The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status.
History
thumb|right|upright|N.L. Jackson of [[Corinthian F.C. was a prime mover in the creation of the Amateur Cup.]]
Following the legalisation of professionalism within football, professional teams quickly came to dominate the sport's main national knock-out tournament, the FA Cup. In response to this, the committee of the country's oldest club, Sheffield F.C., suggested in 1892 the organisation of a separate national cup solely for amateur teams, and even offered to pay for the trophy itself. The entrants included 12 clubs representing the old boys of leading public schools, and Old Carthusians, the team for former pupils of Charterhouse School, won the first final, defeating Casuals. The old boy teams competed in the Amateur Cup until 1902, when disputes with the FA led to the formation of the Arthur Dunn Cup, a dedicated competition for such teams. For the following season, the previous season's semi-finalists joined at the first round proper along with other leading clubs chosen by the FA, with the numbers made up by teams progressing through the qualifying rounds. This remained the standard format until 1907, when the number of entrants to the first round was doubled to 64 and the number of rounds prior to the semi-finals increased to four. The competition continued under this format until it was discontinued in 1974.
Venues
thumb|right|[[Wembley Stadium (1923)|Wembley Stadium was the venue for the final between 1949 and 1974.]]
Matches in the Amateur Cup were played at the home ground of one of the two teams, as decided when the matches are drawn. Occasionally games were moved to other grounds. In the event of a draw, the replay was played at the ground of the team who originally played away from home. The second replay, and any further replays, were usually played at neutral grounds.
The final was held at various grounds in the early years of the competition, with a venue located somewhere in between the home towns of the two participating clubs usually chosen. In 1949 the final moved to Wembley Stadium, and was then played there every year until the competition ended. In the 1950s attendances for the final reached 100,000, comparable to the FA Cup final itself.||align=center|10
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|Clapton||none/Isthmian League||align=center|5
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|Crook Town||Northern League||align=center|5
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|Dulwich Hamlet||Isthmian League||align=center|4
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|Bromley||Isthmian League/Athenian League ||align=center|3
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|Hendon||Isthmian League/Athenian League||align=center|3
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|Leytonstone||Isthmian League ||align=center|3
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|Stockton||Northern League ||align=center|3
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|Enfield||Isthmian League ||align=center|2
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|Ilford||Isthmian League ||align=center|2
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|Leyton||Athenian League ||align=center|2
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|Middlesbrough||Northern League ||align=center|2
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|Old Carthusians||none ||align=center|2
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|Pegasus||none ||align=center|2
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|Walthamstow Avenue||Isthmian League ||align=center|2
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- A. Clapton did not play in a league at the time of the club's first Amateur Cup win, but played in the Isthmian League at the time of the remaining four victories.
See also
- FA Sunday Cup