The FA Cup is an annual knockout competition in domestic English football. It is the oldest national football competition in the world and is open to any eligible club down to Level 10 of the English football league system. Here are ten-facts about the world-renowned competition:
The Winners
Over the years, a total of 43 teams have won the FA Cup, however Arsenal have won it more times than any other team in the history of the competition.
The Longest Held
Portsmouth hold the record for the most years in possession of the FA cup – they had it sitting in the trophy cabinet for a whopping seven years in a row. However they didn’t win it 7 times back to back. They were the last team to win the cup before World War II broke out.
Longest Replay
Famous for it’s round replays, it was the fourth qualifying round back in 1971/72 – Oxford United and Alvechurch played six matches over the course of three weeks (with four going to extra time) to decide who should progress through in the FA Cup. Alvechurch eventually won.
Smallest Crowd
The smallest crowd in the FA Cup was just 34 people who watched Dunkirk (of the East Midlands Counties League) beat Leicester Nirvana 2-1 in the first preliminary round in August 2017.
Unlucky for some
Only one team has ever won the Cup and then been relegated in the same season as Roberto Martínez’s Wigan in 2013 when they dropped out of the Premiership in the same year as they won the trophy.
Television
The 1938 FA Cup final between Preston and Huddersfield was the first to be televised.
Consistency is key
Only one man has scored in four different FA Cup Finals and that’s Didier Drogba.
Who ate all the pies?
One of the biggest FA Cup scandals occurred in 2017 and involved a meat pie. Wayne Shaw, the reserve goalkeeper for Sutton, was filmed eating a meat pie in the dugout during the match in which Sutton lost to Arsenal. The result was a betting scandal as Sutton was made aware that a bookmaker had offered odds on him being shown on TV doing just that. As a result he resigned tearfully from the team.
Biggest Winner
The player who has won the FA Cup the most times is Ashley Cole, who won it three times with Arsenal and four times with Chelsea.
Full English
Until 1997 when Ruud Gullit’s Chelsea won, no overseas manager had won the FA Cup. Since then, only one English manager has won it – Harry Redknapp, who won it with Portsmouth in 2008.
