Middle Rhine Cup


The Middle Rhine Cup is a German football club Cup competition open to teams from the Lower Rhine region of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The competition is one of the 21 regional cup competitions of German football and acts as a qualifier to the following seasons' German Cup.
The competition is sponsored by the Bitburger brewery and carries the official name Bitburger Mittelrheinpokal. It is operated by the Middle Rhine Football Association, the FVM.

Modus

Clubs from fully professional leagues are not permitted to enter the competition, meaning, no teams from the Fußball-Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga can compete.
All clubs from the Middle Rhine playing in the 3. Liga and the Regionalliga West are directly qualified for the first round, the remaining places are filled with the teams who qualified from local cup competitions, the Kreispokale. All up, 32 clubs take part in the first round of the competition.
Since the establishment of the 3. Liga in 2008, reserve teams can not take part in the German Cup or the Middle Rhine Cup anymore.

Winners

The winners of the competition since 1993:
ClubWinsYears
Bayer Leverkusen II51996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2007
Alemannia Aachen51993, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2019
FC Viktoria Köln42014, 2015, 2016, 2018
TSV Germania Windeck32009, 2010, 2011
1. FC Köln Amateure31995, 2004, 2005
Alemannia Aachen II22002, 2006
Bonner SC12017
SC Fortuna Köln12013
FC Hennef 0512012
FC Wegberg-Beeck12008
Blau-Weiß Brühl12001