The Football Association Challenge Cup or as it is more commonly known the FA cup has become embedded in the hearts of the British nation, whether they follow football or not the FA cup final is watched by millions every year, regardless of which teams are playing.
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The most heart-warming aspect of the FA cup is that every team regardless of their status has a chance of getting to the final and lifting the cup, which is probably why so many people make space in their life for the FA cup final. From the humblest local town or village club to the top flyers all teams have an equal chance of glory, and throughout the history of the FA cup competition there have been numerous occasions, when a small local club have taken on the might of the giants and won, this is what makes the FA cup competition so popular, even part-time, non-professional clubs have the chance to run with the big boys.
Established in 1871 the FA cup is the oldest football competition in the world, the final being hosted annually, at the world famous Wembley Stadium, just outside of London, England, the FA cup final is considered to be the original footballing competition and trophy.
With more than 750 clubs, from England and Wales, taking part in the competition every year, rounds for the FA cup re played off by the clubs using a ‘knockout’ formula, sadly today many of the top premier league teams no longer consider the FA cup to be an important competition, preferring instead to concentrate most of their efforts on competitions such as the Barclays League and the Champions League. The bigger clubs have a tendency to field their less experienced players for FA cup games, which often results in the big clubs being knocked out of the competition at an early stage leaving them free to concentrate on, what many of them now deem to be, the more important alternative competitions. Many argue that this is a good thing, giving the lower ranked and financially less endowed clubs a chance at the silver ware. However, regardless of the politics the FA cup final remains a firm favourite with the public, football supporter or not.
Traditionally the winners of the FA cup and the winners of the Premier League play a one of match called the FA Community Shield, in which they compete for the honour of holding the Community Shield for that year. The competition used to be called the Charity Shield.
Entry to the FA cup competition is open to all Premier and Football League clubs, as well as clubs in steps one to five with a selection of step 6 clubs in the FA National League. This means the competition is open to all clubs in England and Wales, although currently only 6 Welsh clubs choose to compete, as they have their own Welsh FA cup and leagues. Although the smaller lower division clubs rarely progress past the early stages of the tournament, there have been exceptions and in theory at least there always remains the chance of a local village team getting all the way to the final at Wembley.
In most recent years the non-league club Crawley Town FC battled their way past the 5th round. (2011), while in the 2007-8 season Chasetown FC found themselves playing against Cardiff City in the third round of the competition. Sadly Chasetown lost the match 3 -1, Cardiff went on the play in the FA cup final.
The trophy or cup its self has an interesting history, the original trophy was stolen in 1895 from a shop in Birmingham, where it had been on display, Aston Villa football club (the then holders), were charged £25 by the FA in order to make a replacement cup. Some 60 years later the thief admitted he had stolen the trophy and it had been melted down and been used to make counterfeit half-crown coins. 
The replica cup was used till 1910, when it was presented to Lord Kinnaird (a long serving president of the Football Association), the trophy was sold in 2005 for £420,000, bought by David Gold, (then joint chairman of Birmingham City FC), the trophy is on loan and on display at the National Football Museum, Preston, Lancashire.
In 1911 a new and larger trophy was commissioned by the FA, the honour went to Fattorini’s of Bradford, Yorkshire and by coincidence was won by Bradford City FC the same year. Now too fragile to be used, an exact replica was made by Toye, Kenning and Spencer, which has been used since 1992. The FA also had a second replica produced at the same time, to be used if the first should become damaged, lost or destroyed.
The Football Association also run other competitions for the smaller clubs including, North Wales Coast FA Cup trophy, the FA Vase and competitions for female football teams.