Super cup explained

A super cup is a competition, in association football, Basketball, Handball, Volleyball and Rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the previous season.

It is typically contested on a national level by two competition winners of the previous season: the national knock-out cup winner and the highest level league champion. There are also continental super cups, like the UEFA Super Cup in football, which puts together winners of the top and second-tier UEFA competitions and the Recopa Sudamericana between CONMEBOL Libertadores and the Sudamericana winners, and cross-border super cups between champions of neighbouring leagues, such as the Campeones Cup between the winners of the highest level leagues in the United States and Mexico, and the Champions Cup for the champions of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The now-defunct Intercontinental Cup was a super cup played between the continental champions of Europe and South America, with winners retroactively recognised by world governing body FIFA as World Champions prior to the creation of the official FIFA Club World Cup and the CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions between the winners of the European Football Championship and the Copa América, which rebranded once again in 2022 after the 29-year hiatus.

Sometimes, these are two-legged ties, with a match played at each side's stadium, but increasingly they are one-off fixtures at a neutral venue, such as a national stadium. Some Super Cups have even been staged in venues outside their home country, such as the Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish, Mexican, and Egyptian games and increasingly function as publicity events for that league in the global market.

If the league champions are also the national cup winners, they may play a selected XI team, or more commonly the runners-up from one of the competitions, typically from the league.

The Finalissima between the national team continental champions of UEFA and CONMEBOL, also known as the CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions, plus its women's counterpart, are rare examples of 'super cups' between national sides.

Football

National super cups

The following nations have an active super cup competition:

AFC

CAF

CONCACAF

CONMEBOL

OFC

UEFA

Defunct super cups

Cross-border super cups

Continental super cups

Some continental football federations also have their own super cups:

Regional super cups

Intercontinental super cups

Most of the continental football confederations have jointly held a competition pitting their champions against each other:

All of these competitions are now defunct and have been succeeded by the FIFA Club World Cup, which features the champions of all of the confederations, plus the champion of the host country. In 2017, FIFA retroactively recognised the winners of the European/South American Cup as world champions.[1]

A similar tournament was held at international level, the FIFA Confederations Cup. It was initially held on a biennial basis, every odd year, from 1993 until 2005 when it became quadrennial, the year before a World Cup in its host country. It featured the six continental champions, the World Cup winners and the host. The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup was the 10th and last Confederations Cup before FIFA abolished it for an expanded Club World Cup. CONMEBOL and UEFA relaunched the CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup of Champions in 2020, previously held as the European/South American Nations Cup in 1985 and 1993, to be contested between the champions of both confederations. The rebooted cup, now branded as the Finalissima, held its first edition in 2022, with quadrennial editions to follow. The two confederations launched a Women's Finalissima in 2023, involving the most recent winners of the Copa América Femenina and Women's Euro. It is also planned to be a quadrennial event.

Other tournaments like this have been held, including the Intercontinental Champions' Supercup (contested by the past winners of the Intercontinental Cup), Supercopa Euroamericana (pitting the Copa Sudamericana and UEFA Europa League winners), Suruga Bank Championship (pitting the Copa Sudamericana and J.League Cup winners), the Copa de Oro (pitting all the most recent CONMEBOL competition winners), and the Copa Iberoamericana (pitting the Copa de Oro and Copa del Rey winners).

Basketball

National super cups

Regional

&

Continental level

contested between the winners of EuroLeague Women and EuroCup Women.

Water polo

National super cups

Continental super cups

Motorsports

Other sports

See also

Notes and References

  1. 27 October 2017. FIFA Council approves key organisational elements of the FIFA World Cup. https://web.archive.org/web/20171027142732/http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2017/m=10/news=fifa-council-approves-key-organisational-elements-of-the-fifa-world-cu-2917722.html. dead. October 27, 2017. FIFA. 27 October 2017.

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