FA Cup Final

FA Cup Final
FA Cup Final
	The new Wembley Stadium on 19 May 2007, the day it held its first FA Cup Final
Status	Active
Genre	Sporting event
Date(s)	Varies, but usually the last Saturday of May
Frequency	Annual
Location(s)	London, England
Inaugurated	1872
Organised by	The Football Association

The FA Cup Final is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 at the 2017 final (the 2020 event has been the exception, due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The Final is the culmination of a knockout competition among clubs belonging to The Football Association in England, although Scottish and Irish teams competed in the early years and Welsh teams regularly compete, with Cardiff City winning the Cup in 1927 and reaching the final in 1925 and 2008. From 1923 until 2000 it was played mostly at the original Wembley Stadium, and has been played at the current Wembley Stadium since 2007.

As of 2024^[update], 143 FA Cup Finals have been played. The latest final was held on 25 May 2024 and was contested between Manchester City and Manchester United, with Manchester United winning 2–1.

History

The first FA Cup Final was held at Kennington Oval on 16 March 1872 and was contested between Wanderers and Royal Engineers, with Wanderers winning 1–0.

After the 1873 final was held at Lillie Bridge, the event was held at the Oval until 1892. The 1893 and 1894 finals were respectively held at Fallowfield Stadium in Manchester and Goodison Park in Liverpool, before the event returned to London in 1895, being held at Crystal Palace until the outbreak of World War I. After the war, the event was held at Stamford Bridge, before Wembley Stadium opened in 1923. The first final at Wembley, in which Bolton Wanderers beat West Ham United 2–0, had an official attendance of 126,047, although the actual figure is believed to be as much as 300,000. A police horse named Billy was used to regain control after the large crowd overflowed onto the field, earning it the nickname "White Horse Final". The 1927 final saw "Abide with Me" being sung for the first time at the Cup final, which has become a pre-match tradition.^[1]

Wembley continued to host the final until 2000, when it closed for redevelopment. The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff hosted the final between 2001 and 2006, before the new Wembley Stadium opened in 2007.

Up to and including 1998, if the final ended in a draw, a replay would be required. This happened on 14 occasions, the last being in 1993 between Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday. In September 1998, the Football Association decided that all future finals would be decided "on the day", meaning that a penalty shootout would decide the winner if the score was level after normal and extra time.^[2] Three finals since have been decided by a penalty shootout, those of 2005 (Arsenal defeating Manchester United), 2006 (Liverpool defeating West Ham United) and 2022 (Liverpool defeating Chelsea).

Stan Mortensen's hat-trick for Blackpool in 1953 is the only hat-trick ever scored at Wembley in the competition's final.^[3] The fastest goal in an FA Cup Final was scored by Manchester City's İlkay Gündoğan, 12 seconds after kick-off in the 2023 FA Cup final.^[4] Bury's 6–0 victory over Derby County in the 1903 FA Cup final and Manchester City's 6–0 victory over Watford 2019 FA Cup final are the largest winning margins. With his goal in the 2012 Final, Chelsea's Didier Drogba became the first player to score a goal in four finals.

The FA Cup Final is one of ten events reserved for live broadcast on UK terrestrial television under the Ofcom Code on Sports and Other Listed and Designated Events.

Winners

Footnotes

^ "Cup final competition for fans". Reading FC. 26 January 2015. Archived from the original on 29 January 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
^ Maume, Chris (24 September 1998). "Football: End of Cup Final replay". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 August 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
^ "The Matthews Final" – BBC Sport
^ "Man City 2–1 Man Utd: Ilkay Gundogan's double puts City on the brink of treble with FA Cup win". Sky Sports.com. 3 June 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.

References

Full results history at rsssf.com
Archive of FA Cup editions at FastScore.com
Post-war finals at sporting-heroes.net

[1] "Cup final competition for fans". Reading FC. 26 January 2015. Archived from the original on 29 January 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2016.

[2] Maume, Chris (24 September 1998). "Football: End of Cup Final replay". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 August 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2017.

[3] "The Matthews Final" – BBC Sport

[fatest_goal-4] "Man City 2–1 Man Utd: Ilkay Gundogan's double puts City on the brink of treble with FA Cup win". Sky Sports.com. 3 June 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.

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[3]

[4]

v t e FA Cup
Seasons	1871–72 1872–73 1873–74 1874–75 1875–76 1876–77 1877–78 1878–79 1879–80 1880–81 1881–82 1882–83 1883–84 1884–85 1885–86 1886–87 1887–88 1888–89 1889–90 1890–91 1891–92 1892–93 1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Qualifying rounds	1888–89 1889–90 1890–91 1891–92 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Finals	1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
History List of finals Semi-finals Final referees Winning managers Non-English clubs Scottish clubs Non-League clubs in the 5th Round Giant-Killing Award

History

Winners

See also

Footnotes

References