Country England
Scotland Champions Wanderers Dates 19 Oct 1872 – 29 Mar 1873 Teams 16 Matches played 13 | Defending champions Wanderers Runners-up Oxford University Champion Wanderers F.C. Goals scored 35 | |
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The Football Association Challenge Cup 1872–73 was the second staging of the FA Cup, England's oldest national football tournament. Sixteen teams entered, one more than the previous season, although two of the sixteen teams never actually played a match.
Contents
In keeping with the original concept of it being a "challenge" cup, the holders, Wanderers, were given a bye all the way to the final, for which they were also allowed to select the venue. This was the only season in which the holders were granted these privileges.
Queen's Park were given byes until the semi-finals in order to reduce the amount of travelling necessary, but then withdrew anyway when scheduled to play Oxford University, who therefore received a walk-over to the final.
Format
First Round: 14 teams (all except Queen's Park and defending champions Wanderers) would play, each match eliminating the loser
Second Round: 6 teams (Royal Engineers getting a bye) would play, the winners advancing
Third Round: The 3 winners and Royal Engineers would play. The winners would advance
Fourth Round: The two remaining teams from the Third Round would play, the winner facing Queen's Park
Semi-Final: The Fourth Round team would face Queen's Park. However, this was not needed as Queen's Park withdrew
Final: The Semi-Final team would face Wanderers, the defending champion.
Final
Wanderers were exempt until the final as the 1871–72 Cup winners.
The final was played at Lillie Bridge. The attendance of 3,000 was considered low and attributed to the Boat Race occurring later in the same day, so few turned up or in fact stayed for the whole duration of the game.