Fadian Cup

The **Fadian Cup** is an annual club football competition organised by the Fadian Football Confederation (FFC) and contested by top-division Fadian clubs, deciding the competition winners through a round robin group stage to qualify for a double-legged knockout format, and a single leg final. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in Fadian football.

In its present format, the Fadian Cup begins with a preliminary round played over two legs. The 15 surviving teams enter the group stage, joining 9 teams qualified in advance along with the 8 teams eliminated in the FFC Champions Cup's Second round. The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four teams and play each other in a double round-robin system. The eight group winners and eight runners-up proceed to the knockout phase that culminates with the final match.

Birtalian clubs have the highest number of victories (2 wins). Birtal have the largest number of winning teams, with two clubs having won the title. The competition has been won by 4 clubs, none of which has won it more than once and none successfully defended their title. ST Nateszapany, Racing Samnyla, SU Nyigetoroks and Sportlich Seltactal are the most successful clubs in the tournament's history, having won it 1 time.

## History

### Early years

The first edition of the Fadian Cup took place in the 1956 season. 36 teams were invited and 11 more qualified after being eliminated from the 1956 FFC Champions Cup. The first Fadian Cup match took place in Forciso, Graierbia, and saw Reale Forciso lose 0–3 home to CSE Vetrelci. The inaugural final took place in Civias, Lera, between Sportlich Seltactal and ST Nateszapany. The Kokolor side won 3–1 to claim the inaugural title.

In the 1957 season, Racing Samnyla were crowned champions after defeating IS Rifjornes 1–2 in the final match.

Birtal became the first country to have successive champions as SU Nyigetoroks defeated Elladan Ganneleut 2–0 in the 1958 final and Sportlich Seltactal defeated Sidirourgós Bylai 3–1 in the 1959 edition. This also made it three successive years with an Ekionian runner-up.

## Format

### Qualification

The Fadian Cup begins with a double round-robin group stage of 32 teams, of which 9 automatically qualify, which is preceded by a qualifying round for teams that do not receive direct entry to the tournament proper.

Each association has three teams qualify to the Fadian Cup, but the number of teams that each association enters into each round of the Fadian Cup is based upon the FFC League Rankings. These rankings are generated by the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five FFC Champions Cup and Fadian Cup seasons. The higher an association's coefficient, the more teams enter directly into the Group stage.

15 of the remaining 23 qualifying places are granted to the winners of a qualifying round between the remaining 27 qualified teams plus three teams eliminated in the FFC Champions Cup's First round. The other eight are granted to the losers of the FFC Champions Cup's Second round.

### Group stage and knockout stages

The tournament proper begins with a group stage of 32 teams, divided into eight groups of four. Seeding is used whilst making the draw for this stage, whilst teams from the same nation may not be drawn into groups together. Each team plays six group stage games, meeting the other three teams in its group home and away in a round-robin format. The winning team and the runners-up from each group then progress to the next round.

For the next stage – the last 16 – the 16 qualified teams are seeded according to their results in the group stage, with the group winners seeded 1–8, and the group runners-up seeded 9–16. If a team defeats a higher-seeded team, they inherit the losing team's seed. The knock-out ties are played in a two-legged format, with the exception of the final.

### Distribution

The following is the default access list:

(30 teams)
* 3 third placed teams from associations 10–12
* 8 fourth placed teams from associations 5–12
* 7 fifth placed teams from associations 3–9
* 4 sixth placed teams from associations 1–4
* 2 seventh placed teams from associations 1–2
* 3 losers from the FFC Champions Cup's First round
(32 teams)
* 2 fourth placed teams from associations 3–4
* 2 fifth placed teams from associations 1–2
* 8 losers from the FFC Champions Cup's Second round
 Knockout stages
(16 teams)
* 8 group runners-up from the Group stage

Changes will be made to the access list above if the Fadian Cup title holders fail to qualify for the tournament via their domestic league.