Main FA Cup provisions
Official name: The Football Association Challenge Cup
Number of participants: more than 800 (as for 2015)
Since the FA Cup is the oldest football tournament, it was the contest, to which first football rules were applied. The tournament regulations were changed far too many times over its history, but some of their parts have been preserved from the very first days. For example, the Cup has always been played in accordance with the play-off system (in a knockout format). Draw automatically defines each round participants. It also determines the club hosting the first match.
If a team wins in each of the rounds, it moves on to the next stage. In case a draw is fixed, a replay is assigned. Up until 1992 teams had been allowed to conduct any number of replays until a winner identification. Under current rules extra time and a penalty shootout are set in the second leg. At the same time, in the semi-final and final teams meet only once.
The modern FA Cup tournament version presupposes 14 rounds – six qualifying and six regular. The semi-final and final are not considered as rounds. Qualification rounds are held on a regional basis, because it’s not always the case that lower divisions clubs have an opportunity to leave for the other part of the country. The Premier League and Championship teams join the fight at the stage of the third qualifying round.
The first FA Cup matches are organized in mid-August. The final is usually played a week after the end of the national Premier League championship. The exact schedule of the cup rounds is unknown and is compiled merely roughly: the first round in mid-November, the second at the beginning of December, the third on the first weekend of January, the fourth at the end of January. The sixth and final round of the FA Cup is held in mid-February, after which quarter-finals, semifinals and the final are organized with a break of one month.
All teams meeting the FA requirements may take part in the tournament. They must have an appropriate stadium, a license and at least 2-3 players with a professional status. The Premier League and the English Football League teams enter the competition by default. Clubs from the six following divisions enter the tournament automatically only if they participated in the previous competition, otherwise they also need to go through the licensing process.
Welsh clubs without membership in the Welsh Premier League may take part in the FA Cup. Among them one can distinguish “Swansea City”, “Cardiff City”, “Wrexham”, which went to the FA Cup final more than once and even won it. In recent seasons, there is a tendency to increase the number of the FA Cup participants. In 2005, the tournament record was set at 650 participants, and in 2009 their quantity reached 762.
Qualifications and group round matches are held at the home ground of one of the clubs. Draw identifies the host of the match. Replay is carried out on the field of the team that went on a visit in the first match. Since 2008, all semi-finals and finals are held at the Wembley Stadium. Previously, the venues of these tournament stages were determined by the Football Association and, as a rule, these were not the stadiums of one of the teams having reached this tournament stage.
The FA Cup trophy, handed over to a winner in 2015, was manufactured in 1992, thus it’s far from being the oldest trophy in the world. It’s made by the Toye, Kenning and Spencer company and appears to be a replica of the original cup, stored in the FA hall. Ticket sales and TV broadcasts bring main profit from the partaking in the FA Cup. Teams tend to divide the proceeds by half, or in other proportions, negotiated the day before the match. The FA Cup winner gets a ticket to the Europa League. If he ranks 1–5 in the Premier League, the ticket goes to the sixth team of the championship.
