2023–24 Egyptian League Cup

2023–24 Egyptian League Cup
كأس رابطة الأندية المحترفة 2023–24
Tournament details
Country	Egypt
Dates	8 January – 7 August 2024
Teams	16
Defending champions	Ceramica Cleopatra
Final positions
Champions	Ceramica Cleopatra (2nd title)
Runner-up	Tala'ea El Gaish
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	67 (2.16 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Mido Gaber; Ashraf Magdy; Youssry Wahid; (3 goals each)
	← 2022–23 2024–25 →

The 2023–24 Egyptian League Cup was the third edition of the Egyptian League Cup, a cup knockout competition open to all clubs participating in the Egyptian Premier League. The competition began on 8 January, and concluded with the final on 7 August 2024.

Defending champions Ceramica Cleopatra successfully defended their title as they beat Tala'ea El Gaish 3–1 in the final, winning their second League Cup trophy and second major title in the club's history.^[1]

Ceramica Cleopatra entered the tournament as the defending champion, having won the previous edition after beating Al Masry 4–1 in the final.^[2]

Format

The format for the first edition of the competition was retained for this season. The tournament started with a group stage involving all participating teams split into four groups of four teams each, with the winners and runners-up of each group advancing to the next round. This round was played during the league's January/February break, due to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations taking place from 13 January to 11 February 2024.^[3]

In the knockout stage round, matches are pre-determined. In the quarter-finals, teams advancing from Group A face teams from Group C, and teams from Group B face teams from Group D; and all matches are played on group winners' home venues; while the semi-finals and final are played on venues selected by the EPL. Similar to the group stage, the knockout stage, except the final, was played during the league's January/February break.

Starting from the knockout stage, matches are decided by penalties if teams are tied after 90 minutes.

The winners of the Egyptian League Cup join the Egypt Cup winners and Egyptian Premier League winners and runners-up in the Egyptian Super Cup next season.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:^[4]

Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Draw of lots.

Prize money

On 11 September 2023, the prizes for the 2023–24 season were announced by the EPL. The winning team earn 1.5 million Egyptian pounds (LE), the runners-up receive 1 million LE, while the remaining 14 participating teams receive 100,000 LE. Any team that withdraws from the Egyptian League Cup will not receive the prizes for participation in the Egyptian Premier League, which are worth one million LE. If a team withdraws after the draw is held, an additional fine of one million LE would be applied.^[5]

Place	Teams	Amount (in LE)
Place	Teams	Per team	Total
Winners	1	1.5m	1.5m
Runners-up	1	1m	1m
3rd–4th place (semi-finalists)	2	100k	200k
5th–8th place (quarter-finalists)	4	100k	400k
9th–16th place (group stage)	8	100k	800k
Total	16	3.9m

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held at the Egyptian Football Association headquarters in Gezira, Cairo on 31 December 2023, 14:00 CAT.^[6]^[7]

Al Ahly announced their withdrawal from the competition on 20 December 2023, citing injuries and tight schedule faced by the club in the last few weeks before the draw.^{[citation needed]} On 26 December 2023, Zamalek also announced that they would not participate in the competition for this season.^{[citation needed]}

Following the withdrawal of Al Ahly and Zamalek, the group stage was changed from three groups of six teams, to four groups of four teams. The 16 participating teams were separated into four pots, based on their league rankings in the previous season, except for the defending champions Ceramica Cleopatra, who topped pot 1.

Pot	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Teams	Ceramica Cleopatra^TH Pyramids Modern Future Al Masry	ENPPI Al Mokawloon Al Arab Al Ittihad Pharco	Smouha Ismaily National Bank of Egypt Tala'ea El Gaish	El Dakhleya El Gouna ZED Baladiyat El Mahalla

Group stage

All times are CAT (UTC+2).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Al Ittihad	3	2	0	1	2	2	0	6	Advance to knockout stage
2	Smouha	3	1	1	1	2	1	+1	4^[a]	Advance to knockout stage
3	Modern Future	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4^[a]
4	Baladiyat El Mahalla	3	1	0	2	1	2	−1	3

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
Notes:

^ ^a ^b Tied on head-to-head record. Overall goal difference: Smouha +1, Modern Future 0.

8 January 2024