The 2021–22 FA Cup qualifying rounds opened the 141st edition of 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 ...

, the world's oldest

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

single

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, ...

competition, organised by

The Football Association The Football Association (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 oldest footb ...

, the governing body for the sport in England. The 32 winning teams from the fourth qualifying round progressed to the

First round proper 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 ...

; which was played in November. 637 teams were accepted into the qualification, a slight decline on the 644 which had been the fixed number since

2014–15 FA Cup qualifying rounds The 2014–15 FA Cup qualifying rounds opened the 134th season of competition in England for 'The Football Association Challenge Cup' (FA Cup), the world's oldest association football single knockout competition. A total of 736 clubs were accepte ...

. This reflected the restructuring 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 ...

, and a new policy of capping FA Cup places to match the number of clubs at levels 5-10 (steps 1–6). There were 8 places available for level 10 clubs, which were allocated by a random draw among the strongest teams from each of the 17 level 10 leagues

Calendar

Extra preliminary round

The draw for the extra preliminary round was made on 9 July 2021. This round included nine teams from tier 10, the lowest tier in the competition.

Preliminary round

The draw for the preliminary round was made on 9 July 2021. This round included Campion and Kensington & Ealing Borough from tier 10, the two lowest ranked teams remaining in the competition.

First qualifying round

The draw for the first qualifying round was made on 23 August 2021, and saw 87 clubs from Level 7 joining the 155 winners from the preliminary round. This round included 63 teams from tier 9, the lowest ranked teams remaining in the competition.

Second qualifying round

The draw for the second qualifying round was made on 6 September 2021, and saw 43 clubs from Level 6 joining the 121 winners from the first qualifying round.THE EMIRATES FA CUP SECOND ROUND QUALIFYING DRAW HAS BEEN MADE, FEATURING 82 TIES
/ref> This round included 19 teams from tier 9, the lowest ranked teams remaining in the competition.

Third qualifying round

The draw for the third qualifying round was made on 20 September 2021, and consists of the 82 winners from the second qualifying round. Ties will be played over the weekend of 2 October 2021. This round includes 6 teams from tier 9, the lowest ranked teams remaining in the competition.

Fourth qualifying round

The draw for the fourth qualifying round was made on 4 October 2021, seeing 23 clubs from Level 5 join the 41 winners from the previous round. The draw included one team from Level 9, Hanley Town, who were eliminated after losing their replay. This left 8 teams from tier 8 as the lowest ranked teams remaining in the competition.

Broadcasting

The qualifying rounds were not covered by the FA Cup's broadcasting contracts held by

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

and

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

, although one game per round was broadcast by the BBC on its media platforms.

Notes

References

External links

The FA Cup
{{DEFAULTSORT:2021-22 FA Cup qualifying rounds

qualifying rounds Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

FA Cup qualifying rounds