Winning the FA Cup is about more than just a shiny piece of silverware and a trip to Wembley. For the big boys like Manchester City or Liverpool, the prize money might look like pocket change compared to their Champions League checks. But for a club like Maidstone United or a struggling League Two side, a deep run can literally keep the lights on for a decade. Honestly, the financial ladder of the FA Cup is one of the most complex, weird, and fascinating things in English football.
It isn't just about the final. Not even close.
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The Breakdown: Where the Cash Actually Goes
The FA Cup prize money starts trickling down way before the Premier League teams even wake up for the Third Round. Most people don't realize that over 700 clubs enter this thing. We are talking about teams with half-built stands and players who work as plumbers on Mondays.
For the 2025/26 season, the money has been weighted heavily toward those early rounds. This was basically a peace offering from the FA after they scrapped replays—a move that made a lot of people very angry. To make up for the lost ticket sales, they boosted the payouts for the "minnows."
Here is how the money flows through the main stages:
- First Round Proper: Winners bag £45,000. Even the losers walk away with £15,000 now.
- Third Round Proper: This is the big one where the Premier League enters. A win here is worth £115,000.
- The Final: The team that lifts the trophy gets £2,000,000. The runners-up still get £1,000,000.
If a Premier League team enters in the Third Round and wins the whole thing, they accumulate about £3.9 million in total prize funds. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, sort of. When you consider that Erling Haaland reportedly makes nearly £400,000 a week, the entire prize for winning the oldest cup in the world covers his salary for about ten weeks. Kinda puts things in perspective.
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The Real Jackpot: Gate Receipts and TV
If you talk to any chairman of a lower-league club, they’ll tell you the prize money is just the appetizer. The real meal is the gate receipt split.
In the FA Cup, the rules are old-school. Total ticket sales from a match are pooled together. The FA takes 10%, and then the two clubs split the remaining 90% right down the middle. This is 45-45. It doesn’t matter if the game is at a 5,000-capacity stadium or at Old Trafford.
Imagine you’re a League Two side and you draw Manchester United away. You get 45% of the revenue from 74,000 tickets. That can easily top £1 million in a single afternoon. For a small club, that isn’t just a "bonus." It’s a new training ground. It’s three years of wages. It’s survival.
Then you have the broadcast fees. If the BBC or ITV decides your game is the "giant-killer" narrative of the week, you get a facility fee. In the early rounds, this is often around £50,000 to £100,000 just for letting the cameras in.
Why the 2024/25 Changes Still Sting
The FA Cup prize money was bumped up recently, specifically to soften the blow of losing replays. Historically, a "draw" was the best result a small team could hope for. It meant bringing the big team back to their tiny home ground for a second match, doubling the TV and ticket income.
The FA added roughly £2.4 million to the early-round prize pool to compensate.
Is it enough? Some say yes, because more teams get guaranteed money even if they lose. Others argue that the "lottery win" of a replay was the soul of the competition. Honestly, it’s a trade-off between stability and the rare, life-changing windfall.
The Women's FA Cup: A Growing Pot
We can't talk about the money without mentioning the Adobe Women’s FA Cup. For a long time, the prize gap was embarrassing. It’s still smaller than the men's game, but it has grown massively.
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The winners of the Women’s FA Cup final now take home £430,000. Compare that to a few years ago when the winner got £25,000, and you see the trajectory. The FA is clearly trying to make the competition commercially viable on its own merits, though the "losers' fees" in the women's game are still quite low compared to the men's side.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Clubs
If you’re following your team’s journey or just want to understand the stakes, keep these things in mind:
- Watch the draws closely. An "away" draw at a massive stadium is often worth more than winning three rounds against smaller opponents.
- Loser payments matter. Check the "losers' fee" for the current round. It ensures that even a knockout doesn't leave a club in debt for travel costs.
- The "Haaland Metric." Use the prize money to understand club's motivations. A mid-table Premier League team might rotate their squad because the £115k win isn't worth the risk of a star player getting injured. For a Championship side, that same money might be the difference in passing Financial Fair Play rules.
The magic of the FA Cup isn't just about the 90 minutes on the pitch. It's about the ledger. It's about a small-town club earning enough in one weekend to secure their future for years. While the millions at the top get the headlines, the thousands at the bottom are what keep the English football pyramid alive.
The next step for any curious fan is to look at your local club's financial statements after a cup run. You’ll see the "Cup Income" line item, and you'll realize just how much every tackle and every goal was actually worth in cold, hard cash.