The 2023–24 Russian Cup is the 32nd season of the Russianfootball knockout tournament since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[1] The competition started on 25 July 2023 and will conclude on 2 June 2024.
The winner of the cup would normally gain entry into the 2024–25 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.[5]
Round dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows:[5][6]
Phase
Round
Match date
Qualifying rounds (regions path)
Round 1
1–2 August 2023
Round 2
22–23 August 2023
Round 3
4, 13–14 September 2023
Round 4
26–28 September 2023
Round 5
17–19 October 2023
Round 6
1–2 November 2023
Group stage (RPL path)
Matchday 1
25–27 July 2023
Matchday 2
8–10 August 2023
Matchday 3
29–30 August 2023
Matchday 4
19–21 September 2023
Matchday 5
3–4 October 2023
Matchday 6
31 October – 2 November 2023
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
RPL path
Match 1
28–29 November 2023
Match 2
12–14 March 2024
Regions path
Stage 1
12–14 March 2024
Stage 2
2–4 April 2024
Semi-finals
RPL path
Match 1
2–4 April 2024
Match 2
16–18 April 2024
Regions path
Stage 1
16–18 April 2024
Stage 2
30 April – 2 May 2024
Path finals
RPL path
Match 1
30 April – 2 May 2024
Match 2
14–16 May 2024
Regions path
14–16 May 2024
Final
2 June 2024
Qualifying round (regions path)
The draw for qualifying stage rounds 1 and 2 was held on 17 July 2023.[7]
Round 1
Date of matches was determined on 21 July 2023.[8]
On 12 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.[11]
Stadium: Kristall Stadium [ru] Attendance: 602 Referee: Vladimir Seldyakov
Group stage (RPL path)
The draw for group stage was held on 24 June 2023 live on TV-channel «Match TV».[17]
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.[5]
Unlike 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.[19]
The winners of both paths will play in super final.
The draw was held on 3 November 2023 at 12:00 MSK live on TV-channel «Match TV».[20]
In the quarter-final matches of RPL path teams from same group can't play with each other. Runners-up of group stage will play first matches at home. Winners of regions path round 6 will play stage 1 matches of regions path at home as well.[20]
The formal host was determined by a draw on 15 May 2024. The host club chooses the dressing room, the reserves bench, the uniform color and the times for warm-up and pre-game press conference.[25]