FA Cup and Carabao Cup 2026/27: dates, format and money

Both English cups finished 2025/26 with the same name on them. Manchester City won the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup, a domestic double that also changed how this season's European places were handed out.

What happened last season

In the FA Cup final on 16 May at Wembley, City beat Chelsea 1-0 through an Antoine Semenyo goal just past the hour, a back-flick at the near post from Erling Haaland's low cross. It is the club's eighth FA Cup and their fourth consecutive final: no club had ever reached four in a row.

In the Carabao Cup, on 22 March, City beat Arsenal 2-0 through two Nico O'Reilly goals in the 60th and 64th minutes. It is their ninth League Cup and it made Pep Guardiola the first manager to win the competition five times, ahead of Clough, Ferguson and Mourinho.

The two shocks of the season

On 10 January 2026, at a sold-out Moss Rose in front of 5,348, sixth-tier Macclesfield beat Crystal Palace 2-1 — and Palace were the holders. Paul Dawson scored in the 43rd minute and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts in the 60th; Yéremy Pino pulled one back in the 90th. It is the biggest upset by league placings in FA Cup history: 117 places separated the two clubs. And the first holders beaten by a non-league side since 1909, when the club who did it were Crystal Palace themselves.

One detail weighed on the Macclesfield dressing room that day: their striker Ethan McLeod, 21, had died in a car crash in December, between the second and third rounds. His parents were at the ground and celebrated with the squad. Days later Crystal Palace tried to hand the sixth-tier club their entire 45% share of the gate; the FA wrote to both clubs and blocked it as a breach of competition rules.

The same afternoon, at another ground, City were beating League One's Exeter City 10-1 in front of 50,705: the biggest FA Cup win by a top-flight club since 1960. The whole character of the competition fits inside that one day.

Nor were those the only ones. Wrexham knocked out Nottingham Forest on penalties after a 3-3 draw, third-tier Mansfield won at Bramall Lane and at Turf Moor, Port Vale reached the quarter-finals for only the second time in their history by beating Sunderland, and Championship Southampton eliminated an Arsenal side on their way to the title.

And in the League Cup, on 27 August 2025, fourth-tier Grimsby Town knocked Manchester United out at Blundell Park: 2-2 after extra time and 12-11 in a twenty-four-penalty shootout.

The 2026/27 calendar

The FA Cup drew 743 entries. Six qualifying rounds whittle 651 clubs down to the 32 places available in the first round proper.

• First round (League One and League Two enter): Saturday 7 November 2026.
• Second round: Saturday 5 December 2026.
• Third round (Premier League and Championship enter): Saturday 9 January 2027.
• Fourth round 13 February, fifth 6 March, quarter-finals 3 April, semi-finals 24 April.
• Final: Saturday 22 May 2027 at Wembley.

The Carabao Cup needed a preliminary round, contested by Tranmere, Crawley, York City and Rochdale. The first round falls on the weekend of 7-9 August; the eleven Premier League clubs without European commitments enter in round two from 24 August, and the nine who are in Europe enter in round three in September. The semi-finals are two-legged, in January and February, and the final is on Sunday 21 March 2027 at Wembley.

Rules worth knowing

There are no replays in the FA Cup from the first round proper onwards: they were abolished from 2024/25 under an agreement between the FA and the Premier League to accommodate the expanded European calendar, and they remain gone in 2026/27. Every drawn tie is settled by two fifteen-minute periods of extra time and, if needed, penalties.

The FA Cup winner qualifies for the Europa League even if relegated or outside the top flight. The Carabao Cup winner enters the Conference League play-off round. This is not theoretical: City won both and were already in the Champions League, so both places cascaded down the Premier League table as far as eighth.

The money, which is where the gap shows

FA Cup prize money climbs in steps, and the big jump is from the last qualifying round to the first round proper: from £9,375 to £47,750, more than five times as much. Reaching the third round is worth £121,500 and winning the final pays £2,120,000.

On top of that, losing clubs are paid in the qualifying rounds and in the first three rounds proper, which turns every tie into real income for a small club. In the Carabao Cup the prize money is far smaller, and the value to modest clubs sits in gate receipts and broadcast fees rather than the cheque.

"A sixth-tier club was paid for knocking out the holders, and that cheque matters more in its budget than the two million in the winners' cheque does in theirs."

• Simulate the FA Cup round by round and decide who reaches Wembley.
• Fill in the whole Carabao Cup, two-legged semi-finals included.
• Engineer your own giant-killing and watch the bracket change.
• Share your finished bracket as an image once you have it.

"Open the FA Cup simulator and decide who lifts the oldest cup in football."