SPFL announce record prize pot of over £2m for Scottish League Cup

The winner of this year’s League Cup will earn over £400,000 as the SPFL announce a record prize pot for the competition.

Prize money of over £2m has been made available for the country’s third most prestigious domestic tournament and the amount teams are paid will depend on what round they exit it.

The winners will be awarded £350,000 with extra funds of £27,000 for every game they are part after the group stage that is shown live by sponsors Premier Sports, meaning at least an extra £54,000 from the final and semi-final.

The group stage, which includes all but five of the total clubs, kicks off on July 9 and teams involved in live games will be awarded £17,000 per game.

Only the clubs playing in European competition, Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Dundee United and Motherwell, are excluded from the groups and will enter at the second round stage.

The teams that exit at the group stage will be awarded between £22,000 and £29,000 depending on their performance and losing at the second round will earn £50,000.

The four quarter-final losers will be awarded £80,000 each and the defeated semi-finalists will both receive £110,000 from the pot.

The runners-up will get £160,000 plus any money earned for their live games.

The total prize money that will be shared with clubs will amount to £2,157,000 – a rise of nearly £150,000 from last season’s figure of £2,015,000.

Celtic won last season’s competition by beating Hibernian 2-1 in the final at Hampden thanks to a double by Japan forward Kyogo Furuhashi.

Neil Doncaster, chief executive of the SPFL, said: “We are delighted to announce record prize money in this season’s Premier Sports Cup.

“Premier Sports have been fantastic supporters of our premier cup competition.

“Their investment into the Cup has allowed us to announce record prize money this season and these funds will continue to support our clubs as they recover from the pandemic.

“With the first-round group stage kicking off on 9 July, we are very much looking forward to another year of passion, drama and excitement in this season’s Premier Sports Cup, live on Premier Sports.”