FA Cup, 2020

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FA Cup 2019-20 season review

  • The final of the 139th edition of the FA Cup was held at Wembley Stadium on 1 August 2020.
  • Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, professional football in England had been suspended on 13 March 2020.
  • On 29 May 2020, the Football Association announced that the FA Cup would resume on the weekend of 27 and 28 June at the quarter-final stage. Due to government restrictions, all remaining ties - including the final - would be played behind closed doors.
  • This became the latest date (1 August) that the final had been played in the competition's history. Chelsea also played in the earliest FA Cup Final. The 1970 final against Leeds United was played on 11 April due to the Football Association's request to allow the England team to prepare for their defence of the World Cup in Mexico.
  • A total of 736 clubs competed with the Extra preliminary round commencing on 10 August 2019.
  • Manchester City were the defending holders having beaten Watford 6-0 in the final on 18 May 2019.
  • As well as the trophy, the winners earned £3.6million (£6.8million in total, including payments from previous rounds) from the FA Cup prize fund.
  • As the winners, Arsenal qualified for the group stage of the UEFA Europa League in 2020-21. They had now qualified for European competition in 25 consecutive seasons.
  • The Gunners had now reached a record 21 FA Cup finals and had now also won the competition a record 14 times.
  • This was Chelsea's 14th FA Cup final; only Arsenal (21) and Manchester United (20) had now played in more.
  • The final was officially titled the Heads Up FA Cup Final as part of a the Football Association's campaign regarding mental health awareness promoted by the FA president, Prince William.
  • In a break with tradition, to minimise the risk of spreading coronavirus, the players collected the trophy and medals on the pitch without a presentation party.
  • As the officials' families would not be allowed to attend, Anthony Taylor became the first referee to take charge of more than one FA Cup final since Arthur Kingscott in 1901.
  • The domestic broadcasting rights were awarded to the BBC and BT Sport.
  • This was the fifth year of a sponsorship deal with a Dubai-based airline when the FA Cup was rebranded as the Emirates FA Cup.
  • This was the second of a three-year partnership with football supplier, Mitre. The Delta Max model was used.
  • This was the second season that a sudden-death format (extra-time and penalties, if required) was applied from the 5th round stage. Therefore, replays were only played up to and including the 4th round.
  • The 5th round ties were all played in midweek.
  • This was the fourth year that allowed for a fourth substitution during the extra-time period.
  • Following IFAB approved amendments to regulations when games resumed in June 2020, from the quarter-finals onwards, nine players could be selected on the substitutes bench with up to five allowed to be used (a sixth could be used in extra-time, if required).
  • The traditional alternative-style format was used for penalty shoot-outs.
  • As only Premier League stadiums contained the required permanent camera angles, VAR was only made available at selected ties, in addition to the semi-finals and final at Wembley.
  • The total attendance of the 149 ties in the proper rounds up to and including the 5th round was 1,567,754; an average of 10,522.
  • Details shown under the 'Goal scorers' tab on this page refer to Premier League clubs in the 2019-20 season only.