Northern Ireland Football League Cup

Northern Ireland Football League Cup

Organising body	Northern Ireland Football League
Founded	1987
Region	Northern Ireland
Number of teams	38
Current champions	Linfield (2023–24)
Most successful club(s)	Linfield (12 wins)
2024–25 season

The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (known as the BetMcLean Cup for sponsorship purposes, and commonly known as the Irish League Cup) is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the Northern Ireland Football League. It is the third-most prestigious competition in domestic Northern Irish football after the NIFL Premiership and Irish Cup. Unlike the Irish Cup, the League Cup does not have a berth for UEFA Conference League qualification. The cup has been operated by the Northern Ireland Football League since the 2013–14 season when it took over the administration from the Irish Football Association (IFA), after which the cup was renamed to the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) Cup.^[1]

Since the 2017–18 season, the Cup has been sponsored by McLean Bookmakers.^[2] The competition's previous sponsors are JBE (2015–16),^[3] WASP Solutions (2013–14 and 2014–15),^[4] Irn Bru (2011–12 and 2012–13),^[5] Co-operative Insurance (2001–02 to 2010–11), Coca-Cola (1998–99 to 2000–01), Wilkinson Sword (1991–92 to 1997–98) and Roadferry Freight (1986–87 to 1990–91).

Linfield are the current holders, after they defeated Portadown 3–1 in the 2024 final to win the competition for the second successive season and a record-extending 12th time overall. Portadown wers appearing in the final for the first time since 2011.