FA Cup

Also known as Football Association Challenge Cup

annual knockout football competition

AI overview

The FA Cup is an annual knockout football competition in which teams are eliminated after losing a single match until one champion remains. It's one of the oldest and most prestigious football tournaments, historically important to the sport and highly valued by clubs and fans alike.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Official website: www.thefa.com/competitions/thefacup
Image: The FA Cup Trophy.jpg

Show 5 more facts

number of participants: 747
event interval: 1
Commons category: FA Cup
inception: 1874-00-00
social media followers: 3200000

Sources (7)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Article

The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competition in the world. It is organised by and named after the Football Association (the FA). A concurrent Women's FA Cup has been held since 1970.

The competition is open to all eligible clubs down to level 9 of the English football league system, with level 10 clubs acting as stand-ins in the event of non-entries from above. A record 763 clubs competed in 2011–12. The tournament consists of 12 randomly drawn rounds followed by the semi-finals and the final. Entrants are not seeded, although a system of byes based on league level ensures higher ranked teams enter in later rounds – the minimum number of games needed to win, depending on which round a team enters the competition, ranges from six to fourteen.