FA Cup

Region: England & Wales
Teams: 750+
Founded: 1871

The FA Cup is the oldest and most prestigious domestic knock out tournament in the world. Entry to the tournament is open to all six tiers of English football, allowing the minnows of English football to pit their skills against some of the most richest and most successful clubs on the planet. The FA Cup is recognised as one of three major tournaments contested annually by English clubs, along with the Premier League and Champions League.

Winners qualify for the UEFA Europa League
The enduring popularity of the FA Cup is based on the fact that even the lowest ranked teams in the poorest performing tier in English and Welsh football have an equal chance of winning the tournament and at the same time, qualifying for the UEFA Europa League. It is not unusual for clubs from the lower tiers of English football to meet big-name clubs in the latter stages of the tournament, and this has produced some of the biggest upsets in English football history.

Match participants and venues for each stage of the tournament are selected in a televised random draw. Unlike most other tournaments, where goal difference and goals scored will determine the outcome in the case of a draw, teams that end the game in a draw are required to meet again for a replay, generally at the ground of the team that played away in the original match.

FA Cup schedule
The competition is huge, with over 750 teams competing in a total of 14 rounds – 6 qualifying rounds, 6 knock-out rounds, the semis and final. The FA Cup schedule runs according to a long-established schedule:

  • In August the competition kicks off with three rounds contested by the lowest ranked clubs in England – the extra preliminary round, the preliminary round and the 1st qualifying round. This is followed by qualifying rounds 2 to 4
  • The first round proper takes place in mid-November, followed by
  • The second round, contested on either the first or second Saturday in December
  • The third round is played on the last week-end in January and
  • The fourth round later in the same month
  • The fifth round is decided in mid-February, followed by the quarter-finals in mid-March
  • The semi finals take place in mid-April and the long-awaited final of the FA Cup kicks off on the first Saturday after the culmination of the Premier League in May.

Team Eligibility
All Premier League and Football League teams are automatically eligible for the event, so too are any clubs in the remaining 6 tiers of English football as long as they have contested the FA Cup, the FA Trophy or the FA Vase in the preceding season.

Teams at the upper end of the English league system do not have to contest all of the rounds. The 48 clubs from League 1 and 2, for instance, miss out on the qualifying rounds and join the fray in the first round proper, whereas the clubs from the Premier League and the Football League Championship enter the cup competition in the third round.