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The Irish League Cup is the third-highest rated competition in domestic Northern Irish football competition after the Irish Premier League and Irish Cup. It is currently sponsored by CIS Co-operative Insurance. Previous sponsors have been Wilkinson Sword, Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Roadferry.

The League Cup winners qualify for the next season's all-Ireland Setanta Cup.

The competition is for the sixteen Irish Premier League clubs, and combines league and knock-out systems. The sixteen teams are drawn into four groups, and the four teams in each group play each other twice (once at home and once away), making a total of six games each at this stage. Three points are awarded for a win, and one point for a draw. If two teams finish level on points, goal difference is used to separate them. If teams are still level on goal difference, then the team with the most goals scored is placed highest. The two highest-placed teams in each group after the six games qualify for the knock-out stage. The knock-out stage consists of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final: each of these games is “played to a finish”, i.e. extra time and penalties are used as necessary if the game ends in a draw. The group winners receive a home tie in the quarter-finals.

The League Cup is the first competition of the season, with the group stage taking place in August and September. The knock-out stage then takes place from October to December. In recent years the final has been played on a Saturday afternoon in December and has been broadcast live on television since the 2005-06 season.

The competition began as a straight knock-out competition in 1986/87, and also included teams from the now-defunct Irish League B Division until 1997-98. Since 1998-99 only senior Irish League and Irish Premier League teams have competed. Since 2001-02, the group/knock-out system has been used.

When it was first introduced it was one of a number of senior cup competitions in Northern Ireland run by the Irish League, originally to compensate for the relatively few league fixtures (traditionally 22 or 26), but also as vehicles for sponsorship revenue. The League Cup would have been considered less prestigious than the long-standing Gold Cup and Ulster Cup. Over the past decade or so, however, these other cup competitions have been phased out as the number of Irish League fixtures has increased and the public appetite for additional competitions has reduced, leaving the League Cup as the only surviving cup competition run by the Irish League and now established as the third most prestigious competition in Northern Ireland.

The actual trophy is the old City Cup, which was another senior Irish League competition that was ended in 1971.

The 2007/08 final will be played at Windsor Park on 2 February 2008 between Crusaders and Linfield. The original date of 8 December 2007 was unplayable due to a waterlogged pitch. It will be broadcast live on BBC Two Northern Ireland.

• Irish FA Website
• Irish Premier League Website
• Irish Football Club Project
• Irish League Forums

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