Competition Overview

The oldest professional football competition in the world, The FA Cup gives the chance for all Association Clubs in England and Wales to be named as the best team of the season. The FA Cup is a competition full of history, glory and memorable matches. The FA Cup is one of the most attractive tournaments in the UK and in the world of football exactly because one can see a match between a team from the highest flight of England’s Football playing against a small club from the lower leagues of the Football Association. The money prizes for the FA Cup are also another attraction, especially for the smaller clubs. They vary from 500 Sterling Pounds to all the 129 winners of the Extra Preliminary Round to the big prize of 1,000,000 Sterling Pounds to be given to the Champions. For all of that the FA Cup Trophy is definitely worth dreaming with.

History

The Football Association Challenge Cup was established in the summer of 1871 as a proposal of FA Honorary Secretary Charles Alcock. The FA Cup started as a competition to be played by all clubs that belonged to the Association.

The first edition had only 15 teams participating and the final match was between Royal Engineers and Wanderers with the latter winning 1-0 to claim the title. The only goal was scored by Morten Peto Betts and is the only goal ever scored in the FA cup final by a ringer.

Wembley Stadium

In 1922 the Wembley Stadium construction project began and one year later, in 1923, the ground received its first game – The FA Cup Final. The game between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United was played under the eyes of an estimate 200,000 spectators that saw Bolton Wanderers raise the Trophy after a 2-0 victory over Wes Ham.

Since then The Wembley Stadium became the official home of the FA Cup Final with the exception of the war years until 2000. Between 2001 and 2006 the stadium underwent severe remodelling and could not host the competition. But in 2007 The FA Cup Final returned to the newly remodelled Wembley Stadium.

Memorable Final Upsets In 1901 Tottenham Hotspur became the first and only non-league team to win the FA Cup. At that time The Spurs were playing in the Southern Division and only achieved the Football League in 1908. Their 3-1 victory on the replay game against First Division’s Sheffield United (the first game finished 2-2) could be compared as to a team from the actual League One beating a team from the Premier League.

In 1927 Cardiff City also became a “one and only” team as the club from Wales became the first one outside England to win the FA Cup after they beat Arsenal 1-0. The Welsh supporters that packed the Wembley Stadium celebrated as the FA Cup Trophy, for the first and only time, was headed outside England.

Sunderland A.F.C. was the protagonist of what is possibly the biggest upset in the FA Cup history. In 1973 the team was playing in the Second Division (compared to today’s Coca Cola Championship) and faced Leeds United in the FA Cup Final. Leeds United were, at that time, in 3rd place in the First Division (today’s Premier League). The underdogs Sunderland AFC won the game 1-0 and took the FA Cup.

In 1976 it was Southampton’s turn to follow Sunderland’s achievement and beat by the same 1-0 score a First Division team to win the FA Cup. The “victim” this time was the powerful Manchester United.

More recently, in 1980, a then modest West Ham United surprised in their only 4th game at the Wembley Stadium ever and became the 99th FA Cup Champions after beating First Division Arsenal by a 1-0 score.

FA Cup 2007

For the 2007 FA Cup 731 teams were accepted into the competition. Out of all those squads Manchester United and Chelsea FC faced each other at the final at Wembley Stadium on May 19th 2007. It was the 126th FA Cup final match and the first time ever that Premiership Champions and the League Cup winners from the same season had faced each other in the finals. Chelsea FC won their first FA Cup since 2000 due to Didier Drogba’s overtime goal.

FA Cup 2008

The 2008 FA Cup final featured Portsmouth against Cardiff City in the second final to be played at Wembley Stadium ever since . This was the first time that the two teams have ever met, as both were competing to win their second ever FA Cup. Cardiff never posed a serious threat, despite having possession of the ball for a good amount of time. The Nigerian Kankwo Kanu scored the game winning goal to give Portsmouth the victory.

FA Cup 2009

The 2009 FA Cup should be another highly anticipated tournament. Teams from all over England will again battle for one of the most prestigious trophies in football. New club teams will emerge as champions and new players will become superstars. Dreams will become fulfilled and hopes will shatter as players will be representing not only their teams but also their home country. Even though the outcome of next years tournament will be impossible to predict, the only thing that is for certain is that there will be drama, chaos and excitement as the best football teams from all over the country of England will compete for honors, pride and the title of FA Cup champions.

Biggest Winners

Upsets are an exception in the FA Cup. Since it’s beginning in 1872 the Football Association Challenge Cup was a competition to give every team a chance to dream big but most of the times a team from the top level took home the trophy.

Manchester United and Arsenal FC lead in number on FA Cup titles with 11 and 10 respectively followed by Tottenham Hotspur with 8 titles, Liverpool and Aston Villa with 7 and Newscastle United and Blackburn Rovers with 6 FA Cup titles each.

In the past 16 years (1992-2006) Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have dominated the FA Cup leaving almost no room for any other club to claim the title. The exception was in 1995 when Everton took the trophy after a 1-0 win over Manchester United. Besides that, the 4 top clubs in England share the remaining 15 cups as follows: Arsenal – 5 titles (1993, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005); Manchester United – 4 titles (1994, 1996, 1999, 2004); Chelsea – 3 titles (1997, 2000, 2007) and Liverpool – 3 titles (1992, 2001, 2006).

Trophy

Team Honours

Past Winners

Most Successful Teams

Important Links

Official competition site: http://www.thefa.com/TheFACup

Official federation / confederation site: http://www.thefa.com

References