The Football Association the world—in 1871. Fifteen participating clubs subscribed to purchase a trophy. The very first Cup Final was held at The Oval on 16 March 1872, fought between the Wanderers and the Royal Engineers (RE), watched by 2,000 spectators. This competition was initially contested by mostly amateur teams but by the end of the 19th century it was dominated by professional teams that were mostly members of the Football League that had been founded in 1888 and expanded during the 1890s. After many years of wrangling between the London Association and the Sheffield Football Association, the FA Cup brought the acceptance
2015–16 FA Cup qualifying rounds 2015–16 FA Cup qualifying rounds The 2015–16 FA Cup qualifying rounds opened the 135th season of competition in England for The Football Association Challenge Cup (FA Cup), the world's oldest association football single knockout competition. A total of 736 clubs were accepted for the competition, the same as the previous season. The large number of clubs entering the tournament from lower down (Levels 5 to 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 the Fourth Qualifying Round progressed