The Danish Cup (Danish: Landspokalturneringen) is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The cup has taken name after various sponsors over the years, but is currently known as DBU Pokalen after the Danish Football Association, Dansk Boldspil-Union.
The winner will qualify for the UEFA Europa League tournament the following year, where they (as of the 2009–10 season) will enter in the third qualifying round.
The latest edition, Danish Cup 2011-12, was won by Superliga-side F.C. Copenhagen, beating Superliga-side AC Horsens 1-0 on May 17, 2012 at Parken Stadium.
The final traditionally takes place on Kristi Himmelfarts Dag (The Ascension) and it is always played in the Danish national stadium Parken. However in the 1991 and 1992 seasons the final had been rescheduled to Odense Stadion and Århus Stadion respectively due to the renovation of Parken.
The two clubs with most final appearances are AGF with 11 finals and AaB with 10, but with quite different success; AGF having won 9 of their 11 finals, while AaB have only won 2 finals.
Attention has been brought to the fact that the final on most occasions unpractically is played before the last rounds of the league, which can open up for speculation in the benefit of losing league games at the end of the season especially for the cup runner-up if the winner is heading for the league championship. Recently former AaB player David Nielsen claimed in his autobiography that after losing the cupfinal in 2004 to FC Copenhagen, he deliberately missed opportunities to score against them when AaB and FC Copenhagen met in the final league match because FCK would win the championship (and thereby the double) and land AaB in the UEFA cup as losing cup finalists.
Read more about Danish Cup: Format, Earlier Names, Finals
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