The FA Cup - England’s Most Famous Soccer Competition

​The FA Cup (Football Association Challenge Cup) is a yearly knockout tournament in English domestic soccer. Notably, it is the world’s oldest domestic soccer competition and one of England’s most prestigious soccer championships.

The tournament runs from August to May. Over the years it has had different names, each based on the entity sponsoring it. As of 2025, it is called the Emirates FA Cup, with UAE-based airline Emirates being the main sponsor. And while its name often changes, its formatting has remained constant.

Dating back to 1871 when the competition kicked off and Wanderers Football Club won the inaugural event, the FA Cup has taken place every year aside from the seasons that collided with World War I and World War II. During its infancy, soccer had inconsistent rules and teams mostly comprised friends, university teams, and private schools playing in makeshift settings like muddy fields.

The Football Association (FA), the world’s oldest soccer association, was founded in 1863. The association’s management, including then secretary Charles Alcock, wanted to change how teams organized and played the competition, seeing that it was an amateur sport at the time. Consequently, the FA introduced a knockout system, leading to the first FA Cup during the 1871-1872 season.

The competition has grown in popularity since then. It is open to any soccer team playing in the English soccer league system, a network of linked leagues for men’s association soccer clubs in England. The tournament later opened up to Welsh teams, with Cardiff City becoming the first team from outside England to win the competition in 1927.

Since the tournament allows teams from different soccer tiers to compete there are over 700 teams involved, ranging from elite teams in the Premier League, the FA’s top-tier league, to part-time non-league sides. This makes the FA Cup a unique soccer competition because teams from low divisions play against top clubs, and sometimes win. Indeed, this blend of inclusivity and unpredictability, a phenomenon dubbed “the magic of the FA Cup,” gives the tournament much of its appeal.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) sets the rules that the FA Cup follows. These rules dictate aspects like the number of players per team, field dimensions, and play duration. While the IFAB sets standard soccer rules followed by soccer leagues and tournaments worldwide, some regulations specifically apply to the FA Cup.

To begin, several rounds take place between August and May. The FA announces the dates for each round. Two preliminary rounds start off the tournament in August, where teams from low tiers, specifically levels 8 to 10 of the English soccer league system, play against each other in a single-elimination match. In the case of a draw, a replay takes place with the team originally drawn as the away side hosting the replay at their home ground.

The winners in these rounds proceed to compete against teams in levels 5 to 7 in four qualifying rounds that lead to a major phase of the tournament, called the “first round proper,” that begins in November. During this stage, teams from levels 3 and 4 - League One and League Two teams - enter the stage. However, national and global attention gains momentum from January when Championship - the second-tier league - and Premier League teams enter the competition.

From this point, the tournament follows the common soccer knockout path, featuring a round of 32, a round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final. From 2024, all matches from the first round proper, even in the semifinals, are now settled in a single game, as replays have been eliminated. This means there will be extra time added and possibly a penalty shoot-out in case of a draw. The final takes place in May at Wembley Stadium in London.

Various English teams have won the FA Cup over the years. North London side Arsenal holds the record for the most titles, with 14 to their name. Other notable winners include Manchester United with 13 titles, and Liverpool, Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur with 8 titles each.

Reed Harradine

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