FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is the main "knockout" cup competition in English football, run by and named after The Football Association. The other two top honours that an English club can win are the League Championship and the European Cup. Winning the FA Cup and the League Championship is known as a double. Manchester United is the only team to win all three, known as the treble.

Trophies

At the end of the final, the winning team is presented with a trophy, also known as the "FA Cup", which they hold until the following year's final. Traditionally, at Wembley finals, the presentation was made at the Royal Box, with players, led by the captain, mounting a staircase to a gangway in front of the box and returning by a second staircase on the other side of the box. At Cardiff the presentation has been made on a podium on the pitch. The cup is decorated with ribbons in the colours of the winning team; a common riddle asks, "what is always taken to the Cup Final, but never used?" (The answer is, "the losing team's ribbons"). Individual members of the teams playing in the final are presented with winners' and losers' medals.

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The present FA Cup trophy is the fourth. The first, the 'little tin idol', was used from the inception of the Cup in 1871-2 until it was stolen from a shop window in Birmingham while held by Aston Villa in 1895. It was never seen again and is presumed to have been melted down. The second trophy was a replica of the first, and was last used in 1910 before being presented to the FA's long-serving president Lord Kinnaird. It was sold at Christie's on May 19 2005 for £420,000 (£478,400 including auction fees and taxes) to David Gold, the chairman of Birmingham City. A new, larger, trophy was bought by the FA in 1911 designed and manufactured by Fattorini's of Bradford and won by Bradford City in its first outing, the only time a team from Bradford has reached the final. This trophy still exists but is now too fragile to be used, so an exact replica was made and has been in use since the 1992 final. Therefore, though the FA Cup is the oldest domestic football competition in the world, its trophy is not the oldest; that title is claimed by the Scottish Cup.

Related Topics:
Birmingham - Aston Villa - 1895 - 1910 - Lord Kinnaird - Christie's - May 19 - £ - David Gold - Birmingham City - 1911 - Bradford - Bradford City - 1992 - Scottish Cup

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