FA Cup Replicas | thetrophycollector

FA Cup Replica Trophy

Fun Fact: Liverpool's Ian Rush is the record scorer in FA Cup final history with 5 goals.

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football. The FA Cup was first held in 1871–72, and is the oldest association football competition in the world. Because it involves clubs of all standards playing against each other, there is the possibility for "minnows" from the lower divisions to become "giant-killers" by eliminating top clubs from the tournament and even theoretically to win the Cup, although lower division teams rarely reach the final.

At the end of the final, the winning team is presented with the FA Cup trophy, which they hold until the following year's final. Traditionally at Wembley finals, the presentation is made at the Royal Box, with players, led by the captain, mounting a staircase to a gangway in front of the box to lift the trophy.

Fun Fact: Littlewoods were the first ever sponsors of the FA Cup in 1994.

The current FA Cup trophy is the fourth, and was bought by the FA in 1911. It was 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 by Toye, Kenning and Spencer and has been in use since the 1992 final. A "backup" trophy was made alongside the existing trophy in 1992, but it has not been used so far, and will only be used if the current trophy is lost, damaged or destroyed.

As well as being presented with the trophy, the winning team also qualifies for the UEFA Europa League (formerly named the UEFA Cup). If the winners have already qualified for the UEFA Champions League via the Premier League, the UEFA Europa League place goes to the FA Cup runners-up. If they also have qualified for the UEFA Champions League, or are not entitled to play in UEFA competitions for any reason, the place goes to the next highest placed finisher in the league table. Source: Wikipedia