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The Setanta Sports Cup, commonly known as the '''Setanta Cup''', is a club Football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland . It was inaugurated in 2005 as a cross-border competition between clubs from the FAI League Of Ireland from the Republic Of Ireland and the Irish League from Northern Ireland . The cup is sponsored by Setanta Sports , the Irish sports Television Network . The competition was launched with Setanta providing support for prize money ( € 350,000) and sponsorship (€1.6 million over 4 years). The competition features 4 teams from each league with the winners and runners-up of the respective leagues, the winners of the respective major cup competitions, FAI Cup , and Irish Cup , and the winners of the respective secondary cup competitions, the Eircom League Cup and Northern Ireland League Cup being added. If a club has qualified via a cup win and would also qualify by league table position, one of the spots would be awarded to the next highest club in the league table that has not qualified via a cup win. However, this was ignored in Setanta's awarding of Shelbourne's spot in the 2007 competition to St. Patrick's Athletic , when, in fact, going by the rules of entry, it should have been awarded to Sligo Rovers . The competition is organised with two groups of four teams, semi-finals and a final. HISTORY The Setanta Cup is the first cross-border competition since the 1980s. Previous competitions included the Dublin And Belfast Intercity Cup 1941/42-1948/49, the North-South Cup 1961/62-1962/63, the Blaxnit Cup 1967/68-1973/74, the Texaco Cup 1973/74-1974/75, and the Tyler Cup 1978-1980. Previous tournaments ultimately failed due to a lack of interest and security concerns. The foundation and success of this tournament has been largely due to the improving security situation and the lessening of sectarian tensions throughout the whole island of Ireland, aided by the Northern Ireland Peace Process . The inaugural Cup was played between March 15 and May 21 2005 at the start of the League of Ireland season and the end of the Irish Premier League season. 2005 Qualification for the 2005 cup was based on the national league and cup performances in the respective countries - the top two in each league and the winners of the FAI Cup and Irish Cup qualified. Teams were split into two groups with the winner of each qualifying for the final. The 2005 competition saw Cork City , Longford and Shelbourne , represent the League of Ireland, and Glentoran , Linfield and Portadown represent the Irish League. With a large financial prize and bragging rights at stake the 2005 Cup was a very competitive and combative affair. On the field there were many controversial moments with erratic and inconsistent match official decisions adding to the already charged atmosphere. But while tempers may have flared among players and club staff, the fans themselves showed that sets of supporters from both sides of the border weren't a security risk. The eventual winners of the Cup, Linfield, started the campaign poorly losing 2:1 to Longford before going on to win their remaining group matches and beating pre-tournament favourites Shelbourne . Group 1 Group 2 Final (played at Tolka Park , Dublin } 2006 The 2006 competition featured 4 teams from each league with the winners of the respective secondary cup competitions, the Eircom League Cup and Northern Ireland League Cup being added. The competition was organised with two groups of four teams. The top two teams in each group entered a semi-final round with the winner progressing to the final. For the 2006 competition the number of participating clubs was expanded from six to eight, four from each league. The League of Ireland was represented by Cork City , Derry City , Shelbourne and Drogheda United with the Irish Premier League being represented by Linfield , Glentoran , Portadown and Dungannon Swifts A total of 27 matches were played with the competition kicking off on Monday 20 February 2006 with the final having been played on Saturday 22 April 2006 at Tolka Park in Dublin . Group 1 Group 2 Semi-finals:
Final:
2007 The draw for the 2007 Setanta Cup competition was made on 07 December , 2006 with the original competing teams being the identical ones to the previous year's competition. On the 30 January , 2007 , however, Shelbourne FC announced that they were withdrawing from the competition for reasons relating to their financial troubles and the fact that they would be unlikely to field a team of players. Their place was given to the 2006 FAI Cup runners-up to Derry City FC , St Patrick's Athletic FC , despite the fact that the next best-placed in the previous season's league (Shelbourne's qualification route), who did not have a place in the Setanta Cup already, were Sligo Rovers . While it is likely that the organisers transferred Derry, who finished second in the league, into Shelbourne's empty slot, first in the league, for the purpose of official qualification and then accorded St Pat's qualification by way of the FAI Cup, this would have logically entailed Derry moving into Group 2 to fill Shelbourne's place, while St. Patrick's should compete in Group 1 in the place of the moved Derry. However, it is possible that for the purposes of the initial draw, teams were accorded lots on an alphabetical basis. Thus, it would follow that St. Patrick's would have been assigned the same lot as Shelbourne and would have, as a result, been drawn in the same slot anyway. The first round of matches commenced on Monday 26 February , 2007 . The prize of £100,000 was on offer to the eventual competition winner, with the runner-up to receive £55,000. Linfield progressed from the first stage after finishing top of Group 1, guarenteeing them a home semi-final, while Drogheda United finished behind them. This meant that Drogheda had to travel away from home to meet the winners of Group 2, who were St. Patrick's Athletic. Meanwhile, Cork City, who finished second in Group 2 had to travel to Windsor Park to play Linfield. Both Linfield and St. Patrick's Athletic went through the group stage without a single defeat, while St. Patrick's Athletic even managed to win five of their six games. The final, between Linfield and Drogheda at Windsor Park was decided by a penalty shoot-out. Drogheda claimed the trophy for a second consecutive year thanks to two penalty saves from Mikko Vilmunen . Group 1 score-card and table: ''The home team is listed in the left hand column of the score-card. Group 2 score-card and table: Knock-out stage:
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