Bigger prize will reward FA Cup glory seekers, says FA chief

THE Football Association and The Non-League Paper have teamed up to bring you a series of exclusive columns and features.This week, it’s the turn of The FA’s Head of Professional Game Relations Andy Ambler, who gives his views on the FA Cup, prize money and replays.
THE EARLY rounds of the Emirates FA Cup are so special.
It’s a true reflection of our FA For All message. When you say to people who only follow professional football that there are 737 teams in the FA Cup, they often reply, ‘Really?’ It’s down to us to get across just how unique this wonderful competition is, as many readers already know.
It means so much at this stage for so many people. First, there’s being part of it. When Arsenal lifted the Emirates FA Cup at Wembley last season, players, managers and clubs would have been watching saying they’ve played in it – around 11,000 players play in the competition each season. That’s a phenomenal amount of people in a senior cup competition.
For some clubs reaching the fourth round qualifying stage is a huge achievement. That’s why we’re so delighted the BBC are putting the spotlight on the competition by streaming a game from these early rounds live online.
Yesterday people could log on and watch South Shields v Bridlington Town. It’s a real acknowledgment of the Cup and how big it is.
Of course, one of the big ways the FA support clubs throughout the National League System is through the prize money.
In the extra preliminary round alone, nearly £300,000 – £1,500 for each club – is shared out. Even before we get to the first round qualifying, around £600,000 worth of prize money is up for grabs.
I know there are a lot of teams and it’s spread between them, but that’s still a lot of money to clubs at this level.
We’re very aware about how prize money is divided up to clubs throughout the Pyramid in each round.
We’re looking at changes from 2018-19. Bear in mind we have to take all clubs into consideration and get views, but we know from next season the international broadcasting rights have increased, while Emirates have committed to sponsoring the competition for a longer term.
It would be very easy to say the international rights are more geared to the pro clubs. We have to be realistic – you don’t get those rights without the elite clubs.
But we’re working on a bigger prize fund going forward. I can’t say it will all go down the Pyramid but I’d like to think we can increase the winnings in the earlier rounds.

The total amount of money distributed to clubs in the competition is currently around £28m a year. Nearly £3m of that goes to the Non-League clubs ahead of the first round. That’s without the added TV extras Sutton United and             Lincoln City benefitted from last year.  A stat really hit me when I joined the FA nine months ago. The FA put £125m back into the game – that’s the most of any governing body, not just in football, but any sport in the world.
The FA Cup plays a big part in that because it generates a lot of money. To put nearly £30m of that figure specifically into the Emirates FA Cup shows how the competition can rightly be used as a redistribution model.
There’s obviously a flipside. You have to put a decent prize on the table for the winners. We need the big clubs to take the competition seriously, otherwise we don’t get the broadcasting deals that we’ve got. It’s a balance. I’m convinced there will be more money in future years, but we have to see how that pans out with negotiations here at the FA between the Board, the National Game Board and the Professional Game Board.
The other question is: When money goes down to clubs in the National League and below, what are they going to do with the extra money? Of course we’d like to see them increase and improve facilities.
If it’s just going to go on a new striker, is that what we want to see? Again, it’s a balance. You can argue that it’s prize money and a club has the right to spend how it sees fit.
If you look at a Step 5 club like Westfields, who got to the first round proper last season for the first time in their 50-year history, they’ve built a new stand on the back of it.
I spoke to their chairman Andrew Morris about their journey – that’s what the FA Cup did for them. It’s a fantastic story. The community came together to go to their historic game against Curzon Ashton. The FA Cup can galvanise a community.
I went to see Stourbridge play Wycombe in the third round last year. It’s a big club with lots of junior teams. They were all at the game. It was great to see.
So, yes, the Cup and the money it generates clubs is important – but it’s also about so much more.