2021–22 FA Cup

2021–22 FA Cup

Football Association Challenge Cup
Wembley Stadium hosted the final on 14 May 2022
Tournament details
Country	England Wales Jersey
Dates	6 August 2021 – 14 May 2022
Teams	729 (all) 637 (qualifying competition) 124 (main competition)
Defending champions	Leicester City
Final positions
Champions	Liverpool (8th title)
Runner-up	Chelsea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	108
Goals scored	328 (3.04 per match)
Attendance	1,622,895 (15,027 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Adam Boyes (11 goals)[1]

The 2021–22 FA Cup was the 141st season and marked the 150th anniversary of the first Football Association Challenge Cup, the oldest football tournament in the world, started in the 1871–72 season. It was sponsored by Emirates and was known as the Emirates FA Cup for sponsorship purposes.

Premier League side Leicester City were the holders, having beaten Chelsea in the 2021 FA Cup Final.^[2] They were eliminated by Nottingham Forest in the fourth round.

Liverpool beat the two-time defending runners-up Chelsea on penalties in the final to win their 8th FA Cup overall and first since 2006.^[3] This was the fifth FA Cup final that has gone to extra time, with Chelsea becoming the first team to lose three consecutive finals.^[4] As winners, Liverpool would have qualified for the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League group stage; however, as they had already qualified for European competition via the league standings, the spot was passed down to the 6th-placed Premier League team.

Teams

The FA Cup is a knockout competition with 124 teams taking part (excluding those eliminated in the qualifying rounds) all trying to reach the Final at Wembley in May 2022. The competitors consist of the 92 teams from the Football League system (20 teams from the Premier League and the 72 in total from the EFL Championship, EFL League One and EFL League Two) plus the 32 surviving teams out of 637 teams from the National League System (levels 5–10 of the English football league system) that started the competition in qualifying rounds.^[5]

All rounds are drawn randomly, usually either at the completion of the previous round or on the evening of the last televised game of a round being played, depending on television broadcasting rights.

Round	Main date	Number of fixtures	Clubs remaining	New entries this round	Winner prize money	Loser prize money	Divisions entering this round
First round proper	Saturday 6 November 2021	40	124 → 84	48	£22,629	None	24 EFL League One teams 24 EFL League Two teams
Second round proper	Saturday 4 December 2021	20	84 → 64	None	£32,000	None	None
Third round proper	Saturday 8 January 2022	32	64 → 32	44	£82,000	None	20 Premier League teams 24 EFL Championship teams
Fourth round proper	Saturday 5 February 2022	16	32 → 16	None	£90,000	None	None
Fifth round proper	Wednesday 2 March 2022	8	16 → 8	None	£180,000	None	None
Quarter-finals	Saturday 19 March 2022	4	8 → 4	None	£360,000	None	None
Semi-finals	Saturday 16 April 2022	2	4 → 2	None	£900,000	£450,000	None
Final	Saturday 14 May 2022	1	2 → 1	None	£1,800,000	£900,000	None

Qualifying

Teams that are not members of either the Premier League or English Football League competed in the qualifying rounds to secure one of 32 available places in the first round proper. The six-round qualifying competition began with the Extra preliminary round on 6 August 2021.

First round proper

The first round saw the 32 winners from the fourth qualifying round joined by the 48 clubs from League One and League Two. The draw was held on 17 October 2021 at Wembley Stadium, and was done by Kelly Smith and Wes Morgan. The lowest-ranked team in the first round were AFC Sudbury of the eighth-tier Isthmian League North Division.

Second round proper

The second round featured the 40 winners from the first round. The draw was held on 8 November 2021 at Wembley Stadium, and was done by Shaun Wright-Phillips and Rachel Yankey. The lowest-ranked team in the second round were Buxton of the seventh-tier Northern Premier League Premier Division.

Third round proper

The third round featured all 44 clubs across the Premier League and the Championship, who entered the competition in this round, along with the 20 winners from the second round. The draw was held on 6 December 2021 at Wembley Stadium, and was done by David Seaman and Faye White.^[7] The lowest-ranked team in the third round were Kidderminster Harriers of the sixth-tier National League North. To avoid possible fixture congestion caused by postponements to league matches due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, matches from this round onwards are decided on the day, with extra time and penalties used if necessary.^[8]

Fourth round proper

The draw for the fourth round was held on 9 January 2022 at Wembley Stadium, and was done by David James and Leah Williamson.^[10] The lowest-ranked team in the fourth round were Kidderminster Harriers of the sixth-tier National League North.^[11]

Fifth round proper

The draw for the fifth round was held on 6 February 2022 at Wembley Stadium, and was done by Andy Cole.^[12] The matches were played during the week commencing Monday 28 February 2022.^[13] The lowest-ranked team in the fifth round were Boreham Wood of the fifth-tier National League.

Quarter-finals

The draw was held on 3 March 2022 at Wembley Stadium, and was conducted by England national football team manager Gareth Southgate.^[14] The lowest-ranked teams in the quarter-finals were Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest, both of the second-tier EFL Championship.^[15][16]

On 15 March, Chelsea requested to play their game against Middlesbrough behind closed doors, due to them being unable to sell any more than the season tickets and 500–600 regular tickets sold before 10 March, after the Russian owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK over his links to Vladimir Putin. This would have meant no one would be able to attend, including Middlesbrough fans whose tickets already had sold out. Chelsea's request was withdrawn the same day under criticism from the FA and Middlesbrough.^[17]

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals was held on 20 March 2022 by former England international Robbie Fowler.^[18]

Final

Top scorers

Following the conclusion of the competition, Marske United player Adam Boyes was awarded the FA Cup Golden Ball Award, commemorating him as the top scorer of the season from the extra preliminary round through to the final with eleven goals.^[19]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[20]
1	Riyad Mahrez	Manchester City	4
	Jayden Stockley	Charlton Athletic
3	Ryan Bowman	Shrewsbury Town	3
	Jordon Garrick	Plymouth Argyle
	Harry Kane	Tottenham Hotspur
	Callum Lang	Wigan Athletic
	Romelu Lukaku	Chelsea
	Emiliano Marcondes	Bournemouth
	Bryan Mbeumo	Brentford
	Takumi Minamino	Liverpool
	Ollie Palmer	AFC Wimbledon
	Scott Quigley	Stockport County
	James Wilson	Port Vale

Television rights in the United Kingdom

The domestic broadcasting rights for the competition were held by the BBC who had held them since 2014-15 and ITV who were showing matches for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
The following matches were broadcast live on UK television:

Round	Date	Teams	Kick-off	TV Channel
First round	5 November	AFC Sudbury v Colchester United	7:55pm	BBC Two
	6 November	Banbury United v Barrow	5:15pm	ITV4
	7 November	Sheffield Wednesday v Plymouth Argyle	12:15pm	ITV
		Stratford Town v Shrewsbury Town	3:00pm	ITV4
		St Albans City v Forest Green Rovers	5:15pm	BBC Two
	8 November	Dagenham & Redbridge v Salford City	7:45pm	ITV4
First round (Replay)	16 November	Solihull Moors v Wigan Athletic	7:45pm	ITV4
	17 November	Stockport County v Bolton Wanderers	7:45pm	BBC Two
Second round	3 December	Gateshead v Charlton Athletic	7:45pm	ITV4
	4 December	Buxton v Morecambe	12:45pm	BBC One
		Yeovil Town v Stevenage	5.30pm	BBC Two
	5 December	Rochdale v Plymouth Argyle	12:15pm	ITV
		Salford City v Chesterfield	5:15pm	ITV4
	6 December	Boreham Wood v St Albans City	7:45pm	ITV4
Second round (Replay)	15 December 2023	Barrow v Ipswich Town	7:45pm	ITV4
Third round[21]	7 January	Swindon Town v Manchester City	8:00pm	ITV
	8 January	Millwall v Crystal Palace	12:45pm	ITV
		Hull City v Everton	5:30pm	BBC One
		Swansea City v Southampton	5:30pm	BBC One Wales
		Chelsea v Chesterfield	5:30pm	BBC Red Button
		Yeovil Town v Bournemouth	5:45pm	BBC Red Button
	9 January	Cardiff City v Preston North End	2:00pm	S4C
		West Ham United v Leeds United	2:15pm	ITV
		Nottingham Forest v Arsenal	5:15pm	ITV
	10 January	Manchester United v Aston Villa	7:55pm	BBC One
Fourth round	4 February	Manchester United v Middlesbrough	8:00pm	ITV
	5 February	Kidderminster Harriers v West Ham United	12:30pm	BBC One
		Chelsea v Plymouth Argyle	12:30pm	BBC Red Button
		Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton & Hove Albion	8:00pm	ITV4
	4 February	Liverpool v Cardiff City	12:00pm	ITV
		Nottingham Forest v Leicester City	4:00pm	BBC One
		Cambridge United v Luton Town	5:30pm	BBC Red Button
		Bournemouth v Boreham Wood	6:30pm	ITV4
Fifth round[22]	1 March	Peterborough United v Manchester City	7:15pm	ITV
		Crystal Palace v Stoke City	7:30pm	BBC Red Button
		Middlesbrough v Tottenham Hotspur	7:55pm	BBC One
	2 March	Luton Town v Chelsea	7:15pm	BBC One
		Southampton v West Ham United	7:30pm	BBC Red Button
		Liverpool v Norwich City	8:15pm	ITV
	3 March	Everton v Boreham Wood	8:15pm	ITV
	7 March	Nottingham Forest v Huddersfield Town	8:15pm	ITV4
Quarter-finals[23]	19 March	Middlesbrough v Chelsea	5:15pm	BBC One
	20 March	Crystal Palace v Everton	12:30pm	ITV
		Southampton v Manchester City	3:00pm	BBC One
		Nottingham Forest v Liverpool	6:00pm	ITV
Semi-finals	16 April	Manchester City v Liverpool	3:30pm	BBC One
	17 April	Chelsea v Crystal Palace	4:30pm	ITV1
Final	14 May	Chelsea v Liverpool	4:45pm	BBC One
				ITV1

Broadcast partners for other countries can be found on the FA's website.

References