1996–97 FA Cup 1996–97 FA Cup The 1996–97 FA Cup (known as The FA Cup sponsored by Littlewoods for sponsorship reasons) was the 116th season of the FA Cup. The tournament started in August 1996 for clubs from non-league football and the competition proper started in October 1996 for teams from the Premier League and the Football League. The tournament was won by Chelsea with a 2–0 victory over Middlesbrough in the final at Wembley stadium. The First Round featured those non-league teams who had come through the qualifying rounds and the teams from the third and fourth tiers of the English football
2009–10 FA Cup qualifying rounds 2009–10 FA Cup qualifying rounds The 2009–10 FA Cup Qualifying Rounds opened the 129th season of competition in England for 'The Football Association Challenge Cup' (FA Cup), the world's oldest association football single knockout competition. As in the previous year, 762 clubs were accepted for the competition. The large number of clubs entering the tournament from lower down (Levels 5 through 10) in the English football pyramid meant that the competition started with six rounds of preliminary (2) and qualifying (4) knockouts for these non-League teams. The 32 winning teams from Fourth Round Qualifying progressed to the First Round Proper,