2025 J.League Cup

The 2025 J.League Cup, known as the 2025 J.League YBC Levain Cup (Japanese: 2025 JリーグYBCルヴァンカップ) for sponsorship reasons, is the 33rd edition of J.League Cup, a Japanese association football cup competition. It will be the second season all 60 J.League clubs participates in the League Cup.

Format

All clubs from the 2025 season's J1, J2, and J3 League participates. The tournament is divided into three sections each with a different format: the first round, the play-off round and the prime round.

First round

55 clubs took part in the first round, split into 7 groups. Four clubs will be introduced in the prime round, including: Three clubs participating in the 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite knockout stage (Kawasaki Frontale, Yokohama F. Marinos and Vissel Kobe) and one club participating in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup (Urawa Red Diamonds). Each group and their respective clubs participates in a single-elimination tournament, leaving seven clubs to advance to the play-off round, where they will be joined by 2024–25 AFC Champions League Two quarter-finalists Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The draw for the first round was based on rankings from the 2024 league season. As a general rule, the lower league club played their fixture at home. In the case of clubs being in the same league, the club with the lower ranking from the 2023 season served as the home team. In the case of a draw, games go to extra time and penalties to determine a winner if necessary.

The first round groups are as follows:

Notes

Teams in italic participated in their first J.League Cup tournament.

Playoff round

The seven clubs that qualified from the first round alongside new entrant Sanfrecce Hiroshima, qualified to the round as a AFC Champions League Two club, will be drawn into four, two-legged fixtures and would play each other home and away. The remaining four clubs would advance to the prime round.

Prime round

A single-elimination tournament would be held between eight clubs: the four clubs that qualified from the playoff round plus the AFC Champions League Elite clubs — Kawasaki Frontale, Yokohama F. Marinos, and Vissel Kobe. Each round would be a two-legged home and away fixture, except the final which would be a one-game tie played at a neutral venue. The draw for the brackets will be held some time after the completion of previous rounds.