FA Cup

What is FA Cup?

The Football Association Challenge Cup, simply known as FA Cup, is a knockout football tournament in men’s domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 campaign, it is the oldest national football tournament globally.

The competition is organised by and named after The Football Association (The FA). Since 2015, the tournament has been known as The Emirates FA Cup after its headline sponsor.

The tournament is open to any eligible team down to Level ten of the English football league system, all 92 professional teams. Arsenal are the most successful team with fourteen trophies.

The French manager Arsene Wenger is the most successful coach in the tournament’s history, having won seven finals as the Gunners’ boss. Leicester are the current winners, having beaten Chelsea 1–0 in the 2021 final.

Since its establishment, the FA Cup has been won by 44 different clubs. Man City (2019) are the only team to have achieved a domestic treble of league, FA Cup, and EFL Cup, having beaten Chelsea 4–3 in a penalty shoot-out in the EFL Cup Final, finished at the top of the Premier League, and beaten Watford 6–0 in the FA Cup Final.

The tournament has just been won by a non-English club once. Cardiff City achieved this in 1927 when the Bluebirds beat Arsenal in the final at Wembley Stadium.

They had recently made it to the final just to lose to Sheffield United in 1925 and lost one more final to Portsmouth in 2008.

The Bluebirds is also the only club to win the national cups of two different countries in the same campaign, having also won the Welsh Cup in 1927.

The Scottish club, Queen’s Park, reached and lost the final in both 1884 and 1885.

Matches in the 12 rounds of the tournament are usually played at the home stadium of one of the two clubs. The semi-finals and final are played at a neutral ground, the rebuilt Wembley Stadium.

2021-22 FA Cup Odds

Man City – 7/2
Chelsea – 11/2
Liverpool – 11/2
Man United – 6/1
Arsenal – 11/1
Spurs – 11/1
Leicester City – 12/1
Everton – 20/1
Aston Villa – 25/1
Leeds – 25/1
West Ham – 25/1
Wolves – 33/1
Brighton – 40/1
Southampton – 50/1
Brentford – 66/1
Crystal Palace – 66/1
Newcastle – 66/1
Burnley – 80/1
Norwich City – 80/1
Watford – 100/1