FA Cup to increase prize money to offset lack of replays
Nearly £2.5m extra will be handed out in prize money for this season’s FA Cup in the first year without replays.
The Football Association announced last season that the 2024-25 edition of the competition would scrap replays from the first round onwards, causing outrage among many football league clubs who gained financially out of the extra matches.
But it appears, according to PA, that an extra £2.44m in FA Cup prize money will be awarded across the first three rounds in an attempt to limit the damage.
A number of clubs in spring wrote to the then Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer asking the former minister to call for a return of replays as part of a revamped Football Governance Bill.
The new Labour government has said they will make changes to the bill, which has not returned to parliament yet, but it is uncertain as to whether replays would be included in that.
And extra £760,000 in prizes will be freed up for the first round, with an additional £560,000 for round two and £1.12m in round three – at which point the Championship and Premier League sides enter the knockout competition.
The aforementioned increase in early stage prize money is said to be the outcome of an agreement reached by the FA’s professional game board, which includes Premier League representation.
The FA Cup first round draw has been scheduled for 14 October.