We bring you 'Part Two' of our look at the history of the English FA Cup. If you missed 'Part One' please scroll down our blog to view yesterday's content...
Medals
Each club in the final receives 30 winners or runners-up
medals to be distributed among players, staff, and officials, except that a
player receiving a red card is not eligible to receive one.
In 1914, Burnley won the cup and received unique medals incorrectly
struck as "English Cup Winners". One is displayed at Turf Moor,
within the 1914 collection.
Sponsorship
Since the start of the 1994–95 season, the FA Cup has been
sponsored.
However, to protect the identity of the competition, the sponsored
name has always included 'The FA Cup' in addition to the sponsor's name, unlike
sponsorship deals for the League Cup where the word 'cup' is preceded by only
the sponsor's name. Sponsorship deals run for four years, though – as in the
case of E.ON – one-year extensions may be agreed. Emirates is set to become the
new sponsor from 2015 to 2018, renaming the competition as 'The Emirates FA
Cup', unlike previous editions, which included 'The FA Cup in association with
E.ON' and 'The FA Cup with Budweiser'.
From August 2006 to 2013, Umbro supplied match balls for all
FA Cup matches. Since March 2013, Nike has supplied the official match ball.
Giant-killers
The FA Cup has a long tradition of lower-ranked teams
becoming "giant-killers" by defeating opponents from a higher level.
Linked to this giant-killing is the progression of small teams through the Cup,
to later rounds than they would expect to reach.
Giant-killing victories on various scales happen every year;
it is considered particularly newsworthy when a top Premier League team suffers
an upset defeat, or where the giant-killer is from outside The Football League.
The most recent example of a non-league team
beating top-flight opposition is Level 5 Conference Premier side Luton
Town's victory over Level 1 Premier League's Norwich City at Carrow Road in the
2012–13 Fourth Round Proper. Prior to that game, the last time a non-league
side defeated a top-flight club was in 1989 when Sutton United claimed a 2–1
victory at home to Coventry City. In games between league sides, one of the
most notable results was the 1992 victory by Wrexham, 92nd/last in the previous
season's league, over reigning league champion Arsenal. One analysis of four
years of FA Cup results showed that it was 99.85 per cent likely that at least
one team would beat one from a higher division in a given year. The probability
drops to 48.8 per cent for a two-division gap, and 39.28 per cent for a
three-division gap.
Almost every club in the League Pyramid has a fondly
remembered "giant-killing" act in its history. Some small clubs gain
a reputation for being "cup specialists" after two or more such feats
within a few years. The record for a club which has never entered The Football
League is held by Altrincham, with 16 league scalps.
The Football League was founded in 1888, 16 years after the
first FA Cup competition. Since the creation of The Football League, Tottenham
Hotspur is the only non-league "giant-killer" to win the Cup, taking
the 1901 FA Cup with a victory over reigning league runners-up Sheffield
United. Other than Tottenham's non-league victory, the FA Cup has only seen 24
finalists from outside English football's top division with a record of 7 wins
and 17 runners-up.
For non-league teams, reaching the Third Round Proper –
where all Level 1 sides now enter – is considered a major achievement. In the
2008–09 FA Cup, a record nine non-league teams achieved this feat. Since 1945,
only seven non-league team have reached the Fifth Round Proper, and none have
progressed to the Sixth Round – although
the 1977–78 FA Cup saw fully amateur team Blyth Spartans take the fully
professional side Wrexham to a Fifth Round replay, only to lose 2–1.
 |
| Chasetown's players celebrate after their draw with Oldham |
Chasetown, whilst playing at Level 8 of English football
during the 2007–08 competition, are the lowest-ranked team to play in the Third
Round Proper. Chasetown was then a member of the Southern League Division One
Midlands, when they lost to Football League Championship team Cardiff City, the eventual FA Cup
runners-up that year. Their success earned the lowly organisation over £60,000
in prize money.
Notable events in the FA Cup
FA Cup winners and finalists
The record for most wins of the tournament by a club is 12,
held by Arsenal.
Four clubs have won consecutive FA Cups on more than one
occasion: Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
Seven clubs have won the FA Cup as part of a League and Cup
double, namely Preston North End, Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal,
Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea.
In 1993, Arsenal became the first side to win both the FA
Cup and the League Cup in the same season when they beat Sheffield Wednesday
2–1 in both finals. Liverpool and
Chelsea have since repeated this feat.
In 2012, Chelsea accomplished a different cup double consisting of the FA Cup
and the 2012 Champions League. In 1998–99, Manchester United added the 1999
Champions League title to their league and cup double to complete a unique
Treble. Two years later, in 2000–01, Liverpool won the FA Cup, League Cup and
UEFA Cup to complete a cup treble.
Portsmouth have the curious accolade of holding the FA Cup
for the longest unbroken period of time; having won the Cup in 1939, the next
final was not contested until 1946, due to the outbreak of the Second World
War.
The FA Cup has only been won by a non-English team once.
Cardiff City achieved this in 1927 when they beat Arsenal in the final at
Wembley. They had previously made it to the final only to lose to Sheffield
United in 1925 and lost another final to Portsmouth in 2008. Cardiff City is
also the only team to win the national cups of two different countries in the
same season, having also won the Welsh Cup in 1927. The Scottish team Queen's
Park reached and lost the final in both 1884 and 1885.
Ashley Cole holds the record for most FA Cup winner's
medals, with seven: three for Arsenal
and four for Chelsea . The record for most winner's medals for a manager
is held jointly by George Ramsey, who won six with Aston Villa and Arsène Wenger, who has won that many for
Arsenal.
Winners from outside the top division
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 elected to the Football League
only in 1908. At that time the Football League consisted of two 18-team
divisions.
In the history of the FA Cup, only eight teams who were
playing outside the top level of English football have gone on to win the
competition, the most recent being West Ham United, who beat Arsenal in 1980.
With the exception of Tottenham in 1901, these clubs were all playing in the
old Second Division. No other Third Division or lower side has won the trophy
or even reached the final since the Football League was founded.
One of the most notable upsets in the final occurred when
Sunderland beat Leeds United 1–0 in 1973. That season, Leeds finished third in
the First Division, while Sunderland were in the Second Division. Three years
later, Second Division Southampton also won the Cup, when they beat First
Division Manchester United by the same 1–0 scoreline. The other Second Division
winners of the FA Cup are Notts County in 1894; Wolverhampton Wanderers in
1908; Barnsley in 1912; and West Bromwich Albion in 1931. West Bromwich Albion
are the only team to have won the FA Cup and promotion from the Second Division
in the same season.
The FA Cup final has never been contested by two teams from
outside the top division. Uniquely, in 2007–08 three of the four
semi-finalists, were from outside the top division, although the single Premier
League team remaining, Portsmouth, went on to win the competition that year.
Media coverage
The FA Cup Final is one of 10 events reserved for live
broadcast on UK terrestrial television under the Ofcom Code on Sports and Other
Listed and Designated Events.
In the early years of coverage the BBC had exclusive radio
coverage with a picture of the pitch marked in the Radio Times with numbered
squares to help the listener follow the match on the radio. The first FA Cup
Final on Radio was in 1926 between Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City but
this was only broadcast in Manchester, the first national final on BBC Radio
was between Arsenal and Cardiff in 1927. The first final on BBC Television was
in 1937 in a match which featured Sunderland and Preston North End but this was
not televised in full. The following seasons final between Preston and
Huddersfield was covered in full by the BBC. When ITV was formed in 1955 they
shared final coverage with the BBC in one of the only club matches shown live
on television, during the 1970s and 1980s coverage became more elaborate with
BBC and ITV trying to steal viewers from the others by starting coverage
earlier and earlier some starting as early as 9am which was 6 hours before kick
off. Nowadays this continues with Setanta and ESPN having all day broadcasts
from Wembley but terrestrial TV coverage usually begins 2 hours before kick
off. The sharing of rights between BBC and ITV continued from 1955 to the 1988
FA Cup Final when ITV lost coverage to the new Sports Channel which later
became Sky Sports.
From 1988 to 1997, the BBC and Sky Sports had coverage of
the FA Cup, the BBC had highlights on Match of the Day and usually one match
per round while Sky had the same deal. From 1997 to 2001, ITV and Sky shared
live coverage with both having two matches per round and BBC continuing with
highlights on Match of the Day. From 2002 to 2008, BBC and Sky again shared
coverage with BBC having two or three matches per round and Sky having one or
two. From 2008–09 to 2013–14, FA Cup matches are shown live by ITV across
England and Wales, with UTV broadcasting to Northern Ireland but STV refusing
to show them. ITV shows 16 FA Cup games per season, including the first pick of
live matches from each of the first to sixth rounds of the competition, plus
one semi-final exclusively live. The final is also shown live on ITV. Under the
same 2008 contract, Setanta Sports showed three games and one replay in each
round from round three to five, two quarter-finals, one semi-final and the
final. The channel also broadcast ITV's matches exclusively to Scotland, after
the ITV franchise holder in Scotland, STV, decided not to broadcast FA Cup
games. Setanta entered administration in June 2009 and as a result the FA
terminated Setanta's deal to broadcast FA-sanctioned competitions and England
internationals. As a result of Setanta going out of business ITV showed the
competition exclusively in the 2009–10 season with between three and four
matches per round, all quarter finals, semi finals and final live as the FA
could not find a pay TV broadcaster in time. ESPN bought the competition for
the 2010–11 to 2012–13 season and during this time Rebecca Lowe became the
first woman to host the FA Cup Final in the UK.
In October 2009, The FA announced that ITV would show an
additional match in the First and Second Rounds on ITV, with one replay match
shown on ITV4. One match and one replay match from the first two rounds will
broadcast on The FA website for free, in a similar situation to the 2010 World
Cup Qualifier between Ukraine and England. The 2009–10 First Round match
between Oldham Athletic and Leeds United was the first FA Cup match to be
streamed online live.
Many expected BSkyB to make a bid to show some of the
remaining FA Cup games for the remainder of the 2009–10 season which would
include a semi-final and shared rights to the final. ESPN took over the package
Setanta held for the FA Cup from the 2010–11 season. The 2011 final was also
shown live on Sky 3D in addition to ESPN
and ITV. Following the sale of ESPN's UK and Ireland channels to BT,
ESPN's rights package transferred to BT Sport from the 2013–14 season.
BBC Radio 5 Live provides radio coverage including several
full live commentaries with additional commentaries broadcast on BBC local
radio stations, talksport also hold rights from the 2012–13 season.
Until the 2008–09 season, the BBC and Sky Sports shared
television coverage, with the BBC showing three matches in the earlier rounds.
Some analysts argued the decision to move away from the Sky and, in particular,
the BBC undermined the FA Cup in the eyes of the public.
The early rounds of the 2008–09 competition were covered for
the first time by ITV's online service, ITV Local. The first match of the
competition, between Wantage Town and Brading Town, was broadcast live online.
Highlights of eight games of each round were broadcast as catch up on ITV
Local. Since ITV Local closed, this coverage did not continue.
ITV lost the rights to the FA Cup beginning with the 2014–15
FA Cup, terrestrial rights will return to BBC Sport, with the final being shown
on BBC One while BT Sport hold the pay TV rights. Under this deal, the BBC will
show around the same amount of games as ITV and still having the first pick for
each round.
Matches involving Welsh clubs are sometimes exclusively
broadcast on Welsh language channel S4C, which is also available to view across
the rest of the United Kingdom on satellite and cable television, and through
the channel's website. A similar arrangement is shared with BBC Cymru Wales
from 2014–15, potentially giving the BBC an extra match per round.
The FA sells overseas rights separately from the domestic
contract. In Australia, FA Cup games from the First Round to the Semi-finals
are broadcast exclusively by ESPN Australia and the final is co-broadcast with
SBS. Due to Australian anti-siphoning laws, the FA Cup Final is on a list of
sporting events, that must first be offered to national television broadcasters
and commercial free-to-air television broadcasters before rights can be
acquired by a subscription television broadcaster. Starting in 2012–13, Fox
Sports United States will feature the FA Cup games split between Fox Sports 1,
Fox Sports 2, Fox Soccer Plus and the broadcast Fox network, with the Final
being on Fox . Supersport broadcasts the tournament in Africa and ESPN STAR in
India.
Since the 2009–10 season, Tring Sport has televised the FA
Cup in Albania.
Since the 2010–11 season, Eredivisie Live has televised the
FA Cup in the Netherlands.
Since the 2011–12 season, Russia 2 & Sport-1 has jointly
televised the FA Cup in Russia.
Since the 2012–13 season, SBS Discovery Channel has televised the FA Cup in Denmark. At the
time of the 2012–13 season, it was known as SBS TV before it was changed to SBS
Discovery Channel since the 2013–14 season.
Since the 2013–14 season, TV10 has televised the FA Cup in
Sweden.
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