Nigeria Federation Cup

The Nigeria Federation Cup is the main football single-elimination tournament in Nigeria contested by 74 teams, representing the 36 states and the FCT of Nigeria. It is the Nigerian domestic cup and the Nigerian equivalent of the FA Cup, Emperor's Cup, Copa do Brasil, Coupe de France, and Hrvatski nogometni kup, among others. The tournament was created in 1945 as the "Governor's Cup",^[1] succeeding the War Memorial Challenge Cup that had been limited to teams from Lagos.

Federation Cup

Founded	1942
Number of teams	74
Qualifier for	Nigeria Super Cup CAF Confederation Cup
Current champions	Kwara United (1st title)
Most successful club(s)	Shooting Stars FC (8 titles)
2025 Nigeria Federation Cup

The tournament, as the Governor's Cup, was initially dominated by Lagosian teams, later it was known as the Nigeria FA Cup from (1954–1959), Nigeria Challenge Cup (1960–1998), Coca-Cola FA Cup (1999–2008) and Nigeria Federation Cup (2009–2016). Between 2017 and 2022, the competition was sponsored by the AITEO group and known as the AITEO Cup including the women's tournament.^[2]

On 8 August 2021, Bayelsa became the first state to have two clubs win the FA cup in the men's and women's editions in the same year.^[3] Shooting Stars are the most successful club, having won the competition eight times, followed by the defunct Lagos Railways with 7 titles and Enugu Rangers with six titles.

Kwara United are the current champions, with the 2024 tournament victory giving them their maiden Nigeria FA Cup title.

Format

The competition is a single elimination knockout tournament featuring 74 teams from the 36 states and 1 from the FCT in Nigeria. All clubs qualify via their states cup championships, the winners and runners-up of each state cup championship qualifies for the tournament regardless of their position at the Nigerian football league system. A 'Rookie' play-off will be held for the 20 lowest ranked clubs, the 10 winners then joins the remaining 54 at the first round. All matches are held at neutral venues.

The winner qualifies automatically for the next season's CAF Confederation Cup or the runners-up if the winner had already qualified for a CAF club competition based on league's position.

Finals

Year	Winners	Score	Runners-up
War Memorial Challenge Cup
1942	ZAC Bombers	1–0	Services
1943	Lagos Marine	3–2	RAF
1944	Lagos Railways	2–0	Marine
1945	Lagos Railways	1–1 (4–1)	Lagos United
Governors Cup
1945	Marine	1–0	Corinthians
1946	Lagos Railways	3–1	Port Harcourt FC
1947	Marine	3–1	Lagos Railways
1948	Lagos Railways	1–0	Warri
1949	Lagos Railways	3–0	Port Harcourt FC
1950	Lagos UAC	3–2	Port Harcourt FC
1951	Lagos Railways	3–2	Jos Plateau Highlanders
1952	Lagos PAN Bank	6–0	Warri
1953	Kano Pillars	2–1	Lagos Dynamos
FA Cup
1954	St. Patrick's College	3–0	Kano Pillars
1955	Port Harcourt FC	4–1	Warri
1956	Lagos Railways	3–1	Warri
1957	Lagos Railways	5–1	Zaria
1958	Port Harcourt FC	6–0	Federal United
1959	Ibadan Lions	1–0	Police
Challenge Cup
1960	Lagos ECN	5–2	Ibadan Lions
1961	Ibadan Lions	1–0	Lagos UAC
1962	Police	1–0	Jos Plateau Highlanders
1963	Port Harcourt FC	1–0	Jos Plateau Highlanders
1964	Lagos Railways	3–1	Jos Plateau Highlanders
1965	Lagos ECN	3–1	Jos Plateau Highlanders
1966	Ibadan Lions	w/o	Jos Plateau Highlanders
1967	Stationery Stores	3–1	Jos Plateau Highlanders
1968	Stationery Stores	3–1 (replay)	Plateau United
1969	Ibadan Lions	5–1	Warri
1970	Lagos ECN	3–1	Mighty Jets
1971	WNDC Ibadan	2–1	Enugu Rangers
1972	Bendel Insurance	2–2 (3–2 replay)	Mighty Jets
1973	No competition
1974	Enugu Rangers	2–0	Mighty Jets
1975	Enugu Rangers	1–0	Shooting Stars
1976	Enugu Rangers	2–0	Alyufsalam Rocks
1977	Shooting Stars	2–0	Racca Rovers
1978	Bendel Insurance	3–0	Enugu Rangers
1979	Shooting Stars	2–0	Sharks FC
1980	Bendel Insurance	1–0	Stationery Stores
1981	Enugu Rangers	2–0	Bendel Insurance
1982	Stationery Stores	4–1	Niger Tornadoes
1983	Enugu Rangers	0–0 (5–4 p)	DIC Bees
1984	Leventis United	1–0	Abiola Babes
1985	Abiola Babes	0–0 (6–5 p)	BCC Lions
1986	Leventis United	1–0	Abiola Babes
1987	Abiola Babes	1–1 (7–6 p)	Ranchers Bees
1988	Iwuanyanwu Nationale	3–0	Flash Flamingoes
1989	BCC Lions	1–0	Iwuanyanwu Nationale
1990	Stationery Stores	0–0 (5–4 p)	Enugu Rangers
1991	El-Kanemi Warriors	3–2	Kano Pillars
1992	El-Kanemi Warriors	1–0	Stationery Stores
1993	BCC Lions	1–0	Plateau United
1994	BCC Lions	1–0	Julius Berger
1995	Shooting Stars	2–0	Katsina United
1996	Julius Berger	1–0 (a.p.)	Katsina United
1997	BCC Lions	1–0	Katsina United
1998	Wikki Tourists	0-0(a.e.t.)(3–2 p)	Plateau United
Coca-Cola FA Cup
1999	Plateau United	1–0	Iwuanyanwu Nationale
2000	Niger Tornadoes	1–0	Enugu Rangers
2001	Dolphins FC	2–0	El-Kanemi Warriors
2002	Julius Berger	3–0	Yobe Desert Stars
2003	Lobi Stars	2–0	Sharks FC
2004	Dolphins FC	1–0	Enugu Rangers
2005	Enyimba	1–1(a.e.t.)(6–5 p)	Lobi Stars
2006	Dolphins FC	2-2(a.e.t.)(5–3 p)	Bendel Insurance
2007	Dolphins FC	1–1(a.e.t.)(3–2 p)	Enugu Rangers
2008	Ocean Boys	2–2 (a.e.t.)(7–6 p)	Gombe United
Federation Cup
2009	Enyimba	1–0	Sharks FC
2010	Kaduna United	3–3 (a.e.t.)(3–2 p)	Enyimba
2011	Heartland	1–0	Enyimba
2012	Heartland	2–1	Lobi Stars
2013	Enyimba	2–2 (a.e.t.) (5–4 p)	Warri Wolves
2014	Enyimba	2–1	Dolphins FC
2015	Akwa United	2–1	Lobi Stars
2016	Ifeanyi Ubah	0–0 (5–4 p)	Nasarawa United[4]
2017	Akwa United	0–0 (3–2 p)	Niger Tornadoes[5]
2018	Enugu Rangers	3–3 (4–3 p)	Kano Pillars[6]
2019	Kano Pillars	0–0 (4–3 p)	Niger Tornadoes
2020	Cancelled[a]
2021	Bayelsa United	2–2 (4–3 p)	Nasarawa United
2022	Abandoned at the quarter-finals
2023	Bendel Insurance	1–0	Enugu Rangers
2024	El-Kanemi Warriors	2–0	Abia Warriors
2025	Kwara United	0–0 (4–3 p)	Abakaliki

1. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Total (not including War Memorial Cup)

Club	Titles
Shooting Stars (Ibadan) [includes Ibadan Lions and WNDC]	8
Lagos Railways (Lagos)	8
Enugu Rangers (Enugu)	6
Bendel Insurance (Benin City)	4
BCC Lions (Gboko)	4
Dolphins FC (Port-Harcourt) [formerly known as Eagle Cement]	4
Stationery Stores (Lagos)	4
Enyimba (Aba)	4
El-Kanemi Warriors (Maiduguri)	3
Iwuanyanwu Nationale/Heartland (Owerri)	3
Lagos ECN (Lagos) (later renamed NEPA)	3
Port Harcourt FC (Port Harcourt)	3
Kano Pillars (Kano)	2
Abiola Babes (Abeokuta)	2
Akwa United (Uyo)	2
Julius Berger (Lagos)	2
Leventis United (Ibadan)	2
Marine (Lagos)	2
St Patrick's College (Calabar)	1
Ifeanyi Ubah (Nnewi)	1
Kaduna United (Kaduna)	1
Lagos PAN Bank (Lagos)	1
Lagos UAC (Lagos)	1
Lobi Stars (Makurdi)	1
Niger Tornadoes (Minna)	1
Ocean Boys (Brass)	1
Plateau United (Jos)	1
Police (Lagos)	1
Wikki Tourists (Bauchi)	1
Bayelsa United (Yenagoa)	1
Kwara United (Ilorin)	1