When Aberdeen and Hibs will learn Premier Sports Cup opponents as draw and fixture dates announced

The draw for the Premier Sports Cup group stage will take place later this month as Aberdeen and Hibs are two of seven Premiership clubs in the hat.

The competition kicks off as usual in early July with Celtic, Rangers, Hearts and the other two sides who qualify for Europe to sit out the group phase.

The Premiership 's bottom six will definitely go in as will one of Dundee United, Ross County and Motherwell.

They'll be joined by the 30 teams in the Championship, League One and League Two as well as Highland League sides Fraserburgh and Buckie Thistle and Lowland League champions Bonnyrigg Rose.

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The draw for the group stage will be made on 25 May with the tournament kicking off two weeks later on 9 July.

The 40 clubs will be divided into eight groups of five on a seeded basis with details to follow as the draw approaches.

But a change from previous seasons, there will be NO north-south divide with regionalisation scrapped from 2022/23.

Due to the winter World Cup in Qatar, the second and third rounds take place earlier than usual in order to fit them in before club football goes on ice in November.

The second round takes place on the midweek of 30 August while the quarter-finals are set for the