The FA Cup

The FA Cup is run by the Football Association — the governing body of English football — and is open to hundreds of clubs across the professional leagues and the National League System. That means a club from the National League South, two divisions below League Two, can in theory draw and beat a Premier League side. The competition uses a single-elimination knockout format: qualifying-round ties can still involve replays, but from the first round proper onwards each tie is decided on the day.

The first edition was played in 1871-72, when Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers in the final. The tournament has been suspended only during the two World Wars. The current trophy design dates to 1911, although the physical trophy itself has been replaced more than once. The FA Cup final has been associated with Wembley Stadium since 1923, with a temporary move to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff between 2001 and 2006 while Wembley was being rebuilt.

The competition begins in August with the extra-preliminary round for the smallest clubs in the tournament. The early rounds — the extra-preliminary, preliminary, first qualifying, second qualifying, third qualifying, and fourth qualifying rounds — gradually narrow the field of lower-tier and non-league clubs down to those that will enter the proper rounds. The first round proper, played in November, includes the 48 clubs from League One and League Two plus the qualifying-round survivors. The second round, played in December, narrows the field further.

The third round in early January is the moment when the competition catches the wider football world's attention. All 20 Premier League clubs and all 24 Championship clubs enter at this point, alongside the 32 survivors from the earlier rounds. The third-round draw, held in December, is a televised event and produces the season's most-anticipated FA Cup match-ups. The fourth round follows in late January, then the fifth round in February, quarter-finals in March, semi-finals at Wembley in April, and the final at Wembley in May.

Replays were once one of the FA Cup's most distinctive features. They gave smaller clubs the chance of an extra home match against bigger opposition and produced some of the competition's most famous nights. From the 2024-25 season, however, replays were removed from the first round proper onwards. Qualifying-round ties can still involve replays, but competition-proper ties are now settled on the day.

In the competition proper, a drawn match goes to extra time and then penalties if the score is still level. The same rules apply to the final, which since 1999 has always been decided on the day rather than going to a replay if drawn. Penalty shoot-outs have decided three FA Cup finals: Arsenal beat Manchester United in 2005, Liverpool beat West Ham United in 2006, and Liverpool beat Chelsea in 2022.

The FA Cup is integrated into the English football calendar across the whole season. The qualifying rounds run from August to October, the first and second rounds in November and December, the third to fifth rounds across January and February, the quarter-finals in March, the semi-finals in April, and the final in May. Premier League and Championship clubs enter the competition relatively late, only at the third round, but smaller clubs can play several matches before reaching that stage.

FA Cup matches are usually played on weekends, with several rounds given dedicated windows in the football calendar. The third-round weekend in early January is one of the most distinctive in English football, when Premier League and Championship clubs enter and many major clubs face lower-league or non-league opposition. Under the current calendar, the final is held on the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season, on an exclusive Saturday with no Premier League fixtures on the same day.

The winner of the FA Cup qualifies automatically for the next UEFA Europa League. If the FA Cup winner has already qualified for Europe through another route, the Europa League place passes to the next-highest Premier League finisher who has not already qualified for a UEFA competition. This rule can lift a league-placed club into Europe through the FA Cup winner's domino effect.

The FA Cup winner also qualifies for the Community Shield the following August, the one-off match against the Premier League champion that opens the new season. If the same club wins both the Premier League and the FA Cup in the same season — the "double" — the Community Shield is contested between that club and the Premier League runners-up.

The FA Cup was proposed in July 1871 by Charles Alcock, the secretary of the Football Association, as a competition open to all the FA's member clubs. Fifteen clubs entered the first edition, played in 1871-72, and Wanderers — a club of former public schoolboys based in London — won the inaugural final 1-0 against the Royal Engineers at the Oval cricket ground in Kennington. The competition has been held in most seasons since, with breaks during the two World Wars.

The early decades of the competition were dominated by wealthy amateur clubs from the south of England. With the development of professional football from 1885 onwards, the balance shifted to the professional clubs of the north and midlands. The competition's prestige grew through the 20th century, and the final became one of the most-watched sporting events in Britain — for several decades, the FA Cup final was the only domestic football match shown live on television each year. The competition has remained a significant part of the English football calendar through the rise of the Premier League and the changes in the wider game.

The Women's FA Cup, founded in 1970, is the women's equivalent and has grown in profile alongside the women's game. Its final has been held at Wembley since 2015 and is now one of the biggest annual fixtures in the English women's domestic calendar. Chelsea is the most successful women's FA Cup club in the modern era. The FA Youth Cup, founded in 1952, is contested by under-18 teams from the academies of clubs across the English pyramid; Manchester United are the most successful FA Youth Cup club, with multiple titles across the competition's history.