Last updated on August 30th, 2022
The FA Cup is one of the oldest cup competitions in football. It has been around since 1863!
Besides the prestige of winning this cup, are there other benefits your team will receive?
Here’s what you need to know:
Contents
- 1 What happens if you win the FA Cup?
- 2 Do FA Cup winners qualify for the Europa League?
- 3 Do FA Cup winners qualify for the Premier League?
- 4 What happens if a Championship team wins the FA cup?
- 5 What happens if a League Two team wins the FA Cup?
- 6 What happens if you win the FA Cup and finish 5th?
- 7 What happens if a Top 4 team wins FA Cup?
- 8 What happens if you win both the FA Cup and the Premier League?
- 9 Do you get into the Champions League if you win the FA Cup?
- 10 Is winning the FA Cup a big deal?
- 11 Conclusion
What happens if you win the FA Cup?
The winners of the FA Cup will receive the FA Cup trophy, as well as a certain amount of prize money. The team will also qualify for other competitions in the next season, such as the Europa League and the FA Community Shield.
Here is a breakdown of the 3 benefits you will receive:
- Prize money
- Qualification for the Europa League
- Qualification for the FA Community Shield
Prize money
When you win the FA Cup, you will receive a certain amount of prize money.
For each FA Cup tournament, there will be a prize fund that is pooled together. This usually comes from sponsorships and deals that the FA has with certain companies.
The FA will split the fund, and distribute it to all of the teams. The amount of money receive depends on how far your progress into the FA Cup!
You will receive a small amount when you win the earlier rounds. As you progress towards the later rounds, the prize money increases as well!
Here are the prize rewards you will win in the 2020/21 FA Cup:
| Round | Number of Teams | Prize Money |
|---|---|---|
| Extra preliminary round winners | 184 | £1,125 |
| Extra preliminary round losers | 184 | £375 |
| Preliminary round winners | 160 | £1,444 |
| Preliminary round losers | 160 | £481 |
| First qualifying round winners | 116 | £2,250 |
| First qualifying round losers | 116 | £750 |
| Second qualifying round winners | 80 | £3,375 |
| Second qualifying round losers | 80 | £1,125 |
| Third qualifying round winners | 40 | £5,625 |
| Third qualifying round losers | 40 | £1,875 |
| Fourth qualifying round winners | 32 | £9,375 |
| Fourth qualifying round losers | 32 | £3,125 |
| First round winners | 40 | £16,972 |
| First round losers | 40 | £5,657 |
| Second round winners | 20 | £25,500 |
| Second round losers | 20 | £8,500 |
| Third round winners | 32 | £61,500 |
| Third round losers | 32 | £20,500 |
| Fourth round winners | 16 | £67,500 |
| Fourth round losers | 16 | £22,500 |
| Fifth round winners | 8 | £135,000 |
| Fifth round losers | 8 | £45,000 |
| Quarter-final winners | 4 | £360,000 |
| Semi-final winners | 2 | £900,000 |
| Semi-final losers | 2 | £450,000 |
| Final runners-up | 1 | £900,000 |
| Final winners | 1 | £1,800,000 |
A total of £15,924,160 will be distributed out to teams in the FA Cup.
If you win the final, you will receive a nice bonus of £1,800,000!
Qualification for the Europa League
You will also qualify for the Europa League, which is one tier lower than the UEFA Champions League.
When you win the FA Cup, you will automatically qualify for the Europa League Group Stages.
This is different from winning the EFL Cup. The EFL Cup winners will only qualify for the second qualifying round of the Europa League, which can be argued that it is a major trophy.
However, you may have already qualified for the European competitions, based on your league position in the Premier League:
| Position in Premier League | Europe Qualification |
|---|---|
| 1st-4th | Champions League Group Stage |
| 5th | Europa League Group Stage |
If you already have a place in the European competition, your slot will be given to the next highest team in the Premier League which has not qualified for Europe yet.
This is because the FA Cup finally is usually played after the Premier League season has ended. That way, the league positions have already been finalised!
For example, you may have won the FA Cup while you’re in 3rd place of the Premier League.
Your team has already qualified for the Champions League. As such, your Europa League slot will be given to the team in 6th place.
This is because the 1st to 4th teams qualify for the Champions League, while the 5th team qualifies for the Europa League!
Qualification for next season’s FA Community Shield
If you win the FA Cup, you will qualify for the next season’s FA Community Shield.
The Community Shield is usually played between the Premier League and FA Cup winners. This game is usually considered to be the curtain-raiser, which welcomes the new season of the Premier League.
The Community Shield is somewhat similar to other Super Cup competitions, such as:
Do FA Cup winners qualify for the Europa League?
The winners of the FA Cup do not qualify for the UEFA Champions League, but will receive automatic qualification to the Europa League group stages. Another slot in the group stages of the Europa League will be reserved for the fifth-placed team in the Premier League.
Do FA Cup winners qualify for the Premier League?
The winners of the FA Cup will not automatically qualify for the Premier League. Instead, the winning team is only guaranteed a spot in the Europa League. Any lower league team that wins the FA Cup will not be able to play in the Premier League, unless they get promoted from the Championship.
What happens if a Championship team wins the FA cup?
If a Championship team wins the FA Cup, they will receive automatic qualification for the Europa League. If they fail to be promoted to the Premier League, they will play in the Europa League Group Stages, as well as the EFL Championship.
In the very unlikely scenario that a Championship team wins the FA Cup, they will still be able to play in the Europa League, as a Europa League spot is reserved for the FA Cup winners.
So far, there has not been such a feat that has been achieved by a Championship team. The closest that we have so far is Wigan who won the FA Cup against Manchester City, but were relegated to the Championship from the Premier League.
This resulted in them playing both in both the Championship and the Europa League.
Has a Championship club ever won the FA Cup?
There were 7 times when the FA Cup was won by a team from the second division of English football (now known as the Championship). The latest club to have won the FA Cup as a lower-league team was West Ham United in the 1980 FA Cup final.
What happens if a League Two team wins the FA Cup?
In the unlikely scenario that a League Two team wins the FA Cup, the team will still qualify for the Europa League by virtue of their cup win. However, this may lead to a lot of fixture congestion for the team, as each team has to play 46 matches in the League Two season.
There has not been a League Two team who has won the FA Cup so far. However, if they do, it would be something really memorable for the club, as they get to feature in Europe!
The greatest issue with this is that the League Two has 46 matches a season, compared to 38 in the Premier League. This may lead to the club’s fixture list to be extremely long.
They will need to play matches in both League Two and the Europa League, which makes their schedule really congested!
Even though it would be a dream for a League Two club to win the FA Cup, they may not have the financial resources to compete with other European clubs.
The most likely scenario will be that the League Two team will fail to make it out of the group stages in the Europa League.
What happens if you win the FA Cup and finish 5th?
If you win the FA Cup and are 5th place in the Premier League, you will gain qualification to the Europa League group stage. Since both scenarios give you a Europa League spot, one of it will be given to the next highest ranked team that has not qualified for Europe yet.
What happens if a Top 4 team wins FA Cup?
If a Top 4 team wins the FA Cup, they have already qualified for the UEFA Champions League. As such, their Europa League spot for winning the FA Cup will be given to the next highest ranked team that has not qualified for Europe yet.
This situation is similar to your team getting 5th place and winning the FA Cup. Since you’ve already qualified for the Champions League, your Europa League spot will be given to the next highest ranked team in the Premier League.
For example, Manchester City won the 2018/19 FA Cup, while they were also the champions of the 2018/19 Premier League.
As such, their Europa League spot was given to Manchester United, who were 6th place in the 2018/19 Premier League.
What happens if you win both the FA Cup and the Premier League?
If the same team wins both the FA Cup and the Premier League, they would have already qualified for the UEFA Champions League. The Europa League spot will be given to the next highest-ranked team that has not qualified for Europe yet. Moreover, the Premier League’s runners-up will challenge them in the FA Community Shield.
If you have a clean sweep of both the FA Cup and the Premier League, the next best opposition will be the Premier League’s runners-up.
One such example was during the 2019 Community Shield. Manchester City won both the Premier League and the FA Cup. As such, their opponents were Liverpool, who were second place in the 2018/19 Premier League season.
Do you get into the Champions League if you win the FA Cup?
You are unable to play in the Champions League if you only win the FA Cup. The slots for the Champions League are only given to the top 4 teams of the Premier League. Another way you can get into the Champions League is by winning this competition in the previous season.
The FA Cup does not allow you to qualify for the Champions League directly. This is because the 4 slots given by UEFA are only for the top 4 teams in the Premier League.
These 4 clubs will immediately qualify for the Group Stages, without needing to play in the qualifying rounds.
This is due to England having a high UEFA coefficient.
You are able also to play in the Champions League if you win it in the previous season. The slot that you receive is outside of the 4 slots being reserved for English teams.
This means that if you win the Champions League but finish outside the top 4, there will be 5 English teams playing in the Champions League!
Is winning the FA Cup a big deal?
For the top clubs in English football, winning the FA Cup may not be such a big deal as they may have already secured a place in the Champions League from their position in the Premier League. However, the FA Cup may mean more to smaller clubs who want to use it as a way to play in European competitions.
If you ask a fan of the top 4 clubs in the Premier League, most would probably say that winning the Premier League would mean more than winning the FA Cup. This is because the top 4 clubs in the Premier League will be able to play in next seasons’ Champions League.
The Champions League is one of the most prestigious competitions that many players will dream to play in.
However, for the clubs who do not have a chance at getting Europe based on their league position, the FA Cup will mean so much more to them.
This is because winning the FA Cup gives the club a chance to play in the Europa League, but not the Champions League.
Due to the FA Cup’s long history, it can be a cup that is coveted by quite a few teams!
Apart from Wigan, Portsmouth was another club to have played in the Europa League due to winning the FA Cup final in 2007/08.
Winning the FA Cup will mean so much more to these clubs, compared to the top teams in England who would just add the FA Cup to their trophy cabinet.
Conclusion
Winning the FA Cup gives you a lot of benefits, especially if you are not in the top 4 of the Premier League. It is also possible for Welsh teams who play in England to win the FA Cup too, such as Cardiff City in 1927!
However, winning the FA Cup alone does not give you access to the Champions League. You will only receive a slot to play in the Europa League group stages!
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