Having once seemed to be on the decline, the FA Cup’s upturn in popularity was epitomised this weekend with an explosive round of fixtures.
As well as dramatic wins over Premier league rivals for the likes of Liverpool and Aston Villa, upsets favouring the likes of Crawley town gave the competition the sort of underdog victory that has become almost obligatory in the World’s oldest club football cup competition.
But whilst ‘The Magic of the Cup’ is alive and well on the pitch, another sort of magic is happening off it as the FA and Deloitte have calculated that the Cup puts £650m back into participating English Clubs!
This rather excellent infographic details some of the biggest winners over the past few seasons, including (then) non-league Crawley Town who pocketed around £1m for their match-up with Manchester United last season:
