The 2023–24 Ukrainian Cup was the 32nd annual season of Ukraine's football knockout competition. The competition is planned to start on 29 July 2023 and be concluded on 15 May 2024 with the final. The competition has been resumed after being paused for a season due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and an attempt to resume league competitions.[2] In the fall of the last year (2022), there was information about possibility of resuming cup competitions in the spring (2023), but the idea was never realized.[3][4]
All competition rounds consisted of a single game with a home field advantage granted to a team from lower league. Draw for all the rounds was blind. Qualification for the competition was granted to all professional clubs and four better performers of 2 last amateur seasons the 2022–23 Ukrainian Amateur Cup and the 2021–22 Ukrainian Amateur Cup.[5]
Team allocation and schedule
The competition includes all professional first teams from the Premier League (16/16 teams of the league), First League (20/20), Second League (11/15) and four best performer from the previous year's Amateur Cup. Four second club teams from the Second League are not eligible for the tournament.
In this round, 9 clubs from the Second League and 20 clubs from the First League entered the competition and joined the 3 winners of the First preliminary round (2 clubs from Second League, 1 – amateurs).
In this round, 8 clubs from the Premier League will enter the competition and the 8 winners of the Third preliminary round (6 clubs from First League and 2 clubs from Second League).
In this round, 8 clubs from the Premier League will enter the competition and join the 8 winners of the Fourth preliminary round (6 clubs from Premier League and 2 clubs from First League).
This round includes one team from the First League and 7 clubs from the Premier League. Base date for the matches is 1 November 2023. The draw for the round took place at Epet Arena, Prague with active participation of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ruslan Malinovskyi.[11]
The following is the bracket which the main stage of the Ukrainian Cup resembles. Numbers in parentheses next to the match score represent the results of a penalty shoot-out.