The Lower Saxony Cup (German: Niedersächsischer Pokal) is an annual football cup competition, held by the Niedersächsischer Fußball-Verband (English: Lower Saxony Football Association) since 1956. For sponsorship reasons, the official name of the competition is Krombacher-Pokal.[1] The Krombacher brewery, sponsor of the competition since 2010, also sponsored, at the time, the cup competitions in Thuringia, Westphalia, Hesse and Rhineland.[2] It is one of the 21 regional cup competitions in Germany and a qualifying competition for the German Cup, with the winner and runners-up of the competition being automatically qualified for the first round of the German Cup in the following season.[3]
The record winners of the competition are VfL Osnabrück with five titles, followed by Sportfreunde Salzgitter with four titles and Kickers Emden, VfL Wolfsburg, and Hannover 96 with three titles each to their name.
The competition is open for all member clubs of the Lower Saxony FA playing in the 3. Liga, Regionalliga Nord and Niedersachsenliga. Additionally, the four regional cup winners in the state are also qualified. Reserve teams are not permitted to compete anymore. Regardless of which club has been drawn first, clubs from a lower league will always have home advantage when playing a club from a higher league. In case of a draw after regular time, no extra time is played and the game instead decided by a penalty shoot out. The two cup finalists automatically qualify for the first round of the German Cup.[4]
The winners of the competition:[1]