Scottish Cup

200px
Founded	1874
Region	Scotland (SFA)
Current champions	Hearts
Most successful club	Celtic (35 titles)
Website	Scottish Cup
Scottish Cup 2011-12

The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,^[1] commonly known as the Scottish Cup^[2] or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes,^[3] is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.

The Scottish Cup trophy is the oldest national trophy in the world.^[4] It was first held in 1873–74, with the first winners being Queen's Park.^[4]

The current holders of the Scottish Cup are Hearts, who beat Hibs 5–1 in the 2012 final on 19 May 2012.

Format[link]

The competition is a knockout one. Teams are drawn against each other randomly. The team who is drawn first from each tie is the home team. If the first match finishes in a draw, a replay is played at the stadium of the second team drawn. In the replay, if the scores are still level at full time, extra time is played and (if necessary) penalties are used to decide the winner of the tie.

The semi-final matches are played at neutral stadiums, usually the national stadium (smaller stadiums if the teams do not bring a large support) Hampden Park and the final itself is traditionally played at Hampden. Celtic Park staged the finals in 1993 and 1998 and Ibrox staged the final in 1997 while Hampden was being redeveloped. The final and semi-final do not have replays and are played to a finish. Extra time is played and penalties are used if necessary. Two finals (1990 and 2006) have been decided by penalties.

Entry criteria[link]

Previously clubs in the Third and Second Divisions qualified automatically for the first round, along with four non-league teams each from the Scottish Qualifying Cup (North) and (South) competitions. Clubs in the First Division and the Scottish Premier League had automatic byes to the third round. However, from the 2007–08 season new criteria were introduced for entry into the Scottish Cup.^[5] The Scottish Qualifying Cup competitions were scrapped and the 36 SFA member clubs outwith the SPL and SFL were given direct entry to the 1st Round of the cup. Additionally, the league winners of the East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues, both of which contain some clubs that are not full members of the SFA and hence could not previously enter the Scottish Cup, were given a place in the draw.

Clubs from Scottish Junior football (all but one of whom - Girvan - are not members of the SFA as they belong to the Scottish Junior FA) were admitted for the first time in the 2007–08 competition. Up to four Junior clubs are allowed to enter, these being the champions of the previous season's Scottish Junior Football North Premier League, the Scottish Junior Football West Premier League, the Scottish Junior Football East Region Super League, and the winner of the Scottish Junior Cup if they have not also won one of the three top regional league titles.^[6] The first three Junior clubs to qualify for the tournament were Culter, Pollok and Linlithgow Rose. During Season 2008–09, Junior sides Bathgate Thistle, Pollok, Banks O' Dee and Lochee United competed in the tournament.

European qualification[link]

As with all domestic cup competitions in UEFA countries, the winners of the Scottish Cup qualify for the following season's UEFA Europa League (previously the UEFA Cup). If the winners have already qualified for the UEFA Champions League, the cup runners-up are awarded the Europa League place. This has been quite a regular occurrence in Scotland, with either Rangers or Celtic often winning 'The Double', while Aberdeen also achieved that feat in 1984.

In 2006, Heart of Midlothian had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League by finishing second in the SPL, and then won the 2006 Scottish Cup Final. Therefore, the Scottish Cup place in Europe passed to Gretna, the beaten finalists. In 2008, the SFA announced that in such a situation the place would in future be awarded to the highest-placed club in the SPL who had not otherwise qualified for Europe. This followed some disappointing performances by middle-ranking Scottish teams including Gretna, Dunfermline Athletic and Queen of the South. All those clubs were knocked out at the first hurdle of the UEFA Cup which reduced the nation's coefficient, the calculation used to determine the number of places allocated in UEFA tournaments. UEFA blocked the proposed change, however, insisting that a club from the cup competition should represent Scotland. Falkirk therefore qualified for the 2009-10 UEFA Europa League as runners-up of the 2009 Scottish Cup Final to league champions Rangers. Falkirk then lost in their opening European tie to FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein. In 2010, as Dundee United had qualified for the Europa League through both winning the Scottish Cup and finishing in third place in the SPL, the Europa League place passed to Motherwell, who finished fifth in the league.

"Giant killers"[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Because it involves clubs of all standards playing against each other, there is the possibility for "minnows" from the lower or junior divisions to become "giant-killers" by eliminating top clubs from the tournament. Some famous cup shocks include 1938, when Second Division East Fife were the victors in the final against Kilmarnock and thus won the cup.

On 31 January 1959, Highland League outfit Fraserburgh's won 1-0 against a Dundee side which had seven Scottish internationals in their side. In 1967, Berwick Rangers defeated Rangers 1–0, with Sammy Reid scoring the only goal of the match.

In 2000, Inverness Caledonian Thistle defeated Celtic 3-1. Caley would also record another victory at home to Martin O'Neill's Celtic side in 2003.

Celtic, with a debutante Roy Keane in tow, also fell victim to Clyde, a side whose average age was 21, when they were beaten 2–1 at Broadwood Stadium in January 2006. On 10 April 2010, First Division club Ross County beat Celtic 2-0 to reach the final for the first time in their history.

Previous winners and finalists[link]

The 1909 Scottish Cup Final between Rangers and Celtic is not included in this tally.

Media coverage[link]

Scottish Cup matches are currently broadcast live by both BBC Sport Scotland in Scotland and Sky Sports across the rest of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.^[7]

BBC Radio Scotland provide radio coverage including several full live commentaries with additional commentaries broadcast on Radio Scotland's local frequencies. Radio broadcasting rights are also held by BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and BBC Radio 5 Live also carry some games.

The Scottish FA sells overseas rights separately from their domestic contract. In Australia, the Scottish Cup is broadcast exclusively by Setanta Sports Australia. Premium Sports hold the rights for the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

The Scottish Cup Final is one of several events reserved for live broadcast in Scotland terrestrial television under the Ofcom Code on Sports and Other Listed & Designated Events.

Sponsorship[link]

The tournament has been sponsored by a number of institutions in recent years, which have also lent their name to the competition. These sponsors have included:

• Scottish Health Board (–1989)
• Tennents Lager (1989–2007)^[8]
• Subsidised by the SFA (2007–2008)
• Homecoming Scotland 2009 (2008–09)^[9]
• Active Nation (2009–10)^[10]
• No sponsor (2011)^[11]
• William Hill (2012–2014)^[11][12]

The Scottish Government in association with businessman Willie Haughey sponsored the Scottish Cup for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons, with the 2009 competition being called The Homecoming Scottish Cup and the 2010 competition called The Active Nation Scottish Cup.

Carling are an additional sponsor from 2010 to 2014, but they do not have naming rights for the trophy.^[13]

See also[link]

• List of Scottish Cup winners
• List of Scottish Cup winning managers

References[link]

External links[link]

• Tournament home page
• The Scottish Cup at the Scottish FA website
• The Scottish Cup Archive at the Scottish FA website
• The Scottish Cup Final Archive at the Scottish FA website

Look up scottish in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Scottish may refer to something of, from, or related to Scotland, a country in northern Europe, part of the United Kingdom since 1707.

Scottish may also refer to:

Languages[link]

• Scottish English, the varieties of English spoken in Scotland
• Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language native to Scotland
• Scots language, a language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster

People[link]

• Scottish people
• List of famous Scottish people

Culture[link]

• Scottish American
• Scottish national identity

Other uses[link]

• Scottish cuisine
• Schottische, a dance
• Scottish (card game), a Shedding-type card game, also known as shirts and boots
• Scottish Crofting Foundation
• Scottish Reformation, 1560
• "Scottish" Symphony, Mendelssohn's third symphony
• Scottish Television, currently known as STV, the ITV licensee for Central and Northern Scotland
• Scottish Terrier dog breed

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Rory Fallon

Fallon playing for Plymouth Argyle in 2009
Personal information
Full name	Rory Michael Fallon[1]
Date of birth	(1982-03-20) 20 March 1982 (age 30)
Place of birth	Gisborne, New Zealand
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Forward
Club information
Current club	Aberdeen
Number	14
Youth career
	Mount Albert Grammar
	Barnsley
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1999–2003	Barnsley	52	(11)
2001–2002	→ Shrewsbury Town (loan)	11	(0)
2003–2006	Swindon Town	77	(22)
2005	→ Yeovil Town (loan)	6	(1)
2006–2007	Swansea City	44	(13)
2007–2011	Plymouth Argyle	149	(22)
2010–2011	→ Ipswich Town (loan)	6	(1)
2011	Yeovil Town	5	(0)
2011–	Aberdeen	21	(2)
National team‡
2009–	New Zealand	11	(3)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:00, 21 April 2012 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 30 August 2011

Rory Michael Fallon (born 20 March 1982) is a New Zealand footballer who plays for Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen as a forward. He has previously played for Barnsley, Shrewsbury Town, Swindon Town, Yeovil Town, Swansea City, Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town. He has been capped by New Zealand at international level and scored the goal that took them to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He was born and raised in Gisborne. His father Kevin managed New Zealand over a four-year period in the 1980s.

Playing career[link]

Club career[link]

Born in Gisborne, Fallon started his career at Barnsley, becoming a professional in 1999 after moving up through their trainee programme. He had just begun to cement his place in the first-team when he suffered a stress fracture of his foot, which saw him struggle to regain his place.

Fallon was signed for an undisclosed fee by Swindon Town in November 2003 after a number of impressive performances against them with Barnsley, which caught the eye of manager Andy King. After breaking into the team he scored a number of important goals in the 2003–04 campaign; including an overhead kick from the edge of the box to secure a point against Bristol City.^[2]

Despite the departure of Tommy Mooney, Fallon found himself regularly on the bench in the 2004–2005 season. He was loaned out to Yeovil Town to increase his confidence and he scored on his debut against Scunthorpe.^[3] He failed to score in the remainder of the season, but a red card for kicking Huddersfield Town defender David Mirfin in the face meant he missed the opening two games of the following season. After Sam Parkin was sold in summer 2005, Fallon was given greater opportunities to play at Swindon, scoring on his return to action against Nottingham Forest.

He signed for League One team Swansea City in January 2006 for a fee believed to be £300,000, the second highest fee ever paid by the Welsh club. A productive year followed for the striker, scoring 13 goals in all competitions from 48 appearances. This prompted interest from Championship side Plymouth Argyle and they paid £300,000 for Fallon on 19 January 2007.^[4]

Fallon had only started a handful of games for Plymouth Argyle, and had struggled to get in to the team. He went without a competitive goal at Home Park until 19 January 2008, exactly 1 year after he signed for the club, when he scored a second half equaliser for Plymouth vs. Southampton. It was only his 4th goal for the Pilgrims. The 2007/2008 campaign saw Fallon continue to be a regular bench warmer, but he continued with his optimistic attitude that he can become a first team regular, and even rejected a £250,000 move to League One side Southend United,^[5] in January 2008.

On 29 September 2009 Fallon scored the winning goal for Argyle against Peterborough United earning the Pilgrims their first win of the season after seven straight defeats, lifting them off the bottom of the table. Fallon then scored the opening goal in Argyle's next game against Scunthorpe United which they also won 2–1.

On the opening day of the 2010–11 season, Fallon played the full 90 minutes and was the provider for Luke Summerfield's winning goal in Plymouth's 1–0 win over Pre-season promotion favourites Southampton. On 25 November he was signed on loan to Ipswich Town until January.^[6] He returned to Plymouth on 17 January 2011.^[7]

On 2 August 2011, Fallon signed a one-month contract with Yeovil Town after a short trial. Despite featuring in all five of Yeovil's games, he was released on 31 August 2011.

On 14 September 2011, he signed a two year deal with Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen. ^[8] As of December 2011 Fallon had scored just once in his first ten league appearances. On 14 April 2012, Fallon scored a wonderful goal for Aberdeen (Which subseqeuntly won the PFA Goal of the Season Award) in the Scottish Cup semi-final with Hibernian, although the game ended 2-1 to the Edinburgh side with Garry O'Connor and Leigh Griffiths scoring for Hibs.

International career[link]

Despite being born in New Zealand and having a father who coached New Zealand at the 1982 World Cup,^[9] Fallon chose to represent England at junior level. He played international football for England at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U20 levels and switched when FIFA changed the eligibility rules.^[10]

He did, however, represent New Zealand in an unofficial U-16 World Cup in France in 1998 where Wynton Rufer was the coach. Shortly after, he departed for England to be an apprentice at Barnsley.

In January 2006, New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert suggested that Fallon might still get a chance to represent New Zealand at senior level. Herbert claimed that the only reason why Fallon wasn’t picked was due to lack of correspondence from FIFA regarding this matter. Fallon had until he was 21 years old to get clearance from FIFA to change nationalities. It found, however, that Fallon did not apply in the 2004 window to change allegiance for over-21s players. This year-long window was made available by FIFA upon introduction of a rule which allows players with dual nationality to switch their allegiance before their 21st birthday. Under this criterion Fallon could not be available for New Zealand.

On 3 June 2009, FIFA Congress passed a motion removing the age limit for changing associations for players who had already played for a country's national team at youth level under article 18 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA Statutes. This allowed for the possibility of Fallon again representing New Zealand.^[10]

In August 2009, Fallon was called up to the New Zealand squad for a friendly against Jordan the following month and the crucial two-legged World Cup play-off matches against Bahrain later in the year.^[11] Fallon scored on debut in the match against Jordan, which New Zealand won 3–1.

On 14 November 2009, Fallon scored the only goal in the second leg of New Zealand's World Cup qualifier against Bahrain, to send New Zealand to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, their first appearance at the finals in 28 years.^[12] Fallon played in all three of New Zealand's finals games.

International goals

#	Date	Opponent	Final Score	Result	Competition
1	9 September 2009	Jordan	1–3	Win	Friendly
2	14 November 2009	Bahrain	1–0	Win	2010 World Cup qualification
3	4 June 2010	Slovenia	3–1	Loss	Friendly
Last updated 5 June 2010

Personal life[link]

Fallon's mother, Mere, is of Māori descent.^[13] He has a brother called Sean and a sister called Bianca.^[13] He married Carly-Marie Llewellyn (who is originally from Swansea and who studied on the Legal Practice Course at Cardiff University Law School during 2003–2004) in early 2008.^[14]

Rory Fallon is a Christian who is involved with the charity faith and football. He has revealed that he moves clubs based on what God tells him. He told the Guardian: "One club has come in for me, but I don't feel the Lord wants me to go. I will wait on what the Lord says. I don't feel I have got a clear message to leave yet, so I'm staying. I'm instructed by the Lord, and I keep telling people this. They probably think I'm mad, but I know full well that when Paul Sturrock came in and wanted me to go to Southend I had a dream and the Lord told me to stay at Plymouth. I have had no instructions since so I stay at Plymouth." The newspaper then sarcastically commented that Fallon did not realise the Plymouth Argyle chairman, Roy Gardner, is only a 'Sir' and not a 'Lord'.

Career statistics[link]

All-Time Club Performances

Club	Season	Championship		FA Cup		Carling Cup		Europe		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Barnsley F.C. (Football League Championship)	2000–01	1	0							1	0
	2001–02	9	0			1	0			10	0
	Club Total	10	0			1	0			11	0
Club	Season	League Two		FA Cup		Carling Cup		Europe		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Shrewsbury Town F.C. on loan from Barnsley (Football League Two)	2001–02	11	0							11	0
	Club Total	11	0							11	0
Club	Season	League One		FA Cup		Carling Cup		League Trophy		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Barnsley F.C. (Football League One)	2002–03	26	7	1	0	1	0	1	0	29	7
	2003–04	16	4			1	0	1	0	18	4
	Club Total	42	11	1	0	2	0	2	0	47	11
Club	Season	League One		FA Cup		Carling Cup		League Trophy		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Swindon Town F.C. (Football League One)	2003–04	21	7							21	7
	2004–05	25	3	3	0	2	0	3	1	33	4
	2004–05	6	1							6	1
	2005–06	25	11	1	1	1	0	2	1	29	13
	Club Total	77	22	4	1	3	0	5	2	89	25
Club	Season	League Two		FA Cup		Carling Cup		Europe		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Yeovil Town F.C. on loan Swindon Town (Football League Two)	2004–05	6	1							6	1
	Club Total	6	1							6	1
Club	Season	League One		FA Cup		Carling Cup		Europe		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Swansea City F.C. (Football League One)	2005–06	20	5							20	5
	2006–07	24	8	3	0	1	0			28	8
	Club Total	44	13	3	0	1	0			48	13
Club	Season	Championship		FA Cup		Carling Cup		Europe		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Plymouth Argyle F.C. (Football League Championship) (Football League One)	2006–07	15	1							15	1
	2007–08	29	7	1	0	2	0			32	7
	2008–09	44	5	1	0	1	0			46	5
	2009–10	33	5	2	0	1	0			36	5
	Season	League One		FA Cup		Carling Cup		Europe		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
	2010–11	2	1			1	0			3	1
	Club Total	123	18	4	0	5	0			132	19
Career totals		311	65	12	1	10	0	7	2	340	69
Last updated 1 October 2010

See also[link]

• New Zealand national football team
• New Zealand at the FIFA World Cup
• New Zealand national football team results
• List of New Zealand international footballers

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rory Fallon Faith and Football profile page with testimony and about being a Christian.
• Rory Fallon – FIFA competition record
• Rory Fallon player profile at pafc.co.uk
• Rory Fallon player profile at swanseacity.net
• Rory Fallon player profile at barnsleyfc.co.uk
• Rory Fallon career stats at Soccerbase
• NZ or not? That's the big mystery