Viaplay Cup draw: Fife derby among group stage highlights as 7 Premiership clubs learn fate

The Viaplay Cup group-stage draw has been made for the start of the 2023-24 season. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Cinch League One champions Dunfermline will get an early chance to face one of their Championship opponents in Group F, which also features Kilmarnock, Annan and Albion Rovers.

Dundee United will face a good early test of Championship standard after being drawn in a group containing Premiership play-off runners-up Partick Thistle. St Johnstone will face Ayr for the second year running after both failed to get out of their group last time out.

St Mirren find themselves in an Angus-dominated group alongside Arbroath, Montrose and Forfar along with Cowdenbeath, who were invited to take part despite finishing 15th in the Lowland League.

Dundee face two Championship sides in Inverness and Airdrie while Motherwell will take on Elgin after the Scottish Professional Football League scrapped the regionalised nature of the group stage.

The fixture list is still to be devised but ties will start on the weekend of July 15-16 and be staged over two midweeks and three weekends.

The eight group winners plus the three runners-up with the best records will join European qualifiers Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibernian in the second round.

Viaplay Cup draw in full:

Group A – St Johnstone, Ayr, Alloa, Stirling, Stenhousemuir.

Group B – Dundee United, Partick Thistle, Falkirk, Peterhead, Spartans.

Group C – Livingston, Hamilton, Cove Rangers, Clyde, Brechin.

Group D – Ross County, Morton, Edinburgh, Kelty Hearts, Stranraer.

Group E – Dundee, Inverness, Airdrie, Dumbarton, Bonnyrigg Rose.

Group F – Kilmarnock, Raith Rovers, Dunfermline, Annan, Albion Rovers.

Group G – Motherwell, Queen’s Park, Queen of the South, East Fife, Elgin.

Group H – St Mirren, Arbroath, Montrose, Forfar, Cowdenbeath.