Icelandic Men's Football League Cup

The Icelandic Men's Football League Cup (Icelandic: Deildarbikar karla), also known as the Lengjubikar karla for sponsorship reasons, is a pre-season professional football competition in Iceland. It is considered the third most important competition in Icelandic football.

Icelandic Men's Football League Cup
Founded1996
Region Iceland
Number of teams24
Current championsBreiðablik (3rd title)
Most successful club(s)KR (8 titles)
2024

The pre-season tournament involves the top 22 clubs in Iceland from the previous season and the two clubs promoted from 2. deild, for a total of the 24 teams that will comprise the top two divisions in Iceland the following season. It generally takes place between February and May. The number of teams in the 2008 edition rose from 16 to 24.

Format

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The 24 teams are divided into four pools of six teams. Each team meets each other once during the pool stage. The final positions of the group are determined after these 5 games are played. The top two of each group automatically gain entry to the next stage in the competition.

From the quarter final round it is a purely knockout competition where ties take place over 1-leg only. If a tie is not decided in 90 minutes, penalty kicks are taken to decide the game.

Since 2001, two other pre-season tournaments have been arranged in the same format for teams lower down in the Icelandic football league ladder.

Finals

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Year Winner Score Runner-up
1996 ÍA 3–1 (aet) Breiðablik
1997 ÍBV 3–2 (aet) Valur
1998 KR 2–2 (6–5p) Valur
1999 ÍA 1–0 Fylkir
2000 Grindavík 4–0 Valur
2001 KR 0–0 (5–3p) FH
2002 FH 2–2 (4–3p) Fylkir
2003 ÍA 1–1 (4–2p) Keflavik
2004 FH 2–1 KR
2005 KR 3–2 Þróttur
2006 FH 3–2 Keflavik
2007 FH 3–2 (aet) Valur
2008 Valur 4–1 Fram
2009 FH 3–0 Breiðablik
2010 KR 2–1 Breiðablik
2011 Valur 3–1 (aet) Fylkir
2012 KR 1–0 Fram
2013 Breiðablik 3–2 Valur
2014 FH 4–1 Breiðablik
2015 Breiðablik 1−0 KA
2016 KR 2−0 Víkingur R.
2017 KR 4–0 Grindavík
2018 Valur 4–2 Grindavík
2019 KR 2–1 ÍA
2020 Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021 Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2022 FH 2–1 Víkingur R.
2023 Valur 1–1 (4-3 p) KA
2024 Breiðablik 4–1 ÍA

Performance by club

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Club Titles Runners-up Winning Year(s)
KR 8 1 1998, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2019
FH 7 1 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2014, 2022
Valur 4 5 2008, 2011, 2018, 2023
Breiðablik 3 4 2013, 2015, 2024
ÍA 3 2 1996, 1999, 2003
Grindavík 1 2 2000
ÍBV 1 0 1997
Fylkir 0 3
Keflavík 0 2
Fram 0 2
Víkingur R. 0 2
KA 0 2
Þróttur 0 1
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