The 2025–26 Norwegian Football Cup was the 120th season of the Norwegian annual knock-out football tournament, and the first season since the competition was switched to an autumn–spring format. It started on 13 August 2025, and ended with the final on 9 May 2026.
Initially, the winners were set to play a qualifying play-off match against Lillestrøm – the winners of the 2025 Norwegian Football Cup – for a place in the 2026–27 Europa League play-off round. However, this play-off match will be cancelled as Bodø/Glimt ended up winning the 2025–26 cup; thus, Lillestrøm directly entered the 2026–27 Europa League play-off round.
As a transitional arrangement, the qualifying rounds and the first two main rounds were played without the 16 teams from the 2025 Eliteserien. For the third time in the tournament's history, the clubs from the top tier entered directly into the third round; the first two times were in 1998 and 2000, when there were 14 teams in the highest tier.
Calendar Below are the dates for each round as given by the official schedule (the clubs from Eliteserien entered the competition in the third round): Round Main date Number of fixtures ClubsFirst round 13–14 August 2025 32 64 → 32Second round 27 August 2025 16 32 → 16Third round 17–24 September 2025 16 32 → 16Fourth round 8 March 2026 8 16 → 8Quarter-finals 18 March 2026 4 8 → 4Semi-finals 22 April 2026 2 4 → 2Final 9 May 2026 1 2 → 1
First round The pair-ups for the first round were announced on 30 June 2025. + Number of teams per tier entering this round Eliteserien (1) 1. divisjon (2) 2. divisjon (3) 3. divisjon (4) 4. divisjon (5) Total
Second round The pair-ups for the second round were announced on 14 August 2025. + Number of teams per tier entering this round Eliteserien (1) 1. divisjon (2) 2. divisjon (3) 3. divisjon (4) 4. divisjon (5) Total
Third round The pair-ups for the third round were announced on 27 August 2025. + Number of teams per tier entering this round Eliteserien (1) 1. divisjon (2) 2. divisjon (3) 3. divisjon (4) 4. divisjon (5) Total
Replay
Fourth round The pair-ups for the fourth round were announced on 25 September 2025. + Number of teams per tier entering this round Eliteserien (1) 1. divisjon (2) 2. divisjon (3) 3. divisjon (4) 4. divisjon (5) Total
Quarter-finals The pair-ups for the quarter-finals were announced on 8 March 2026. + Number of teams per tier entering this round Eliteserien (1) 1. divisjon (2) 2. divisjon (3) 3. divisjon (4) 4. divisjon (5) Total
Semi-finals The pair-ups for the semi-finals were announced on 22 March 2026. + Number of teams per tier entering this round Eliteserien (1) 1. divisjon (2) 2. divisjon (3) 3. divisjon (4) 4. divisjon (5) Total
Final
The final was played on 9 May 2026.
Top scorers RankPlayerClubGoals1 Axel AhlanderBjarg4 Andreas HelmersenBodø/Glimt Ole Sebastian SundgotSandnes Ulf416 players3
Notes
References