The 1963–64 FA Cup was the 83rd staging of the world's oldest

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

cup competition A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

won the competition for the first time (despite having reached the 1923 final), beating

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

3–2 in the final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

. Matches were scheduled to be played at the stadium of the team named first on the date specified for each round, which was always a Saturday. Some matches, however, might be rescheduled for other days if there were clashes with games for other competitions or the weather was inclement. If scores were level after 90 minutes had been played, a replay would take place at the stadium of the second-named team later the same week. If scores were level after 90 minutes had been played in a replay, a 30-minute period of

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

would be played.

Calendar

Qualifying rounds

Most participating clubs that were not members of the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

competed in the qualifying rounds to secure one of 30 places available in the first round. The winners from the fourth qualifying round were Crook Town,

Blyth Spartans Blyth Spartans Association Football Club is an association football club based in Blyth, Northumberland. They are currently members of and play at Croft Park. They were founded in September 1899 by Fred Stoker, who was the club's first secre ...

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

, Netherfield (Kendal), Bangor City,

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester, southwest of Sale, Greater Manchester, Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2021 United Kingdom ce ...

Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth ca ...

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

, Loughborough United, Kettering Town, Corby Town, Frickley Colliery, Heanor Town,

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

, Bedford Town, Harwich & Parkeston, Chelmsford City, Folkestone Town, Gravesend & Northfleet,

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...

, Bexley United, Tooting & Mitcham United, Barnet, Enfield, Maidenhead United, Trowbridge Town, Weymouth, Bridgwater Town, Yeovil Town and Bath City. Bexley United was the only qualifying club appearing in the main competition for the first time, although Corby Town had last featured at this stage in 1954-55, Folkestone Town in 1951-52, Chorley in 1945-46 and Altrincham in 1933-34.

First round proper

At this stage the 48 clubs from the Football League Third and Fourth Divisions joined the 30

non-league Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

clubs who came through the qualifying rounds. The final two non-league sides in the main draw,

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

and

Sutton United Sutton United Football Club is a professional association football club from Sutton, South London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. Sutton started out playing in junior, ...

were given byes to this round as the champions and runners-up from the previous season's

FA Amateur Cup 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 Following the legalisation of professionalism within footb ...

. Matches were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 16 November 1963, although three games were not played until the midweek fixture. Eight were drawn and went to replays.

Second round

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 7 December 1963. Three matches were drawn, with replays taking place later the same week.

Third round

The 44

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and Second Division clubs entered the competition at this stage. The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 4 January 1964. Nine matches were drawn and went to replays, though none of these then resulted in a second replay.

Fourth round

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 25 January 1964. Eight matches were drawn and went to replays. The replays were all played two, three or four days later. Bedford Town was the last non-league club left in the competition.

Fifth round

The matches were scheduled for Saturday, 15 February 1964. The Stoke City – Swansea Town match went to a replay in the midweek fixture, with Swansea winning the tie.

Sixth round

The four quarter-final ties were scheduled to be played on Saturday, 29 February 1964. The Manchester United–Sunderland match went to two replays before the tie was settled, in United's favour. Oxford United was appearing at this stage for the first time in only their second season as a Football League club.

Semi-finals

The semi-final matches were played on Saturday, 14 March 1964 with no replays required. Preston North End and West Ham United came through the semi-final round to meet at Wembley. Swansea Town was featuring in the semi-finals for the first time since

1926 In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the ...

Final

The 1964 FA Cup final was contested by

and

on Saturday, 2 May 1964. The match finished 3–2 to West Ham, with the winning goal being scored in the 90th minute.

References

;General
The FA Cup Archive
at TheFA.com
English FA Cup 1963/64
at Soccerbase

at Footballsite ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1963-64 FA Cup FA Cup seasons