The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Inaugurated in 1881, it is the fourth-oldest national cup competition in the world. Prior to the break-away from the Irish Football Association by clubs from what would become the Irish Free State in 1921, the Irish Cup was the national cup competition for the whole of Ireland. Since 30 November 2021, the cup has been sponsored by Samuel Gelston's Irish Whiskey. It was previously sponsored by Nationwide Building Society, Bass Ireland Ltd, JJB Sports, Tennent's Lager and Sadler's Peaky Blinder. 126 clubs entered the 2018–19 competition. Crusaders are the current holders, after they defeated Ballymena United 2–1 in the 2022 final to win the competition for a 5th time. Format During the cup's history, different formats and rules have been used in respect of eligibility to enter the competition, the number of teams and rounds, replays, extra time, penalties, etc. The competition is open to all IFA-affiliated clubs with intermediate or senior status. Clubs obtain such status by meeting minimum criteria laid down by the IFA in respect of facilities, etc. Each club, for example, must have its own enclosed ground. The competition usually begins in August or September with the first qualifying round, and ends with the final in May of the following year. Clubs from level 3 (the NIFL Premier Intermediate League) and all regional league entrants from level 4 and below enter in the first qualifying round. These clubs play against each other over four qualifying rounds, until 8 clubs remain. The 8 fourth qualifying round winners then join the 24 senior clubs from levels 1 and 2 of the Northern Ireland Football League in the first round of the main competition, which consists of 32 clubs and is played in January. The competition has always been played in a randomly-drawn knock-out format. Depending on the number of entrants, the draw sometimes necessitates byes in the earlier rounds. If a team receives a bye, they automatically get drawn first in the following round to avoid the possibility of a team receiving multiple byes. The team drawn first from each tie hosts the match, except in the case of an intermediate team from level 3 or below being drawn first against a senior