The 2012–13 FA Cup was the 132nd season of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

, the main domestic cup competition in English football, and the oldest football knock-out competition in the world. It was sponsored by

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unre ...

for a second consecutive season, thus the competition name was The FA Cup with Budweiser. A total of 833 clubs applied to enter, with 758 clubs being accepted into the competition. The preliminary rounds commenced on 11 August 2012, with the first round proper played on 3 November 2012. The final was played on 11 May 2013 at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

in London between Manchester City and Wigan Athletic, with Wigan Athletic winning 1–0. As a result, Wigan Athletic participated in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

of the following season's UEFA Europa League. Chelsea were the defending champions, having beaten

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

2–1 in last season's final, but were eliminated in the semi-finals by Manchester City. Three days after winning the cup, Wigan made history by becoming the first side to win the cup and get relegated in the same season, after they lost 4–1 to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, which sealed their relegation to the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

Teams

Schedule

The schedule for the 2012–13 FA Cup, as announced by

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world ...

, is as follows:

Qualifying rounds

All of the teams entering the competition that are not members of either the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

had to compete in the qualifying rounds to win a place in the competition proper.

First round proper

Teams from League One and

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Le ...

entered at this stage, along with the winners from the Fourth Round Qualifying. The draw was made on 21 October 2012 with ties to be played on 2–4 November 2012. Yate Town and Slough Town were the lowest-ranked teams left in the competition, both competing in level 8 of the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

Second round proper

The draw for this round was made on 4 November 2012 with the ties played on the weekend of 1–2 December 2012. Hastings United, from the seventh tier of English football, were the lowest-ranked team in the second round proper. Bradford City were disqualified from this season's competition for fielding Curtis Good, who was ineligible to play, in a 1–1 draw against

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings w ...

. As a result, it was presumed that

won by walkover, but Bradford eventually made a successful appeal to the FA against expulsion and were reinstated and fined £1,000 instead allowing a replay to go ahead.

would eventually dump Bradford City out of the cup after winning that replay.

Third round proper

Teams from the

and

entered at this stage, along with the winners from the second round. The draw for the third round was made on 2 December 2012, with the ties played on the weekend of 5–6 January 2013.

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1 ...

Alex Lawless Alexander Graham Lawless (born 26 March 1985) is a Welsh former professional footballer currently Under-18s Academy Assistant Coach at Luton Town. A right-back or midfielder by trade, he played in the English Football League for Torquay United, ...

won the player of the round award. The results were as follows: #

# Danny Hylton, Aldershot Town # Matthew Barnes-Homer,

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was wound-up after a High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially known as Macclesfield F.C., the club was formed in 1874 and ...

# Liam Bridcutt, Brighton & Hove Albion # Andrea Orlandi, Brighton & Hove Albion Hastings United remained the lowest-ranked football team in the third round proper, competing in level 7 of the

Fourth round proper

The draw for the fourth round took place on 6 January 2013, with

and

, both from the

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

(5) remaining as the lowest-placed teams still in the competition.

Fifth round proper

The draw for the fifth round took place on 27 January 2013, with

from the

(5) remaining as the lowest-ranked team still in the Cup.

Sixth round proper

The draw for the quarter-finals took place on 17 February 2013, with Barnsley,

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, ea ...

and

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

all from the Championship remaining as the lowest-ranked teams.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals took place on 10 March 2013, with

from the Championship (2) remaining as the lowest-placed team still in the Cup. The draw was carried out by Edgar Davids and Graeme Le Saux at

in London.

Final

Prior to kick off as Manchester City had already qualified for the

2013–14 UEFA Champions League The 2013–14 UEFA Champions League was the 59th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 22nd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final wa ...

, therefore Wigan Athletic had already secured a place in

2013–14 UEFA Europa League The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title. The 2014 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Sevilla and Benfica at th ...

, regardless of whether they won or lost.

Top scorers

Broadcasting rights

The domestic broadcasting rights for the competition were held by the

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

channel ITV and the subscription channel

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. ITV has held the rights since 2007–08, while ESPN gained FA Cup coverage from the 2010–11 season following the collapse of Setanta in the UK. Under the Ofcom code of protected sporting events, the FA Cup Final must be broadcast live on UK

terrestrial television Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a television station, TV station to a televis ...

. These matches were broadcast live on UK television: ¹ITV unless stated otherwise
²Braintree Town vs. Tranmere Rovers was originally scheduled to be on ITV but because the game was postponed it was moved to ITV4

References

External links

The FA Cup at thefa.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fa Cup 2012-13 2012-13 2012–13 domestic association football cups