FA Cup 2007/8
The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world, and arguably the most famous. It first took place in 1871, well before the Football League was founded in 1888. In recent years, over 600 teams enter from many leagues in the Pyramid. There are a total of fourteen rounds. Teams that are members of a league in the top eight levels of the pyramid are granted exemptions - the higher the team, the more rounds they skip. To enter, a team need only play in an FA-sanctioned league, and have played in the FA Cup, Trophy or Vase the previous season. Typically, most entrants play in leagues are level eleven or higher. The FA Cup always brings the chance of a being drawn against a top team, with the possibilty of lucrative TV deals the probability of sell-out crowds, and the opportunity to go down in the history books as a "giant-killer" by winning.The table below shows the total number of clubs from all divisions at a given level for each round. A double dash "--" indicates either that round has not yet been played, or no clubs are left from that level. The prize money is what the winner of that round receives, assuming they win no further matches. (So a club that starts off in the prelimary round, and ends up loosing in the 2nd qualifying round would receive £2,250). The table underneath gives the average level of clubs participating in any given round.
| Number of teams per level to reach each round | Total Entries: 731 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Total | Prize Money |
| Extra Prelimary | 98 | 242 | 254 * | £500 | ||||||||
| Prelimary | 49 | 159 | 123 | 332 * | £1,000 | |||||||
| 1st Qualifying | 15 | 76 | 75 | 65 | 232 * | £2,250 | ||||||
| 2nd Qualifying | 6 | 27 | 41 | 42 | 44 | 160 | £3,750 | |||||
| 3rd Qualifying | 2 | 5 | 18 | 27 | 28 | 80 | £5,000 | |||||
| 4th Qualifying | 0 | 0 | 8 | 13 | 19 | 24 | 64 | £10,000 | ||||
| 1st | -- | -- | 3 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 24 | 24 | 80 | £16,000 | ||
| 2nd | -- | -- | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 17 | 40 | £24,000 | ||
| 3rd | -- | -- | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 11 | 24 | 20 | 64 | £40,000 |
| 4th | -- | -- | 0 | -- | 1 | -- | 5 | 5 | 10 | 13 | 32 | £60,000 |
| 5th | -- | -- | -- | -- | 0 | -- | 2 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 16 | £120,000 |
| Quarter-Final | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 8 | £300,000 |
| Semi-Final | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 4 | £900,000 |
| Final | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 2 | £1,000,000 |
| Mean level of teams at each round | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ROUND | EP | P | 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | 4Q | 1st |
| Mean Level | 9.29 | 8.78 | 8.18 | 7.43 | 7.08 | 4.20 | 4.41 |
| ROUND | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | QF | SF | F |
| Mean Level | 4.20 | 2.25 | 2.25 | 1.75 | |||
The following list provides further details about the clubs how many clubs there are at each round. My thanks go to Tony Kempster for this information.
- EP - 254 clubs
- Pre - 332 including 123 exemptions (level 8 clubs) and 35 byes (randomly drawn from clubs at level 9 and below)
- Q1 - 232 including 66 exemptions (level 7 clubs)
- Q2 - 160 including 44 exemptions (level 6 clubs - Conference North/South)
- Q3 - 80
- Q4 - 64 including 24 exemptions (Conference national clubs)
- R1 - 80 including 48 exemptions (League One and League Two clubs)
- R2 - 40
- R3 - 64 including 44 exemptions (Premiership and Championship clubs)
- R4 - 32
- R5 - 16
- R6 - 8
- SF - 4
- F - 2