COMING SOON: Follow the FA Cup

We all remember the song from the Wizard of Oz- ‘follow the yellow brick road’. Well here at everything sport I am about to follow a yellow brick road although I’m inclined to say it’s more a tinge of gold, as this road will lead to Wembley on Saturday 12^th May 2012 for the FA Cup’s first ever  17.15 kick off.

While many Premier League players were still topping up their tan in early August or Premier League clubs were adding to their already mountains of money by playing a few friendlies in a far east country, for hundreds of non-league sides they were kicking off their FA Cup campaigns in the extra preliminary rounds.

No matter what your age, England’s oldest cup competition has a special place in every football fans heart and at some point every fan will be able to recall their favourite FA Cup moment. Whether it be Sutton United beating Coventry in the 1989-1990 season or even as recently as Crawley dumping out Derby County last season, we all have our memories.

So the new project that I am starting up on my blog is one similar to the FA website where they pick a side at the beginning of the competition and follow them through the early stages, picking up the winners if that side should lose as their team to follow.

I am aiming to blog about the games beforehand which will include a fans view as well as some updates from the clubs involved in the game.

Being a Margate FC fan I thought it would only be fair to choose them as my team to follow this season. 

Margate kick off their FA Cup campaign on the 17^th September in the first qualifying round at home to Tooting & Mitcham, both sides play their football in the Ryman Premier Division.

I hope you will follow my adventure this season through the world’s most loved cup competition.

For those of you that don’t know the route the final of the competition, below is a guide to what teams join along the way and how much each win is worth for the club.

Follow the FA Cup guide:

First Qualifying Round (Winners earn £3,000)

Clubs from the Ryman Premier, Zameretto Premier and Evo-Stick division’s join those club’s that have progressed through from the extra preliminary rounds.

Second Qualifying Round (Winners earn £4,500)

All winners from the first qualifying round are joined by clubs in the Blue Square Bet South and North divisions- Clubs include, Dover FC, Chelmsford City, and Boston United.

Third Qualifying Round (Winners earn £7,500)

All winners from the second qualifying round play in this round.

Fourth Qualifying Round (Winners earn £12,500)

All winners from the third qualifying round are joined in this round by all Blue Square Bet Premier Division teams. Sides include- Darlington, Wrexham and Lincoln City.

First Round Proper (Winners earn £18,000)

All winners from the fourth qualifying round are joined by all teams from Leagues One and Two. Teams that join here include- Huddersfield, Charlton, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday.

Second Round Proper (Winners earn £27,000)

All winners from the first round proper play in this round.

Third Round Proper (Winners earn £67,500)

All winners from the second round proper are joined at this stage by all Premier League sides and Championship sides. Teams including Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all enter.

Fourth Round Proper (Winners earn £90,000)

All winners from the third round proper play in this round.  

Fifth Round Proper (Winners earn £180,000)

All winners from the fourth round proper play in this round.

Sixth Round Proper (Winners earn £360,000)

All winners from the fifth round proper play in this round.

Semi Finals (Winners earn £900,000)

Two semi-final games are played over one weekend at the national stadium Wembley.

Final (Winner earns £1,800,000)

To be played at Wembley stadium on the 12^th May 2012 between the winners of the semi-final games.

I hope you will check back soon and follow my adventure starting with that game between Margate FC and Tooting & Mitcham but in the meantime let me know your favourite FA Cup moment and who you will be supporting in this years competition.