The 2021–22 FA Trophy (known for sponsorship reasons as the Buildbase FA Trophy) was the 53rd season of the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

, an annual

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

competition for teams at levels 5-8 of the English

National League System The National League System comprises the six levels of the English football league system immediately below the level of the English Football League. It comes under the jurisdiction of The Football Association. The National League System has a h ...

. The competition consisted of three qualifying rounds, and seven proper rounds. Teams from level 8 entered into the first qualifying round and second qualifying round, level 7 into the third qualifying round, level 6 (the National League North and

National League South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

) into round 2, and level 5 (the National League) into round 3. All matches were in a single-match

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

format, with the winner decided by penalties if the match was drawn after 90 minutes, apart from the Final where the winner was decided by extra-time and penalties if the match was drawn. This was the same format as the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season which was a change from previous seasons where replays were used and where the semi-finals were scheduled as two-legged.

Calendar

The calendar for the 2021-22 Buildbase FA Trophy, as announced by The Football Association.

First round qualifying

The draw for the first qualifying round was made on 9 July 2021. The round included 38 teams from tier 8, the lowest tier in the competition.

Second round qualifying

The draw for the second qualifying round was made on 9 July 2021, and saw 119 clubs from tier 8 joining the 19 winners from the first qualifying round.

Third round qualifying

The draw for the third qualifying round was made on 11 October 2021, and saw 87 clubs from tier 7 joining the 69 winners from the second qualifying round.

First round proper

The draw for the first round proper was made on 1 November 2021, and featured the 78 winners from the third qualifying round with no additional teams.

Second round proper

The draw for the second round took place on 15 November 2021, featuring the 39 winners from the previous round as well as the 43 teams entering from the sixth tier.

Third round proper

The draw for the third round took place on 29 November 2021, with the winners of the 41 second round proper matches being joined by the 23 National League clubs.

Fourth round proper

The draw for the fourth round took place on 20 December 2021 and was made up of the 32 winners from the previous round. Plymouth Parkway and

Larkhall Athletic Larkhall ( sco, Larkhauch, gd, Taigh na h-Uiseig) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, around southeast of Glasgow. It is twinned with Seclin in northern France. Larkhall sits on high ground between the River Clyde to the East and the ...

of the eighth tier were the lowest-ranked teams remaining.

Fifth round proper

The draw for the fifth round took place on 17 January 2022 and was made up of the 16 winners from the previous round. Cheshunt,

Morpeth Town Morpeth Town Association Football Club is a football club based in Morpeth, Northumberland, England. They are currently members of the and play at Craik Park. History The club was established in 1909. They joined the Northern Alliance in 193 ...

, Needham Market and Stourbridge of the seventh tier were the lowest-ranked teams remaining.

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals took place on 14 February 2022 and was made up of the 8 winners from the previous round. Needham Market of the seventh tier were the lowest-ranked team remaining.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals took place on 14 March 2022 and featured the four winners from the previous round. York City of the sixth tier were the lowest-ranked team remaining. ----