The 2024–25 Russian Cup is the 33rd season of the Russianfootball knockout tournament since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[1] The competition started on 30 July 2024 and will conclude on 1 June 2025.
The winner of the cup would normally gain entry into the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League; however, on 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs were suspended from FIFA & UEFA international competitions until further notice due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[2]
The teams of Premier League and the other teams will qualify to knockout phase in two different paths. Premier league teams will play in the RPL path group stage with a double round-robin tournament, divided into 4 groups with 4 teams in each group, while the other teams will play in the regions path qualification, starting with 1/256 round until 1/8 round with 1 match in each stage.[4]
Round dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows:[5][6]
Phase
Round
Match date
Qualifying rounds (regions path)
Round 1
30 July – 1 August 2024
Round 2
20–22 August 2024
Round 3
3–5 September 2024
Round 4
24–26 September 2024
Round 5
15–17 October 2024
Round 6
29–31 October 2024
Group stage (RPL path)
Matchday 1
30 July – 1 August 2024
Matchday 2
13–15 August 2024
Matchday 3
27–28 August 2024
Matchday 4
17–19 September 2024
Matchday 5
1–3 October 2024
Matchday 6
22–24 October 2024
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
RPL path
Match 1
5–7 November 2024
Match 2
26–28 November 2024
Regions path
Stage 1
26–28 November 2024
Stage 2
11–13 March 2025
Semi-finals
RPL path
Match 1
11–13 March 2025
Match 2
15–17 April 2025
Regions path
Stage 1
15–17 April 2025
Stage 2
30 April – 2 May 2025
Path finals
RPL path
Match 1
30 April – 2 May 2025
Match 2
13–15 May 2025
Regions path
13–15 May 2025
Final
1 June 2025
Qualifying round (regions path)
The draw for qualifying stage rounds 1 and 2 was held on 15 July 2024.[7]
On 6 September draw procedure was released, that consisted of 2 phases. On the first phase, 2 random balls with First League team from pot 2 was relocated to pot 1, then on the second phase usual draw procedure started. The teams from pot 1 played their matches in round 4 at home.[15]
The draw for group stage was held on 10 June 2024 live on TV-channel «Match TV».[20]
16 teams of the Russian Premier League (RPL) will start the tournament from the group stage (4 teams in each group). The teams will play 6 matches in the group stage:
In the knockout phase, as in the qualification, the teams will be divided into 2 paths (brackets).
The teams in RPL path (upper bracket) will play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis. The teams that will lose after 2 legs in RPL path, except for the path final, will have the second chance in the regions path.
The teams in the regions path (lower bracket) will play against each other in 1 match. Each round, except the path final, consists of 2 phases. In the quarter-finals first phase teams from the regions path qualification will play against the third placed team of RPL path group stage, then on the second stage they will play against RPL path quarter-finals loser. In the semi-finals first phase the teams play with winners of the previous round of the regions path, the second phase is the same as in quarter-finals.
Like the previous season, the team that loses in the final of the upper bracket is eliminated from the tournament and will not play in the final of the lower bracket, so the final of Regions path consists of only 1 stage.[23]
The winners of both paths will play in super final.
Due do to calendar changes in this season (the matches of RPL path will held in November 2024), and with team from hard logistic travel, to form a schedule, the draw for RPL path was held on 8 September 2024 at 19:30 MSK live on TV-channel «Match Premier» (before end a group stage).[24]
The draw will determine the grid for the quarter-finals of the RPL Path.
In the first round of the draw, two baskets are used: the first basket contains 4 balls with the names of the groups from the RPL Path group round (A-D). From the first basket, 2 balls are moved by blind draw to the second basket.
In the second round of the draw, balls are drawn alternately from the first and second baskets by blind lot, determining two pairs of groups (A-B and C-D, A-C and B-D, or A-D and B-C), in which clubs from one group (1st and 2nd places, respectively) will play clubs from the other corresponding group (2nd and 1st places, respectively) in the 1/4 finals of the upper bracket playoffs.
Finally, a draw is held to determine the host club in each pair.
Winners of regions path round 6 will play stage 1 matches of regions path at home as well.[25]
The regions path stage 1 draw was held on 1 November 2024 at 16:30 MSK live on TV-channel «Match Premier».[26]
The regions path stage 2 draw was held on 30 November 2024 at 12:30 MSK live on TV-channel «Match Premier».[27][28]
Note: Khimki goalkeeper Igor Obukhov was sent off for a professional foul in added time. As Khimki already used all allowed substitutions at the time, Khosonov had to act as a goalkeeper for the remaining game time, and then for the subsequent penalty shoot-out.
