in 1970.
Bnei Yehuda became the first club from outside the top division to reach the final in 1978, but they were unable to overcome league champions Maccabi Netanya, who lifted the cup for the first time with this victory. Three more teams won their first cup titles during the 1970s: Hapoel Kfar Saba, and Beitar and Hapoel Jerusalem. Two small-town clubs, Hapoel Yehud and Hapoel Lod, won the cup for the first time in 1982 and 1984 respectively, but otherwise the 1980s cup finals were the domain of sides from the cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Maccabi Haifa won four cup finals during the 1990s, while Maccabi Tel Aviv won two, bringing their total to 19 by the year 2000. Hapoel Be'er Sheva's cup final victory in 1997 was their first.
The 21st century began with two more cup titles for Maccabi Tel Aviv, before two consecutive seasons saw respective firsts for the Israel State Cup. In 2003 Hapoel Ramat Gan became the first side to win the cup final from outside the top division, and a year later Bnei Sakhnin became the first club from a mostly Arab-Israeli town to lift the trophy. Three more second-tier clubs, Hapoel Haifa, Maccabi Herzliya and Hapoel Ashkelon, reached the final in 2004, 2005 and 2007 respectively, but none of these won the deciding match. Following Bnei Sakhnin's victory teams from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv reclaimed dominance—Maccabi Tel Aviv lifted the cup in 2005, Beitar Jerusalem won two consecutive titles and Hapoel Tel Aviv twice, and then three times consecutively from 2010 to 2012. Hapoel Ramat Gan won the cup for the second time in 2013, this time as a top-flight club. On 9 May 2018, Hapoel Haifa won the cup, proving once and for all that Haifa is red.
PerformancesExcluding unofficial competitions, 20 clubs have won the Israel State Cup. Twenty-five have been runners-up, and of these 11 are yet to win a cup final.
Six of the 20 cup-winning clubs have never lost the competition's deciding game, but only two of these have played in more than one final. Hapoel Kfar Saba have won all three finals in which they have appeared, while Hapoel Ramat Gan have appeared in two finals and won them both.
By contrast, Shimshon Tel Aviv have lost the cup final three times, every time they have played in it. Hapoel Petah Tikva have lost the cup final seven times.
Maccabi Tel Aviv has won the trophy 24 times, being the most successful club in the competition.
Performance by club| Club | Winners | Runners-up | Winning years | Runners-up years | | Maccabi Tel Aviv | 24 | 13 | 1929, 1930, 1933, 1941, 1946, 1947, 1954, 1955, 1958, 1959, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1970, 1977, 1987, 1988, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2015, 2021 | 1934, 1938, 1940, 1952, 1962, 1976, 1979, 1983, 1992, 1993, 1997, 2016, 2017 | | Hapoel Tel Aviv | 16 | 9 | 1928, 1934, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1972, 1983, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012 | 1933, 1941, 1967, 1981, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2008, 2021 | | Beitar Jerusalem | 8 | 5 | 1976, 1979, 1985, 1986, 1989, 2008, 2009, 2023 | 1975, 1999, 2000, 2018, 2025 | | Maccabi Haifa | 6 | 11 | 1962, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2016 | 1942, 1963, 1971, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2002, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2022 | | Hapoel Haifa | 4 | 5 | 1963, 1966, 1974, 2018 | 1932, 1958, 1964, 1995, 2004 | | Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv | 4 | 4 | 1968, 1981, 2017, 2019 | 1965, 1978, 2006, 2010 | | Hapoel Be'er Sheva | 4 | 4 | 1997, 2020, 2022, 2025 | 1984, 2003, 2015, 2024 | | Maccabi Petah Tikva | 3 | 3 | 1935, 1952, 2024 | 1939, 2001, 2020 | | Hapoel Kfar Saba | 3 | – | 1975, 1980, 1990 | – | | Hapoel Petah Tikva | 2 | 7 | 1957, 1992 | 1944, 1955, 1959, 1961, 1968, 1974, 1991 | | Beitar Tel Aviv | 2 | 2 | 1940, 1942 | 1947, 1977 | | Hakoah Ramat Gan | 2 | 1 | 1969, 1971 | 1973 | | Hapoel Ramat Gan | 2 | – | 2003, 2013 | – | | Maccabi Netanya | 1 | 5 | 1978 | 1954, 1970, 2014, 2019, 2023 | | Hapoel Jerusalem | 1 | 3 | 1973 | 1943, 1972, 1998 | | Maccabi Hasmonean Jerusalem | 1 | 1 | 1928 | 1929 | | Ironi Kiryat Shmona | 1 | 1 | 2014 | 2013 | | British Police | 1 | – | 1932 | – | | Gunners | 1 | – | 1943 | – | | Hapoel Yehud | 1 | – | 1982 | – | | Hapoel Lod | 1 | – | 1984 | – | | Bnei Sakhnin | 1 | – | 2004 | – | | Shimshon Tel Aviv | – | 3 | – | 1966, 1986, 1990 | | Hapoel Ironi Rishon LeZion | – | 2 | – | 1946, 1996 | | 48th Battalion British Army | – | 1 | – | 1930 | | Hakoah Tel Aviv | – | 1 | – | 1935 | | Hapoel HaDarom Tel Aviv | – | 1 | – | 1937 | | Maccabi Jaffa | – | 1 | – | 1957 | | Maccabi Sha'arayim | – | 1 | – | 1969 | | Maccabi Ramat Amidar | – | 1 | – | 1980 | | Maccabi Herzliya | – | 1 | – | 2005 | | Hapoel Ashkelon | – | 1 | – | 2007 |
Total cup wins by cityThe 20 Israel State Cup-winning sides have come from 12 cities. The most successful home city by some distance is Tel Aviv; clubs from this city have won four times as many cup titles as the next most successful in this regard, Jerusalem.
| City | Won | Clubs | | Tel Aviv | 44 | Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Beitar Tel Aviv, Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv | | Haifa | 11 | Maccabi Haifa, Hapoel Haifa, Gunners | | Jerusalem | 11 | Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Jerusalem, Maccabi Hasmonean Jerusalem, British Police | | Petah Tikva | 5 | Maccabi Petah Tikva, Hapoel Petah Tikva | | Ramat Gan | 4 | Hakoah Ramat Gan, Hapoel Ramat Gan | | Beersheba | 4 | Hapoel Be'er Sheva | | Kfar Saba | 3 | Hapoel Kfar Saba | | Sakhnin | 1 | Bnei Sakhnin | | Yehud | 1 | Hapoel Yehud | | Lod | 1 | Hapoel Lod | | Netanya | 1 | Maccabi Netanya | | Kiryat Shmona | 1 | Ironi Kiryat Shmona |
Total cup wins by districtThere have been 20 winners of the Israel State Cup, from six districts. Tel Aviv District is the most successful, with over four times as many cup wins as the next most successful district, Jerusalem. Judea and Samaria Area, the Israeli district name for the Israeli-occupied West Bank excluding East Jerusalem, is the only district that has yet to produce a cup-winning side.
| District | Won | Clubs | | Tel Aviv | 47 | Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Beitar Tel Aviv, Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv, Hakoah Ramat Gan, Hapoel Ramat Gan | | Haifa | 11 | Maccabi Haifa, Hapoel Haifa, Gunners | | Jerusalem | 11 | Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Jerusalem, Maccabi Hasmonean Jerusalem, British Police | | Center | 11 | Hapoel Kfar Saba, Maccabi Petah Tikva, Hapoel Petah Tikva, Hapoel Lod, Hapoel Yehud, Maccabi Netanya | | South | 4 | Hapoel Be'er Sheva | | North | 2 | Bnei Sakhnin, Ironi Kiryat Shmona |
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