The 2022–23 FA Trophy (known for sponsorship reasons as the Isuzu FA Trophy) is the 54th 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 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 ...

Eligibility

Applications to enter the 54th edition of the FA Trophy opened on 25 February 2022 and closed 1 April 2022. Competition is open to the 320 clubs playing in Steps 1–4 of the

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 ...

, equivalent to tiers 5–8 of the overall

. All but Guernsey F.C. (8) appeared on the list of clubs accepted on 1 July 2022. This resulted in an odd number of teams remaining in the first round qualifying, so a bye was allocated to Leek Town.

Format

The calendar was announced by

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

on 1 July 2022. The competition consists of three qualifying rounds and eight proper rounds. Teams enter at different stages depending on their position in the English pyramid. 8th tier teams enter into the first qualifying round and must win 11 matches to become champions. 7th tier teams enter into the third qualifying round and must win 9 matches to become champions. 6th tier teams enter into the second round proper and must win 7 matches to become champions. 5th tier teams enter into the third round proper and must win 6 matches to become champions. All rounds are 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 is drawn. This is 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 b ...

and 2021–22 season which broke from previous seasons that used replays and two-legged semi-finals.

First Round Qualifying

The draw for the first qualifying round was made on 8 July 2022. 159 teams, all from Level 8 of the

, were drawn into 79 fixtures, with the leftover team, Leek Town, receiving a bye. Ties were originally scheduled for 9–11 September, but were postponed to 12–14 September as a mark of respect following the

death of Queen Elizabeth II On 8 September 2022, at 15:10 BST, Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, and the longest-reigning British monarch, died of old age at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, at the age of 96. The Queen's death wa ...

Second Round Qualifying

The draw for the second qualifying round was made on 8 July 2022, and saw the 79 winners from the first qualifying round joined by Leek Town who had received a bye. All teams were from Level 8 of the

Third Round Qualifying

The draw for the third qualifying round was made on 26 September 2022, and saw 88 clubs from tier 7 joining the 40 winners from the second qualifying round.

First round proper

The draw for the first round was made on 10 October containing the 64 winners from the previous round.

Second round proper

The draw for the second round was made on 31 October 2022, with eighty teams making an appearance including 32 winners from the previous round and 48 teams newly entering from Level 6.

Third round proper

64 teams made an appearance including 40 winners from the previous round and 24 newly entering teams from Level 5.

Fourth round proper

The draw was made on 19 December 2022 containing the 32 winners from the previous round. There were six remaining teams from the seventh tier, the lowest-ranked teams left in the competition.

Fifth round proper

16 winners from the previous round made an appearance.

Quarter-Finals

8 winners from the previous round made an appearance.

Semi-Finals

The 4 Quarter-Final winners made an appearance. ----

Final

Notes

References

{{2022–23 in English men's football FA Trophy seasons 2022–23 in English football