FA Amateur Cup

The FA Amateur Cup was an

Following the legalisation of professionalism within football, professional teams quickly came to dominate the sport's main national

The first tournament attracted 81 entrants, with three qualifying rounds used to reduce the number down to 32 for the first round proper.[3] For the following season, the previous season's semi-finalists joined at the first round proper along with other leading clubs chosen by the FA, with the numbers made up by teams progressing through the qualifying rounds.^[4] This remained the standard format until 1907, when the number of entrants to the first round was doubled to 64 and the number of rounds prior to the semi-finals increased to four. The competition continued under this format until it was discontinued in 1974.

Venues

Matches in the Amateur Cup were played at the home ground of one of the two teams, as decided when the matches are drawn. Occasionally games were moved to other grounds. In the event of a

The final was held at various grounds in the early years of the competition, with a venue located somewhere in between the home towns of the two participating clubs usually chosen. In 1949 the final moved to Wembley Stadium, and was then played there every year until the competition ended. In the 1950s attendances for the final reached 100,000, comparable to the FA Cup final itself.^[2]

Winners and finalists

Almost all of the winners over the years were from either the

• A. ^ Clapton did not play in a league at the time of the club's first Amateur Cup win, but played in the Isthmian League at the time of the remaining four victories.

See also

• FA Sunday Cup

References

Further reading

• Morris, Terry (2015). In A Class of Their Own: A History of English Amateur Football. Chequered Flag Publishing.
  ISBN 978-0-9932152-4-7
  .