10 fun facts you might not know about the FA Cup
- Published
Did you know, the FA cup is officially the world鈥檚 oldest football competition. The first games were played in November 1871, that's a pretty long time ago.
The first FA Cup final was held at the Kennington Oval in London on the 16th March 1872. The Oval is now more famous for being a cricket ground where the England team often play. The Royal Engineers team in the picture played in the first final and lost 1-0 to the Wanderers.
Over the years, a total of 43 teams have won the FA Cup, however Arsenal have won it more times then any other team in the history of the competition. This picture shows them winning it for the 13th time in 2017
Portsmouth hold the record for the most years in possession of the FA cup - they had it sitting in the trophy cabinet for a whopping seven years in a row. Unfortunately for Portsmouth fans they didn't win it 7 times back to back. They were, in fact, the last team to win the cup before World War II broke out and the competition was postponed for 7 years.
The FA Cup is now quite well known for having coloured ribbons of the previous winner attached to it, but did you know that on the day of the final the Cup is decorated at the start of the game with ribbons from both teams playing. The loser鈥檚 ribbons are then removed at the final whistle.
Only one team has ever won the Cup and then been relegated in the same season that was Roberto Mart铆nez's Wigan in 2013 when they dropped out of the Premiership in the same year as they won the trophy.
The FA Cup has seen a lot of goals over the years but only one man has scored in four different FA Cup Finals and that's Didier Drogba.
Despite the competition starting in 1871 it took over 113 years for the first player to be sent off in an FA cup final. That unwelcome record is held by Kevin Moran who saw red in 1985 playing for Manchester United.
Spare a thought now for Leicester City, they've got to the final of the competition 4 times and have lost every single one. They are one of 14 teams to have made it all the way to an FA Cup final but have never won the competition.
The fastest goal ever scored in an FA Cup final was by Louis Saha. It took him just 25 seconds to open the scoring against Chelsea in 2009. Despite this Everton still went on to lose the final 2-1.
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