Founded 1970 Number of teams 262 (2015–16) Most successful club(s) Arsenal
(14 titles) | Region England Current champions Arsenal
(14 titles) Television broadcasters BBC | |
The Football Association Women's Challenge Cup Competition, commonly referred to as the FA Women's Cup, is the top cup competition for women's football clubs in England – designed as an exact equivalent to the FA Cup.
Contents
The competition began in 1970–71 as the Mitre Challenge Trophy, organised by the Women's Football Association (WFA). There were 71 entrants, including teams from Scotland and Wales.
Since the Football Association (FA) took over direct control of English women's football in 1993, the teams affiliated with male FA Premier League and Football League counterparts have dominated the re–branded competition. Arsenal currently hold the record for most titles, having won ten times.
The FA Women's Cup often shared sponsorship with its men's equivalent (but not with the 2012 to 2014 sponsor, Budweiser). The current cup holders are Arsenal. They beat Chelsea 1–0 in the final at Wembley Stadium on 14 May 2016.
The FA Women's Cup trophy was one of the first prestigious trophies to be made in the Thomas Lyte silver workshop.
Format
As with the men's tournament, clubs from higher leagues do not have to enter at the early qualifying rounds. The current entry point after the league (Women's Premier League) restructuring is.
The other clubs are drawn to either play in the Preliminary Round or have a bye to the First Qualifying round. There are three Qualifying rounds, which are played on a geographical basis.
List of finals
The finals so far:
Performance by club
From 2000 until 2008, the Cup winner competed with the FA Women's Premier League National Division winners for the FA Women's Community Shield.
A. ^ Everton L.F.C. were previously known as Leasowe Pacific.
Media coverage
In the late 1980s and early 1990s television coverage of the WFA final was provided by Channel 4.
Between 2001–2008 the final of the tournament was covered by BBC TV, presented by Celina Hinchcliffe, Rebecca Lowe, Ray Stubbs and Jake Humphrey, the punditry team was usually current players like Sue Scott and commentary usually by Steve Wilson and Lucy Ward or Faye White and always played on May Day Bank Holiday. The final was also simulcast on BBC Radio Five Live. In 2009 the final was moved to ITV1 with commentary from Jon Champion and Lucy Ward. Sky Sports secured a three-year deal for live coverage from 2010 until 2012. However, when the Sky Deal ended the Women's FA Cup Final returned to BBC alongside the FA Cup as people had discontent that Sky broke away from the penalties last year and only showed it on the red button. In the last 2 years coverage has been presented by Jacqui Oatley alongside Sue Smith, Faye White and Michael Grey with commentary by Jonathan Pearce and Lucy Ward.
Sponsorship
Sponsors of the original WFA competition (1970–1993) included Mitre, Pony wines and Mycil.
Below is a list of sponsors of the FA competition:
From 2007, Tesco obtained additional branding and advertising rights through their partnership agreement with the FA. Despite sponsorship by these major companies, entering the tournament actually costs clubs more than they get in prize money. In 2015 it was reported that even if Notts County had won the tournament outright the paltry £8,600 winnings would leave them out of pocket. The winners of the men's FA Cup in the same year received £1.8 million, with teams not even reaching the first round proper getting more than the women's winners.