How Does the FA Cup Work? Complete Guide to England’s Historic Tournament

Every August, hundreds of football clubs across England and Wales enter a competition that started before the telephone was invented. By the following May, only one of them is still standing. That is the basic shape of the FA Cup, but the details of how a team gets from a Tuesday night in a car park in Cumbria to a Saturday afternoon at Wembley are less widely understood.

This guide breaks down exactly how the FA Cup works: who enters, how the rounds are structured, how the draw is made, what happens when a match ends level, and why the competition still produces upsets that league football rarely allows.

What Is the FA Cup?

The FA Cup, officially the Football Association Challenge Cup and known commercially as the Emirates FA Cup, is the main domestic knockout football competition in England. It is organised by The Football Association, the sport’s governing body in England, and open to clubs from the very top of the men’s game down to amateur sides in the ninth tier of the football pyramid.

Two features set it apart from a normal league season. First, it is single elimination: lose once and you are out, with no second leg or points table to fall back on. Second, entry is genuinely open. A pub-team-turned-semi-professional club and a Premier League giant can, in theory, end up drawn against each other, and occasionally they do.

History of the FA Cup

The competition dates back to 1871, when the Football Association’s secretary, Charles W. Alcock, proposed a “Challenge Cup” open to all clubs affiliated with the FA. Fifteen teams entered that first season, and the inaugural final was played on 16 March 1872 at Kennington Oval in London, where Wanderers beat Royal Engineers 1-0.

That makes the FA Cup the oldest national football competition still running anywhere in the world, older than the Football League itself, which did not launch until 1888. The early finals were dominated by amateur sides built around former public schools and army regiments. Wanderers won five of the first seven tournaments, and Lord Kinnaird, who played for both Wanderers and Old Etonians, still holds the record for most FA Cup wins by a player, with five winners’ medals collected between 1873 and 1882.

The competition shifted as football professionalised. Blackburn Olympic became the first professional club to win the Cup in 1883, and the trophy has since been lifted by clubs from across the English game, from Victorian amateur sides to the modern Premier League elite. As of the most recent count, 45 different clubs have won the FA Cup, with Arsenal leading the all-time list on 14 titles. Arsène Wenger holds the record for most wins by a manager, with seven.

How Teams Qualify for the FA Cup

Entry into the FA Cup is staggered by league tier, which is one of the features that makes the competition so distinctive. Roughly 700 to 750 clubs enter each season, and where a club joins depends entirely on which division it plays in.

• Clubs from the fifth to ninth tiers of English football, sitting outside the Premier League and English Football League, start in the qualifying rounds during August.
• League One and League Two clubs join at the First Round Proper in November.
• Championship, Premier League and National League clubs that survived qualifying join at the Third Round Proper in January, when the tournament’s biggest names finally enter the draw.

This staggered entry means a non-league club has to win six qualifying rounds just to reach the same stage where Premier League clubs begin their campaign. It is a long road, and most of it happens with almost no national media attention.

How Many Teams Play in the FA Cup?

Around 743 to 747 clubs typically enter the FA Cup in a given season, a number that fluctuates slightly year to year as clubs are formed, merged, or drop out of the National League System. The vast majority of those clubs, usually well over 600, are non-league sides competing purely for the chance to win through to the First Round Proper and, with it, a shot at facing a much bigger opponent.

By the time the tournament proper begins, the numbers have thinned out considerably. The table below shows roughly how many clubs are involved at each stage.

Stage	Approximate Clubs Involved	Who Enters
Extra Preliminary Round	200+	Tier 9 and lower non-league clubs
Preliminary Round	130+	Tier 7-8 clubs plus qualifying round winners
First to Fourth Qualifying Rounds	Falling from around 300 to 32	Tier 5-9 non-league clubs
First Round Proper	80	League One, League Two and 32 qualifying survivors
Second Round Proper	40	Winners of the First Round Proper
Third Round Proper	64	Championship, Premier League and National League clubs join
Fourth Round Proper onwards	32 down to 2	Winners progress toward the Final

How the FA Cup Rounds Work

The FA Cup runs across 14 rounds in total: six qualifying rounds followed by eight rounds in the competition proper. Every tie is a single match, home or away, decided on the pitch on the day, with the loser eliminated.

The six qualifying rounds are the Extra Preliminary Round, the Preliminary Round, and four numbered Qualifying Rounds. These take place between early August and October and exist purely to whittle the mass of non-league entrants down to the 32 clubs who earn a place in the First Round Proper.

The eight rounds of the competition proper are the First Round Proper, Second Round Proper, Third Round Proper, Fourth Round Proper, Fifth Round Proper, the Quarter-Final, the Semi-Final and the Final. The Third Round Proper, played in January, is widely seen as the moment the FA Cup truly comes alive, since it is the first round in which Premier League and Championship clubs take part. It is also the round most associated with shock results, because top-flight sides are suddenly playing opponents four or five divisions below them.

FA Cup Draw Process Explained

After each round is completed, the next round’s fixtures are decided by a live, unseeded draw. Balls representing each remaining club are drawn at random and paired off, with no attempt to keep bigger clubs apart or to balance the bracket in any way.

Draws for the later rounds are typically broadcast live on television, often presented by former players, and take place on a Sunday or Monday evening shortly after the last matches of the previous round finish. Because there is no seeding, a Premier League title contender can be drawn away at a part-time club playing in front of a few thousand fans, and it happens most seasons. This randomness is precisely what gives the FA Cup its reputation for producing “giant-killings.”

Are FA Cup Matches Decided by Replays?

Not anymore, at least not from the First Round Proper onwards. Replays, in which a drawn match at the home ground was followed by a second match at the away team’s ground, used to be a defining feature of the competition and a valuable source of extra gate revenue for smaller clubs.

That changed from the 2024-25 season, when The FA agreed a new calendar arrangement with the Premier League that removed replays from the First Round Proper through to the Final. According to The Football Association’s own statement on the change, the move was designed to keep every round of the competition on exclusive weekends and reduce fixture congestion driven by the expanded UEFA club competitions. The decision was criticised by the EFL, by non-league advocacy groups and by many supporters, who argued that replays were a financial lifeline for smaller clubs and an important part of the competition’s tradition.

Replays have not disappeared entirely. Ties in the qualifying rounds, where the pool of non-league clubs is still being narrowed down, can still go to a replay if the first match ends level. It is only from the First Round Proper onwards that a draw is settled the same day.

Extra Time and Penalties in the FA Cup

When a match in the First Round Proper or any later round finishes level after 90 minutes, the two teams play an additional 30 minutes of extra time, split into two 15-minute halves. If the scores are still level after extra time, the tie is decided by a penalty shootout, taken immediately on the same pitch.

This means that from the Third Round Proper onwards, a Premier League club drawn away against lower-league opposition can, in theory, be eliminated in a single afternoon with no second chance. For lower-league and non-league clubs, it also means the financial upside of forcing a replay against a bigger club has gone, even if a dramatic penalty shootout can still deliver a famous result.

Why the FA Cup Is Different From League Competitions

League football is built around consistency. A team’s position reflects results over 38 or more matches, and a single bad afternoon rarely defines a season. The FA Cup works on the opposite logic. One match, one result, and a club’s cup campaign can be over in 90 minutes regardless of how strong its squad is on paper.

Combine that with open entry across the entire football pyramid and unseeded draws, and you get a competition where part-time electricians, plumbers and students can find themselves lining up against full-time internationals. That is not a marketing line. It reflects how the qualifying and early rounds are genuinely built, with clubs from the ninth tier of English football eligible to enter every season.

The FA Cup also carries historic weight that newer competitions cannot replicate. It predates the Football League, the Premier League, and every major European club competition, and its status as the world’s oldest continuously run national football competition is part of what still draws neutral interest to matches involving clubs most fans have never heard of.

Famous FA Cup Moments in Football History

Some results have become part of English football folklore, repeated every season as evidence that the FA Cup can still surprise.

Hereford United 2-1 Newcastle United, 1972. In a third round replay played on a heavily muddy pitch, non-league Hereford came back from behind through a long-range strike from Ronnie Radford that is still replayed as one of the most famous goals in FA Cup history, before Ricky George scored the winner in extra time. It remains the standard against which every later giant-killing is measured.

Wrexham 2-1 Arsenal, 1992. Fourth Division Wrexham, sitting at the bottom of the entire English league system, beat reigning champions Arsenal at the Racecourse Ground through a stunning late free-kick and a last-minute winner, one of the biggest league-gap upsets the competition has produced.

Sutton United 2-1 Coventry City, 1989. Non-league Sutton beat a Coventry side that had won the FA Cup itself less than two years earlier, a result that is still cited whenever a small club is drawn against much bigger opposition.

Arsenal’s 2005 penalty shootout win over Manchester United. The first FA Cup final ever decided on penalties, and the first goalless FA Cup final since 1912, showing that even the biggest finals are not immune to a tense, low-scoring stalemate.

Macclesfield’s third round win over Crystal Palace, January 2026. A modern example of the same pattern: a sixth-tier club, playing part-time, defeated the reigning FA Cup holders in the third round, a reminder that the tournament’s capacity to surprise has not gone away just because the format has changed around it.

Frequently Asked Questions About the FA Cup

How many teams enter the FA Cup each season?

Around 743 to 747 clubs typically enter, spanning every level of English football from the Premier League down to the ninth tier of the National League System.

When do Premier League clubs enter the FA Cup?

Premier League and Championship clubs join at the Third Round Proper, usually played in early January, after non-league, League One and League Two clubs have already fought through the qualifying rounds and early rounds proper.

Are there replays in the FA Cup?

Only in the qualifying rounds. From the First Round Proper through to the Final, drawn matches go straight to extra time and then penalties on the same day, following the format change introduced from the 2024-25 season.

Where is the FA Cup Final played?

The Final, along with the semi-finals, is played at Wembley Stadium in London. The Final now takes place on the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season on an exclusive Saturday.

How much prize money do FA Cup clubs receive?

Prize money increases sharply with each round, from a few hundred pounds for winning an early qualifying round to over £2 million for winning the Final. Amounts are published and updated by The Football Association each season and can change year to year.

Is the FA Cup draw seeded?

No. Every round is drawn completely at random, with no attempt to keep stronger and weaker clubs apart, which is a major reason the competition produces regular upsets.

Can a non-league club still win the FA Cup?

In theory, yes, since entry is open to any FA-affiliated club that qualifies. In practice, no side outside the top two divisions has won the FA Cup since Tottenham Hotspur, then in the second tier, in 1901, though non-league and lower-league clubs regularly cause upsets in the early rounds.