A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the "curtain-raiser" to a season. It is typically contested on a national level by two competition winners of the previous season: the knock-out cup winner and the league winner. There are also continental super cups, like the UEFA Super Cup in football, which puts together two UEFA competition winners. Sometimes these are two-legged ties, with a match played at each side's stadium, but increasingly they are one-off fixtures at a neutral venue, such as a national stadium. Some Super Cups have even been staged in venues outside their home country, such as the Italian, French, Mexican and Turkish games.
If the league champions are also the national cup winners, they may play the runners-up from one of the competitions.
The following nations have an active super cup competition:
Albanian Supercup
Algerian Super Cup
Andorran Supercup
Argentinian Super Cup
Armenian Supercup
Azerbaijan Supercup
Bahraini Super Cup
Bangladesh Super Cup
Belarusian Super Cup
Belgian Supercup
Brunei Super Cup
Bulgarian Supercup
Chilean Supercup
Chinese FA Super Cup
Superliga Colombiana
Supercopa de Costa Rica
Croatian Supercup
Cypriot Super Cup
Czech Supercup
FA Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield)
Egyptian Super Cup
Estonian SuperCup
Faroe Islands Super Cup
Trophée des Champions
Georgian Super Cup
DFL-Supercup
Honduran Supercup
Hong Kong Community Cup
Hungarian Super Cup
Icelandic Super Cup
Indian Super Cup
Indonesian Community Shield
Iraqi Super Cup
Israel Super Cup
Supercoppa Italiana
Japanese Super Cup
Jordan Super Cup
Kazakhstan Super Cup
Kenyan Super Cup and the KPL Top 8 Cup (top 8 teams from previous season)
Kuwait Super Cup
Latvian Supercup
Lebanese Super Cup
Lithuanian Supercup
Macedonian Super Cup
Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Cup
Maldivian FA Charity Shield
Maltese Super Cup
Mauritanian Super Cup
Mexican Super Cup (Campeón de Campeones), Supercopa MX
Moldovan Super Cup
Johan Cruyff Shield
Mesterfinalen
Oman Super Cup
Copa Federación
Polish SuperCup
Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira
President's Cup
Romanian Super Cup
Russian Super Cup
Super Coppa Sammarinese
Saudi Super Cup
Singapore Charity Shield
Slovak Super Cup
Slovenian Supercup
MTN 8 (top 8 teams from previous season)
Supercopa de España
Suriname President's Cup
Tahiti Coupe des Champions
Thailand Champions Cup (Top league champions vs. FA cup winners) (or previously Kor Royal Cup)
Trinidad and Tobago Charity Shield
Turkish Super Cup
Cumhurbaşkanlığı Kupası
Turkmenistan Super Cup
Ukrainian Super Cup
Arabian Gulf Super Cup
Uzbekistan Super Cup
Vietnamese Super Cup
Yemeni Super Cup
In addition, a number of countries have played a national Supercup in the past, but no longer do so:
Austrian Supercup
Super Cup of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazilian Super Cup
Danish Supercup
DFV-Supercup
Greek Super Cup
Iranian Super Cup
Libyan Super Cup
Mongolia Super Cup
Top Four Cup
Superfinalen
Korean Super Cup
Swiss Super Cup
Supercupen
Syrian Super Cup
Thai Super Cup (Top 4 places in last season, 2009 only)
Tunisian Super Cup
USSR Super Cup
Most of the continental football federations also have their own super cups:
AFC: Asian Super Cup (defunct)
CAF: CAF Super Cup
CONMEBOL: Recopa Sudamericana
UEFA: UEFA Super Cup
CIS: Super Cup of Champions (defunct)
Austrian Supercup
Belgian Supercup
Dutch Supercup
French Match des Champions
German BBL Champions Cup
Italian Supercup
Polish Supercup
Portuguese SuperCup
Romanian Supercup
Slovenian Supercup
Spanish Supercup
Turkish President's Cup
FIBA Europe SuperCup Women: contested between the winners of EuroLeague Women and EuroCup Women.
IIHF Super Cup, a defunct ice hockey competition.
The Super Powers Cup was an annual international rugby union competition contested by national teams from Canada, Japan, Russia and United States. In 2005, its name was changed to the Super Cup.
The ADAC Supercup, commonly known as Supercup; a German sportscar racing series held between 1985 and 1989.
Porsche Supercup, an international one make racing series for Porsche 911 Carreras
