The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is the main "knockout" cup competition in English football, run by and named after The Football Association.

The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world. As such its prestige as the sport's premier domestic cup competition is without par around the world. As it involves clubs of all standards playing against each other, there is great scope for "giant-killers" from the lower divisions to eliminate top clubs from the tournament. A record 674 teams have entered the FA Cup in 2005-2006. In comparison, the League Cup, a lower prestige English football knockout tournament, can only have the 92 members of the Football League (who organise the competition) and FA Premier League compete.

The name "FA Cup" usually refers to the English men's tournament. The equivalent competition for women's teams is the FA Women's Cup. The women's cup has a much lower public profile than the men's, in common with all women's football in England. Many nations also have similar competitions, inspired by this legendary tournament.

Arsenal F.C. are the current holders of the trophy, although they have been knocked out of this year's competition.

Format

The competition is a knockout tournament with pairings drawn completely at random - there are no seeds. The draw also determines which team will play at home. If a match is drawn, there is a replay at the ground of the other team. Drawn replays are now settled with extra time and penalty shootouts, though in the past further replays were possible, and some ties took as many as six matches to settle.

Traditionally the final is played at London's Wembley Stadium. However, due to extensive redevelopment of Wembley, finals have been played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff since 2001. Although early venues include Kennington Oval and Crystal Palace [1], this was the first time the final had been played outside of England (it should be noted that Welsh sides such as Cardiff City F.C. do participate in the cup). The FA Cup final is expected to return to Wembley on May 13, 2006; however, the FA have booked the Millennium Stadium for the final weekend, in case Wembley construction is not completed on time.

The semi-finals are contested at neutral venues; in the past these have usually been the home grounds of teams not involved in that semi-final, such as Old Trafford in Manchester, Villa Park in Birmingham and Hillsborough in Sheffield. However, in 2005 both semi-finals were held at the Millennium Stadium, which may be repeated in 2006. In future years it is expected that all semi-finals will be played at the new Wembley Stadium.

The competition begins in August with the Extra-Preliminary Qualifying Round contested by clubs occupying a low position in the English football league system, which any FA affiliated club meeting a basic standard of ability and ground facilities may enter. 644 clubs entered the competition in the 2003/04 season, a (then) record 660 for 2004/05 (the old record was 656 in 1921/22), and new record of 674 for 2005/06. Following the Extra-Preliminary Qualifying Round is a Preliminary Qualifying Round, four Qualifying Rounds, and six Rounds of the competition proper, followed by the Semi-Finals and the Final. All of FA Premier League and Football League clubs may enter. Non-league clubs may also enter if they competed in the previous season's FA Trophy or FA Vase and are deemed to be playing in an "acceptable" league for the current season. All clubs entering the competition must have a suitable and safe stadium capacity.

Clubs higher up the English football league system are given byes to certain rounds. For example, clubs playing in the Conference North or Conference South are given a bye to Second Qualifying Round, while those from the Conference National are given a bye to the Fourth Qualifying Round. Clubs from Football League One and Football League Two are given a bye into the First Round proper in November, and Football League Championship and Premier League teams are given a bye into the Third Round, traditionally held in the first weekend in January. The Final is played at the end of the season in May.

Since the foundation of The Football League, Tottenham Hotspur in 1901 have been the only non-league winners of the FA Cup. They were then playing in the Southern League and were only elected to the Football League in 1908. At that time the Football League consisted of only two 18-team divisions; Spurs's victory then would be comparable to a team near the bottom of the third level of the English football pyramid (currently League One) winning today.

The winning team qualifies by right for the first round of the UEFA Cup. If the winners also qualify for the Champions League by merit of league position, the losing finalist qualifies for the UEFA Cup in their place. If both finalists qualify for the Champions League, an extra UEFA Cup place is given on the basis of Premier League position.

Trophies

At the end of the final, the winning team is presented with a trophy, also known as the "FA Cup", which they hold until the following year's final. Traditionally, at Wembley finals, the presentation was made at the Royal Box, with players, led by the captain, mounting a staircase to a gangway in front of the box and returning by a second staircase on the other side of the box. At Cardiff the presentation has been made on a podium on the pitch. The cup is decorated with ribbons in the colours of the winning team; a common riddle asks, "What is always taken to the Cup Final, but never used?" (The answer is, "the losing team's ribbons"). Individual members of the teams playing in the final are presented with winners' and losers' medals.

The present FA Cup trophy is the fourth. The first, the 'little tin idol', was used from the inception of the Cup in 1871-2 until it was stolen from a Birmingham shop window belonging to William Shillcock while held by Aston Villa on September 11, 1895. It was never seen again and is presumed to have been melted down. The second trophy was a replica of the first, and was last used in 1910 before being presented to the FA's long-serving president Lord Kinnaird. It was sold at Christie's on May 19 2005 for £420,000 (£478,400 including auction fees and taxes) to David Gold, the chairman of Birmingham City. A new, larger, trophy was bought by the FA in 1911 designed and manufactured by Fattorini's of Bradford and won by Bradford City in its first outing, the only time a team from Bradford has reached the final. This trophy still exists but is now too fragile to be used, so an exact replica was made and has been in use since the 1992 final. Therefore, though the FA Cup is the oldest domestic football competition in the world, its trophy is not the oldest; that title is claimed by the Scottish Cup.

Sponsorship

Since the start of the 1994-95 season, the FA Cup has been sponsored. However, to protect the identity of the famous competition, the name has never changed from "The FA Cup", unlike in sponsorship deals for the League Cup. Instead, the competition has been known as "The FA Cup sponsored by ..."

From the 2006/2007 season it will formally be known as "The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON" after the German energy company signed a 4 year sponsorship deal ^[2].

• 1994-95 to 1997-98 Littlewoods
• 1998-99 to 2001-02 AXA
• 2002-03 to 2005-06 The FA Partners: Carlsberg, McDonald's, Nationwide, Pepsi, Umbro
• 2006-07 to 2009-10 E.ON