The FA Cup. There is truly nothing quite like it. A tournament steeped in history, romance, and glory, it truly is the beating heart of the English game. From Ricky Villa’s solo goal against Manchester City, to Youri Tielemans’ wonder strike against Chelsea, to the legendary “Matthews final”, (Even though Stanley didn’t like it being called this) there are so many legendary moments it has bought us.
In the early rounds, you see upsets, and runs that can provide clubs with enough money to fund them for the next ten years, and third round Saturday is a special part of the calendar. And there is nothing like cup final day. In recent years, I have heard so many say the FA Cup isn’t what it once was, how back in the day, the whole street would be up in the morning glued in front of the telly all day to enjoy the build up to the decisive game.
So I decided why not keep that going? I rounded up family and friends and we sat in front of the telly from 12 to 6, drinking tea (and some of us bovril) as Manchester United got revenge on their city rivals to win the famous trophy once again.
It was a great day, and a final I will remember strongly, amongst the many great FA Cup moments I remember fondly. We all speak of the magic of the FA Cup, and there are the moments everyone amongst us remembers, but do you ever wonder how it all started?
The origins of the FA Cup were put to the screen in the Netflix Series “The English Game” a few years ago, and whilst taking some artistic licence, it does a great job of showing the class divide football dealt with in its early years and how it bought the local community together. It is a great series I would thoroughly recommend.
But I would happily have a series covering each era of the FA Cup, as it has given untold stories since its birth in the late 1800s. Today, I am going to cover how the FA Cup was created by private school students, to how the final found its way to Wembley stadium, and the first final to be broadcast. Sit back, get a pie and bovril, and read how the FA Cup was born and helped football become the game it is today.
1863 was a year in which England, and ultimately the world, would change forever. It was the founding of the Football Association, and from this moment, football would soon spread like wildfire across the globe, soon becoming the identity of so many countries, and bringing many people untold joy.
Words: Finlay Stanley // @AFCFinners
Aston Villa v Everton in the FA Cup Final at Crystal Palace, 10 April 1897.
Photo Credit: FA Cup Official History
The start of competitive football had a fairly casual setup when it came to games. Team would often play other sides who were located relatively near to them, in one-off friendlies with not too much on offer to those who won. With low stakes, it was hard to get hugely excited about things.
The chairman of the FA, Charles Alcock, had a brilliant idea though. A graduate of Harrow, he told his colleagues that in his time at the school, they partook in a sudden death knockout tournament when playing football, and proposed that the FA held such a tournament for its members. The establishment of railways across the country meant long distance travel was now much easier. The FA accepted Alcock’s proposal, and got to work on organising a tournament that would change football for the better forever.
The tournament would not start well however, and many could be forgiven for thinking that it would soon drift into memory. For the first edition of the FA Cup, invites were sent out to 50 members of the FA, but only 15 teams would accept.
Things got worse before they got better, as three of these teams would withdraw. Therefore, the first ever FA Cup would have a grand total of 12 teams. For context, the 2023-2024 FA Cup campaign saw a total of 732 clubs take part.
11th November 1871 saw 4 FA Cup fixtures take place, the first in the history of the competition. 13 games overall took place in the maiden FA Cup campaign, and a number of byes were granted.
The first ever FA Cup final would take place at the Kennington Oval in London on 16th March 1872. 2000 people would attend, and the teams were Wanderers, a side made of of public school graduates who got their name due to never having a fixed home, and Royal Engineers, a team made up of the engineering arm of the British Army.
Charles Alcock was the captain of Wanderers, and in perhaps the first instance of 'The Magic of the Cup', the competitions' creator would become the first ever captain to lift the trophy, with his side winning by 1 goal to 0. Alcock’s invention had breathed new life into football and would take it to new heights. His side received the trophy and their medals the next month in a ceremony at a restaurant.
The second FA Cup final was a unique occasion, as it was initially established that the winners of the previous year’s FA Cup would receive a bye into the final the next year, and so Wanderers would be there, and faced off against Oxford University. Wanderers retained the trophy, lead out by captain Arthur Kinnaird. Kinnaird would be the first superstar of the FA Cup. The banker who would go on to be chair of the FA for 33 years netted in a 2-0 victory, and he went on to win the tournament a grand total of 5 times, a record that would stand for an individual until it was broken by Ashley Cole in 2010.
Oxford University went one better, winning it for the first time in 1873, and in 1876, the final went to a replay for the first time. Wanderers defeated Old Etonians 3-0 in the replay, and won the FA Cup twice again after to make it a three peat.
Football as we know it is regarded as a working class game, but in its early years, it was something of an elitist competition. The early years were dominated by southern teams made up of public school graduates. Many had well-paid jobs such as bankers or lawyers, meaning taking time off work was not an issue. Meanwhile the northern teams were often made up of people working in mines or factories, who could not afford to take time off to travel long distances for games. The FA though, stood firm on its ideology that it should be an amateur game.
Spectators gaze upon the newly made trophy at the FA Cup Final, April 26, 1911.
Photo Credit: Yorkshire Post
It was a landmark moment for northern teams when Blackburn Rovers reached the 1882 final, but lost to Old Carthusians. Arthur Kinnaird was part of the winning team, and celebrated winning his 5th FA Cup by performing a handstand, a moment immortalised by a sculpture of him in Manchester’s national football museum.
Blackburn Rovers were though, founded by graduated from grammar schools, but their local rivals, Blackburn Olympic, were backed by local businessmen. They were made up of local mill and factory workers, not expected to advance very far. However, they managed to get to the quarter finals, and a crowd of 8000 formed as they defeated Ruabon Druids 4-1. They deployed a passing (or combination) style rather than the long ball system deployed by the public schools' teams. Their player-coach, Jack Hunter, would take his players to Blackpool for a week to prepare for the semi-finals, and a 4-0 win saw them up against Old Etonians.
They made the journey to London to play the final at the Kennington Oval, and came from behind to win the cup in front of 8000 spectators. They would be the first ever northern team to win the FA Cup, and the elitist domination was over. It is seen by many as the moment it became a working class game. Sadly though, Blackburn Olympic would soon fold, with many of their players joining Blackburn Rovers.
Rovers drew a great deal of suspicion, as their star player, Fergus Sutter, the main character of the English game, had stopped working as a stonemason when he joined Darwen, and when he joined Blackburn Rovers, people believed it was because they offered him better wages under the table.
Many northern clubs were growing frustrated at the situation surrounding professionalism, and risked splitting from the FA as rugby would end up doing soon after. After Preston knocked Upton Park out of the cup, the London side wrote to the FA complaining about the “professional players” in the Preston ranks. Many northern clubs threatened to form their own association where players were paid, and eventually, the FA relented, opening the doors for players to be paid for playing.
The tides truly turned after this, with Fergus Sutter and his Blackburn Rovers side winning 3 consecutive FA cups in the 1880s. Preston would soon add their name too. The industrial haven of the Black Country had their share of success too, with Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion putting their names on the trophy for the first time.
The advent of the football league in 1888 was another turning point for football, but the FA Cup was still the trophy everyone wanted.
There was one person though who wanted it by any means necessary. In 1885, Aston Villa had put the FA Cup on display in a shop window. The trophy was stolen, and never recovered.
Underdog stories continued to form, with second tier Notts County winning the tournament in 1894. Tottenham Hotspur became the only ever non-league team to win the cup in 1901, with the final drawing over 100,000 spectators. More clubs added their name to the trophy, such as Wolves, Everton, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, and Manchester United. And Bury won it in style, defeating Derby County 6-0 in the 1903 final.
The trophy changed in 1911, with Arthur Kinnaird being awarded the trophy to keep for his services to football. The new trophy would be made by Bradford jewellers Fattorini, and in a remarkable coincidence, it would be Bradford City themselves who would be the first team to win the new trophy when they defeated Newcastle in the final.
The outbreak of World War 1 would see the tournament suspended after 1915. It returned in 1920. George Ramsey lead Aston Villa to theirs and his 6th FA Cup, and no manager would break this record until Arsene Wenger won his 7th in 2017.
In 1923, it was decided that a new stadium should be built to accommodate the large array of fans wanting to attend the FA Cup final. Over the course of 300 days, a new arena was built, and it would host the final between West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers. It would be named Wembley.
Despite high demand, the FA Cup did not ticket their games, believing that it wouldn't sell out. This came back to bite them, as hundreds of thousands of fans descended on the new stadium, which had only been completed 3 days before.
It is estimated that around 300,000 people showed up, and they would end up spilling onto the pitch. A police officer named George Scorey rode out on his white horse, Billy, and ushered fans to the side of the pitch. This would help the game go ahead, and the game would eternally be known as the “white horse final.”
Wembley became an iconic stadium and the eternal home of many FA cup memories, with another key final occurring in 1927 between Cardiff City and Arsenal. It would be the first final broadcast on live radio, and the FA secretary, Sir Frederick Wall, at Buckingham Palace asked King George V what song he would like to hear before the game. His majesty requested “Abide With Me”, the favourite song of his wife, Queen Mary.
It was played by a full orchestra before kick off, and has become a tradition at every FA Cup final since, becoming the anthem of the final.
Cardiff City won 1-0, becoming the first and to date only Welsh side to win the FA Cup. The final would continue to be broadcast on radio, and would later end up on live tv, becoming a huge day in the calendar for football fans, with families gathering in front of the telly all day in anticipation for the final.
The ‘White Horse’ Final, 28 April 1923.
Photo Credit: WikiMedia Commons
Many great finals have happened since, and we could talk for days about the great upsets and dramatic moments we have seen. Even with the fear that the cup has lost its magic, in recent memory we have seen the incredible stories of Wigan and Leicester winning it for the first time, the sensational runs of non-league sides Sutton United and Lincoln City, and Marine having their day in the sun, facing Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur on live TV in a match that secured their future.
There is simply no tournament like it. The buzz you get when it’s an FA Cup weekend is truly unique, and the memories of moments back in the day I have, such as Dan Gosling’s late winner against Liverpool, Saha’s volley after mere seconds in the final, and Rooney’s glorious chip against Portsmouth, are eternally enshrined in my memory.
The FA Cup shaped football, turning it from glorified kickabouts into an institution that has bought communities together, and allowed people to experience moments of magic. There are few things in this world I love more than the FA Cup.
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