Setanta Sports Cup
The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from the Republic of Ireland and the NIFL Premiership from Northern Ireland. The cup was sponsored by Setanta Sports, the Irish subscription sports television network. The competition was discontinued after the 2014 edition. A successor competition, the Champions Cup, was announced in 2019.
History
The Setanta Cup was the first cross-border competition since 1980. Previous competitions include the Dublin and Belfast Intercity Cup 1941–42 to 1948–49, the North-South Cup 1961–62 to 1962–63, the Blaxnit Cup 1967–68 to 1973–74, the Texaco Cup 1973–74 to 1974–75, and the Tyler Cup 1978–1980. The inaugural cup was played between March and May 2005 at the start of the League of Ireland season and the end of the IFA Premiership season.The competition was launched with Setanta providing support for prize money and sponsorship. In June 2009, the company went into administration and ceased broadcasting in Great Britain, putting the future of the competition in doubt. The draw for the 2009 tournament was postponed for a month but the competition eventually continued. The competition saw instances of crowd violence at its games since its inception.
During the nine editions of the competition, the cup featured between six and twelve teams taking part. It began as a six-club competition called the Setanta Cup in 2005, before being expanded to eight clubs and renamed to the Setanta Sports Cup in 2006. The competition expanded again to nine clubs in 2009–10, and from 2011 until 2013 the competition was at its largest, with twelve clubs taking part. It was then reduced back to the 2006 number of eight clubs for the 2014 competition. The champions and runners-up from the respective leagues, and the winners of the respective cup competitions qualified for the 2014 edition. If a club qualified via a cup win and would also have qualified by league table position, one of the spots would be awarded to the next highest club in the league table that had not already qualified. The 2014 competition was played in a two-legged knockout tie format up until the final. All four clubs from each league participated in the quarter-finals, with clubs from the same association being kept apart in the draw. The quarter-final winners again played a two-legged knockout tie in the semi-finals for a place in the final, which was a single game.
The 2014 competition was originally going to feature Linfield, who were inaugural winners of the competition in 2005 and had appeared in all eight competitions to date, and 2012–13 IFA Premiership champions Cliftonville. However, both clubs declined the invitation to take part, citing match scheduling and reduced prize money as their reasons for deciding not to enter. As a result, the fifth and sixth placed sides from the 2012–13 IFA Premiership, Ballinamallard United and Coleraine were invited to take their place, with both clubs accepting the invitation.
After the withdrawal of Linfield from the 2014 competition, Glentoran became the only club to have entered all nine competitions since its inception. A total of 21 different clubs appeared in the competition - 9 different clubs from Northern Ireland and 12 different clubs from the Republic of Ireland. Of those 21 clubs, twelve different clubs reached the final but only seven of them went on to win the cup, and only two clubs won the cup more than once. In the nine competitions, seven of them were won by a club from the Republic of Ireland, with only two winners being from Northern Ireland. On four occasions, the cup was won by a club making their first appearance in the competition. Linfield won the cup in their first appearance - the inaugural 2005 competition. This feat was repeated by Drogheda United during their first appearance in 2006, and in 2007 they became the only club to successfully retain the cup, and the first of two clubs to win the cup more than once. The feat was also repeated by Bohemians during their first appearance in 2009–10, and by Shamrock Rovers, when they won the cup during their first appearance in 2011. In 2013, they went on to become the second club to win the cup more than once.
Editions
2005
For the inaugural competition, it was known simply as the Setanta Cup. Qualification for the 2005 cup was based on the national league and cup performances in the respective countries - the top two in each league and the winners of the FAI Cup and Irish Cup qualified. Teams were split into two groups with the winner of each qualifying for the final. The 2005 competition saw Cork City, Longford and Shelbourne represent the League of Ireland, and Glentoran, Linfield and Portadown represent the IFA Premiership. The eventual winners of the Cup, Linfield, started the campaign poorly losing 2–1 to Longford before going on to win their remaining group matches and beating pre-tournament favourites Shelbourne.2006
The 2006 competition was renamed the Setanta Sports Cup, and featured four teams from each league with the winners of the respective secondary cup competitions, the League of Ireland Cup and Irish League Cup being added. The competition was organised with two groups of four teams. The top two teams in each group entered a semi-final round with the winner progressing to the final. The League of Ireland was represented by Cork City, Derry City, Shelbourne and Drogheda United with the IFA Premiership being represented by Linfield, Glentoran, Portadown and Dungannon Swifts. A total of 27 matches were played with the competition kicking off on Monday, 20 February 2006 with the final having been played on Saturday, 22 April 2006 at Tolka Park in Dublin. Drogheda United won, beating Cork City.2007
The draw for the 2007 competition was made on 7 December 2006 with the original competing teams being the identical ones to the previous year's competition. On 30 January 2007 however, Shelbourne announced that they were withdrawing from the competition for reasons relating to their financial troubles and the fact that they would be unlikely to field a team of players. Their place was given to the 2006 FAI Cup runners-up St Patrick's Athletic.The first round of matches commenced on Monday, 26 February 2007. The prize of £100,000 was on offer to the eventual competition winner, with the runner-up to receive £55,000. Linfield progressed from the first stage after finishing top of Group 1, guaranteeing them a home semi-final, while Drogheda United finished behind them. This meant that Drogheda had to travel away from home to meet the winners of Group 2, who were St. Patrick's Athletic. Meanwhile, Cork City, who finished second in Group 2 had to travel to Windsor Park to play Linfield. Both Linfield and St. Patrick's Athletic went through the group stage without a single defeat, while St. Patrick's Athletic even won five of their six games. The final, between Linfield and Drogheda at Windsor Park was decided by a penalty shoot-out. Drogheda claimed the trophy for a second consecutive year thanks to two penalty saves from Mikko Vilmunen.