Super cup

A Super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the ’curtain-raiser’ to a season, and typically involves only two teams whom have qualified through success in other competitions during the previous season.

For the German auto racing series, see Supercup.

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 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 recognised as World Champions prior to the creation of the official FIFA World Club Cup.

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.

Football

National super cups
The FA Community Shield is contested by the champions of the Premier League and FA Cup

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:

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.

Other tournaments like this have been held, including the 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 Supercups

Regional

&

Continental level

Water polo

National super cups

Continental super cups

Other sports

References
  1. "FIFA Council approves key organisational elements of the FIFA World Cup" (Press release). FIFA. 27 October 2017. Archived from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
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