FA Cup, 2022

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FA Cup 2021-22 season review

  • In the 150th anniversary season of the world's oldest cup competition, the Final of the 141st edition of the FA Cup was held at Wembley Stadium on 14 May 2022.
  • This was the seventh year of the title sponsorship deal with a Dubai-based airline. The FA Cup would now be branded as the Emirates FA Cup until 2024.
  • With the football calendar returning to its familiar format following the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the extra preliminary round commenced on 6 August 2021.
  • 729 clubs entered: a decrease of eight from 2020-21. This included a total of 637 clubs in the qualifying rounds.
  • Due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, replays were removed from the 3rd round onwards with ties going to extra time and penalties, if required.
  • The 5th round ties were all played in midweek.
  • From the total FA Cup prize fund of £15.9million, the winners received £3.4million.
  • With the winter increase of COVID-19 cases, the Welsh government ruled that spectators would not be allowed to attend football matches. The 3rd round ties at Cardiff City and Swansea City were, therefore, played behind closed doors.
  • With all other restrictions removed, attendances in the proper rounds totalled 1,622,895; an average of 15,027.
  • Liverpool won their eighth FA Cup Final, their first since 2006 and first at Wembley since 1992.
  • Following their League Cup success, Jürgen Klopp's Reds also became the first team to win both domestic cup competitions in the same season since 2000-01.
  • Chelsea became the first team to lose FA Cup Finals in three consecutive seasons.
  • This was the first FA Cup Final played at Wembley that went to a penalty shoot-out and the first at Wembley to remain goalless after 120 minutes.
  • The domestic broadcasting rights were awarded to the BBC, ITV and S4C. BBC and ITV both broadcast the Final live for the first time since 1988.
  • 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.
  • Previous IFAB approved amendments to regulations allowed nine players to 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.
  • Details shown under the 'Goal scorers' tab on this page refer to Premier League clubs in the 2021-22 season only.