2021–22 Coupe de France

2021–22 Coupe de France

Tournament details
Country	France
Dates	27 June 2021 – 7 May 2022
Teams	7,307
Defending champions	Paris Saint-Germain
Final positions
Champions	Nantes (4th title)
Runner-up	Nice
Tournament statistics
Top goal scorer(s)	Tolu Arokodare Mohamed Ben Fredj Wissam Ben Yedder Ludovic Blas Kylian Mbappé Arkadiusz Milik (5 goals each)[1]
← 2020–21 2022–23 →

The 2021–22 Coupe de France was the 105th season of the main football cup competition of France. The competition was organised by the French Football Federation (FFF) and was open to all clubs in French football, as well as clubs from the overseas departments and territories (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Réunion, Saint Martin, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon).

The competition returned largely to the format of 2019–20 after the changes last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France. However, on 21 October 2021 it was announced that New Caledonia would not be represented in the competition due to the situation in that territory.

Paris Saint-Germain were the defending champions, but were knocked out in the round of 16 by Nice on penalties. In the final on 7 May, Nantes beat Nice 1–0 to claim their fourth Coupe de France title.^[2][3]

Dates for the first two qualifying round, and any preliminaries required, were set by the individual Regional leagues. From round three, the FFF defined the calendar, with rounds up to and including the round of 32 being scheduled for weekends. The later rounds up to, but not including, the final, taking place on midweek evenings. The final was originally scheduled for Saturday 8 May 2022, but moved to 7 May 2022.^[4][5]

Round	Dates
Third round	18–19 September 2021
Fourth round	2–3 October 2021
Fifth round	16–17 October 2021
Sixth round	30–31 October 2021
Seventh round	13–14 November 2021
Eighth round	27–28 November 2021
Round of 64	16–19 December 2021
Round of 32	2–4 January 2022
Round of 16	28–31 January 2022
Quarter-finals	8–10 February 2022
Semi-finals	1–2 March 2022
Final	7 May 2022

After gaining a second seventh-round spot last season, Mayotte lost it this season, due to the FFF ruling that there were no stadia in the territory of the standard required to host a seventh-round match. The single qualifying team from Mayotte would therefore play its seventh-round match in mainland France.^[6]

After a DNCG ruling excluding Niort from the 2021–22 competition,^[7] only 19 Ligue 2 teams entered at the seventh-round stage.^[6]

The number of teams qualifying from each region returned to those of the 2019–20 competition, with adjustments to account for the above two points, i.e. 146 rather than 144 mainland teams qualified for the seventh round.^[6]

On 21 October 2021, it was announced that no team from New Caledonia would be present in the seventh round, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in New Caledonia, and the imposition of lockdown until 31 October 2021.^[8]

On 31 December 2021, due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases, the FFF suspended the competition rule which mandated that teams must field seven players who participated in one of the last two matches, in order to avoid potential postponements. From the Round of 32, teams may field any number of players from their reserve or youth teams.^[9]

The first six rounds, and any preliminaries required, were organised by the Regional Leagues and the Overseas Territories, who allowed teams from within their league structure to enter at any point up to the third round. Teams from Championnat National 3 entered at the third round, those from Championnat National 2 entered at the fourth round and those from Championnat National entered at the fifth round.^[10]

The number of teams entering at each qualifying round was as follows:

Region	Prelim	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth
Nouvelle-Aquitaine		592	81	12	4	0
Pays de la Loire		482	9	34	2	3
Centre-Val de Loire	50	109	67	10	6	2
Corsica			4	26	0	1
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté		324	58	12	1	0
Grand Est		820	70	54	3	1
Méditerranée	30	185	14	6	7	0
Occitanie		424	66	11	3	1
Hauts-de-France		818	187	10	2	2
Normandy		318	59	11	2	1
Brittany		578	105	11	4	2
Paris IDF		360	102	9	9	2
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes		836	58	38	8	3
Réunion					16	0
Mayotte	32	48	0	0	0	0
Guadeloupe						8
Martinique						8
French Guiana			2	31	0	0
Saint Pierre and Miquelon		2	1[a]
Total	112	5896	883	275	67	34

The 146 qualifiers from the Regional Leagues were joined by the 10 qualifiers from the Overseas Territories and 19 eligible 2021–22 Ligue 2 teams. The qualifiers from Réunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana play off in internal matches.^[6]

The winners of the seventh round matches in Guadeloupe and Martinique played their eighth round matches at home against teams from mainland France. Should the team from Tahiti win their seventh round match, they would also play a home game against a team from mainland France. On 2 November 2021 a draw took place to prioritise the list of National, National 2 and National 3 clubs who had put themselves forward as candidates for overseas travel. The highest prioritised team which qualifies for the eighth round will travel to Guadeloupe, the second highest will travel to Martinique and the third highest will travel to Tahiti if required.^[14]

The 44 qualifying teams from Round 8 were joined by the 20 2021–22 Ligue 1 teams. 32 ties were drawn in regional groups.^[6]

Later rounds are open draws with no regional grouping.

Due to there being no New Caledeonia team in the seventh round draw, a mainland team were awarded a bye to the eighth round.

• The seventh round in Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Réunion took place between the two qualifying teams from each territory, and are pre-drawn by the local league.^[15]
• Teams were divided into ten groups, by geography and to ensure the groups are balanced in terms of the levels of the teams. The teams from Tahiti and Mayotte were included in groups E and I respectively. An exempt ball was included in group J.^[16]

The main draw was carried out on 3 November 2021.^[21] Ties will be played on 12, 13 and 14 November 2021.^[22] Several ties were played at alternate stadia due to the stadium of the home clubs not being of sufficient standard.

PD Ergué-Gabéric (6) were drawn as the team given a bye into the eighth round.

The eighth round draw was pre-determined at the same time as the seventh-round draw.^[40] Groupings were carried forward from the seventh round, with the mainland teams travelling for overseas ties replaced by overseas teams that were travelling to the mainland.^[41]