TheBlackburn Rovers team which won the FA Cup in 1884. Team captainJames Brown (front row, centre) holds the trophy.
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as theFA Cup, is aknockout competition in Englishfootball, organised by and named afterThe Football Association (the FA), the governing body of the sport in England. It is the oldest existing football competition in the world,[1] having commenced in the1871–72 season.[2] The tournament is open to all clubs in the top 10 levels of theEnglish football league system, although a club's home stadium must meet certain requirements prior to entering the tournament.[3] The competition culminates at the end of the league season (usually in May) with theFA Cup Final, officially named The Football Association Challenge Cup Final Tie, which has traditionally been regarded as the showpiece finale of the English football season.[4]
The vast majority of FA Cup final matches have been in London: most of these were played at the originalWembley Stadium, which was used from 1923 until the stadium closed in 2000. The other venues used for the final before 1923 wereKennington Oval,Crystal Palace,Stamford Bridge andLillie Bridge, all in London,Goodison Park in Liverpool andFallowfield Stadium andOld Trafford in Manchester. TheMillennium Stadium inCardiff hosted the final for six years (2001–2006), while the new Wembley Stadium was under construction. Other grounds have been used for replays, which until 1999 took place if the initial match ended in a draw. Thenew Wembley Stadium has been the permanent venue of the final since 2007.
As of 2025, 45 clubs have won the FA Cup. The record for the most wins is held byArsenal, with 14 victories.[2] Only one surviving club,Blackburn Rovers, have won the cup in three consecutive years, a feat that was also achieved by the now dissolvedWanderers. The cup has been won by the same team in two or more consecutive years on ten occasions, and four teams have won consecutive finals more than once: Wanderers,Blackburn Rovers,Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.[2] The cup has been won by a non-English team once:Cardiff City in1927. The current holders areCrystal Palace, who defeatedManchester City in the2025 final for their first win.
Tottenham Hotspur captainArthur Grimsdell displays the cup to fans on the Tottenham High Road after Spurs' victory in the 1921 final, the first win by aLondon-based team since the same club's win 20 years earlier.
The winners ofthe first tournament wereWanderers, a team of formerpublic schoolboys based inLondon, who went on to win the competition five times in its first seven seasons. The early winners of the competition were all teams of wealthy amateurs from the south of England,[5] but in1883,Blackburn Olympic became the first team from the north to win the cup, defeatingOld Etonians. Upon his team's return toBlackburn, Olympic captainAlbert Warburton proclaimed: "The Cup is very welcome toLancashire. It'll have a good home and it'll never go back to London".[6]
The competition was not held during theFirst andSecond World Wars, except in the1914–15 season, when it was completed, and the1939–40 season, when it was abandoned during the qualifying rounds.[2]
Newcastle United enjoyed a brief spell of FA Cup dominance in the 1950s, winning the trophy three times in five years,[2] and in the 1960s,Tottenham Hotspur enjoyed a similar spell of success, with three wins in seven seasons. This marked the start of a successful period for London-based clubs, with 11 wins in 22 seasons.[10] Teams from the second tier of English football, at the time called theSecond Division, experienced an unprecedented run of cup success between 1973 and 1980.[10]Sunderland won the cup in1973,Southampton repeated the feat in1976, andWest Ham United won in1980, the most recent victory by a team from outside the top division.[2][8]
Until 1999, a draw in the final would result in the match being replayed at a later date;[11] since then the final has always been decided on the day, with apenalty shoot-out as required.[12] As of 2022 a penalty shoot-out has been required on only three occasions, in the 2005, 2006 and 2022 finals.Arsenal hold the record for the highest number of FA Cup wins, having claimed the trophy 14 times, most recently in 2020.[13]
^Sheffield Wednesday's total includes two wins and one defeat under the earlier name of The Wednesday.
^Bury have reformed as aphoenix club since their last appearance in the final.
^Wimbledon relocated from south London to Milton Keynes in 2003 before rebranding asMilton Keynes Dons in 2004, but that entity considers itself to have been founded in the latter year and does not lay claim to the history or honours of Wimbledon, including the FA Cup win; nor doesAFC Wimbledon, thephoenix club founded in 2002.[39]
^Birmingham City's total includes one defeat under the earlier name of Birmingham.
^The official attendance for the 1923 final was reported as 126,047, but the actual figure is believed to be anywhere between 150,000 and 300,000.[15][16]
^Score was 0–0 after extra time. Arsenal won the penalty shoot-out 5–4.[17]
^Score was 3–3 after 90 minutes and extra time. Liverpool won the penalty shoot-out 3–1.[18]
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