The SPFL confirmed the seeding pots for the 2026/27 Premier Sports Cup group stage draw on Tuesday, setting up Wednesday's draw at 1.00pm and giving clubs their first look at the route to Hampden Park. Premier Sports will show the draw live online and the SPFL YouTube channel will carry it live as the competition moves toward a July start.
The draw covers the 37 SPFL clubs still in the group stage after five clubs competing in UEFA competitions join later at the knock-out stage. Lowland League champions Linlithgow Rose, Highland League champions Brora Rangers and Highland League runners-up Brechin City are the three guest clubs in a field of 40 participating clubs split into five seeding pots based on final league placings in season 2025/26. One club from each pot will be drawn into Groups A-H, with no regionalised aspect to the draw.
Pot 1 contains Falkirk, Dundee United, Dundee, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, St Mirren, Livingston and St Johnstone. Pot 2 includes Partick Thistle, Arbroath, Dunfermline Athletic, Raith Rovers, Queen’s Park, Ayr United, Greenock Morton and Airdrieonians. Pot 3 is made up of Ross County, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Stenhousemuir, Queen of the South, Alloa Athletic, Peterhead, Montrose and Cove Rangers, while Pot 4 holds East Fife, Hamilton Academical, Kelty Hearts, East Kilbride, The Spartans, Clyde, Forfar Athletic and Stranraer. Pot 5 is Elgin City, Annan Athletic, Stirling Albion, Dumbarton, Edinburgh City, Linlithgow Rose, Brora Rangers and Brechin City.
The 2026/27 Premier Sports Cup kicks off on the weekend of July 11/12, with further group-stage matchdays set for July 14/15, July 18/19, July 21/22 and July 25/26. The eight group winners and three best runners-up will join Celtic, Heart of Midlothian, Rangers, Motherwell and Hibernian in the last 16 on August 15/16, before the quarter-finals on September 12/13 and the semi-finals on October 31 and November 1. The final is scheduled for Sunday, December 13, at Hampden Park.
Prize money provides another layer of significance. Every club is guaranteed at least £30,000, reaching the last 16 is worth a minimum of £60,000, the runners-up receive £200,000 and the winners take home £400,000. That makes the group stage more than a place to start the season; it is the first step in a competition that can change the finances of a club before autumn arrives.
The lack of regionalisation has become part of the structure of the tournament for the last four seasons, and the seeding process is designed to reflect where clubs finished in 2025/26 rather than where they are based. That means the draw can throw up any mix across Scotland from the first ball pulled, with the guest clubs now joining the same national set-up as the established SPFL sides. For clubs chasing a place in the last 16, Wednesday's draw is the moment the map is drawn for the months ahead.
