Lens agree to let Aruna Dindane play in FA Cup final

French club Lens will let on-loan Portsmouth striker Aruna Dindane play in the FA Cup final on 15 May after ending a dispute over payments.

Lens had insisted Pompey must pay £3.5m if the 29-year-old forward played another game for south coast club.

"Aruna in on his way back with a letter from Lens," Pompey's administrator Andrew Andronikou told BBC Sport.

"I've been told he can play the rest of our games - including the Chelsea final - and we won't have to pay any money."

The Ivory Coast international, who joined Lens from Belgian club Anderlecht in 2005, has been with Pompey since August and played in the 2-0 FA Cup semi-final win over Spurs, winning the penalty for Portsmouth's second goal.

That was his 21st game for Portsmouth, but a 22nd appearance would have triggered the additional payment under the terms of Dindane's loan deal, which is a sum that cash-strapped Pompey do not have.

Earlier in the season Lens were in dispute with Portsmouth over instalment payments involving Dindane's loan move as well as Nadir Belhadj's permanent transfer in December 2008.

Meanwhile, following the appointment of David Lampitt, the Football Association's head of football integrity as Portsmouth's new chief executive earlier in April, Andronikou is planning more boardroom changes.

When Pompey became the first Premier League club to enter administration earlier this year the club were labelled "completely dysfunctional".

Accountant Nick O'Reilly of Vantis, who had prepared the financial statement that Pompey had to submit to the High Court in February, said Pompey's business methods had gone "against all good governance".

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Portsmouth hit by more injuries ahead of FA Cup final

Portsmouth are facing a race against time to get key players fit for the FA Cup final against Chelsea on 15 May.

Midfielder Richard Hughes was distraught as he hobbled out of Saturday's 3-1 victory over Wolves at Fratton Park with a hamstring injury.

The problem looks almost certain to rule him out of the trip to Wembley.

Striker Aruna Dindane (groin) and defensive midfielder Aaron Mokoena (calf) were also replaced at half-time against Wolves.

They join Tal Ben-Haim (groin), Marc Wilson (hamstring), Ricardo Rocha (thigh), Angelos Basinas (hamstring), Jamie O'Hara (back), Hassan Yebda (thigh) and Nadir Belhadj (hamstring) in a packed treatment room.

Scotland international Hughes, 30, was not selected for the 2008 FA Cup final squad, and now looks set to miss out on Wembley again.

"I am sorry for Richard, because in the last two months he has been very good for us," said Pompey boss Avram Grant.

"It is a shame. He always gives 100%."

O'Hara, 23, was ineligible to face his parent club Tottenham in the semi-final, but is in line to be fit for the final.

The midfielder was at Fratton Park on Saturday to collect what was a clean sweep of Pompey's player-of-the-season awards.

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FA Cup – Wembley to relay pitch seven times a year

The turf at England’s international football stadium (pictured) came in for heavy criticism following the FA Cup semi-finals on April 10 and 11, with Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill and Tottenham counterpart Harry Redknapp pointing the finger at its use for rock concerts and other events.

The Institute of Groundsmanship revealed that, because of ongoing loan repayments, the stadium has to remain multi-purpose until 2023.

The news comes as work continues on the venue’s 11th surface since 2007.

The FA, the consultants who oversee Wembley ground-staff and the Institute of Groundsmanship are all due to attend a meeting to formulate a plan to effectively maintain the pitch.

“This really is crunch time now: the FA and Wembley simply have to find a solution to this problem,” said BBC Sport correspondent Dan Roan.

“That 11th new pitch is a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”

Redknapp was scathing in his criticism of the pitch following Spurs’ shock 2-0 defeat to relegated Portsmouth.

Pompey will face Chelsea in the FA Cup final after they beat Villa, whose boss O’Neill was also critical of the surface.

The pitch then hosted a Guinness Premiership rugby match between London rivals Saracens and Harlequins and in May is due to hold the FA Cup final, four play-off finals and England’s World Cup warm-up against Mexico.

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After Teams Collapse, Fans Enjoy Final Surprise

Portsmouth — known as Pompey in England — became the first Premier League club to go into administration for insolvency, allowing it to continue doing business. On March 17, the league punished it for that with a mandatory 9-point deduction in the standings. On April 10, it became certain of relegation.

“All the guys I sit with have been going for 40 years,” Payne said. “They’re die-hard Pompey fans, and to a man, they’re saying they can’t wait to get out of the Premier League.”

They will observe next season in the quieter 24-team second tier, but some fans prepared for the team’s liquidation.

“There was definitely an element of fans, that if it meant an absolute clean start, we were ready for it,” Dewing said. “It wouldn’t have been the end of the world, and it would have risen from the ashes. It might be rubbish, but it’s our rubbish.”

Jim Riordan, a fan since 1944, wrote in an e-mail message, “They will not take our club away from us.”

The F.A. Cup became a curious balm. “Que Sera Sera” T-shirts sold in the club shop. A roster hopeless in league play and almost unrecognizable from 2008 somehow eliminated Coventry, Sunderland, Southampton and Birmingham to reach the F.A. Cup semifinals. Fans repeatedly sang: “Que sera sera/Whatever will be, will be/We’re going to Wembley. ...”

Awaiting them there were Redknapp and Tottenham, which defeated Portsmouth, 2-0, in league play on March 27. Yet on the muddy field at Wembley, Portsmouth wrestled Tottenham into extra time without a goal, then scored twice for unimaginable mirth.

As a roar blared through the stadium, a banner read, “You Can Break Many Things, but You Can’t Break Our Spirit.”

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outside of the top division

Linked to this giant-killing is the progression of teams beyond what would normally be expected. A few teams have won the FA Cup whilst outside of the top division, though no team from the third level of the football league has progressed to the final. For non-league teams, reaching the third round - where all top flight sides now enter - is considered a major achievement.

The 2008-09 FA Cup saw a record nine teams achieve this feat, and whilst Tottenham Hotspur won the 1901 FA Cup as a Southern League club, no non-league team has since progressed past the fifth round, this occurring most recently to Kidderminster Harriers in 1994. Chasetown are the lowest ranked team to play in the third round, playing eventual runners-up Cardiff City in the 2007–08 competition. The game took place on 5 January 2008 whilst Chasetown were playing in the Southern League Division One Midlands, the eighth tier of the English football pyramid.

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Giant-killers

Aside from the non-top-flight winners mentioned below, the FA Cup has a long tradition of lower-ranked teams becoming "giant-killers" by defeating opponents from a higher division. While it is common for this to happen (one statistical analysis based on four years of results showed that the probability of at least one team beating one from a higher division in a given year was 99.85%, dropping to 48.8% for a two-division gap and 39.28% for a three-division gap), it is considered particularly newsworthy when the "victim" is one of the top Premier League teams, or where the giant-killer are from outside the League divisions. The most recent example of a non-league team beating top-flight opposition was Sutton United's victory over Coventry City in 1988-89.

Giant-killings of various scales happen every year: almost every club in the League Pyramid has a fondly-remembered "giant-killing" act in its history and some small clubs have, whether by accident or design, gained a reputation for being "cup specialists" after two or more such feats within a few years. Overall, Yeovil Town currently hold the record of having won more games against league opposition than any other as a non-league team.

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Sponsorship

Since the start of the 1994–95 season, the FA Cup has been sponsored. However, to protect the identity of the famous competition, the name has never changed from "The FA Cup", unlike sponsorship deals for the League Cup. Instead, the competition has been known as "The FA Cup sponsored by ..." but during 1999–2002, the competition was known as "The AXA Sponsored FA Cup". The competition is formally named "The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON", owing to energy company E.ON sponsoring it for four years from 2006. From August 2006 to 2014, Umbro will supply match balls for all FA Cup matches.

* 1995–1998 Littlewoods
* 1999–2002 AXA
* 2003–2006 Nationwide
* 2006–2010 E.ON

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Title Trophies

At the end of the final, the winning team is presented with a trophy, also known as the "FA Cup", which they hold until the following year's final. Traditionally, at Wembley finals, the presentation is made at the Royal Box, with players, led by the captain, mounting a staircase to a gangway in front of the box and returning by a second staircase on the other side of the box. At Cardiff the presentation was made on a podium on the pitch.

The cup is decorated with ribbons in the colours of the winning team; a common riddle asks, "What is always taken to the Cup Final, but never used?" (the answer is "the losing team's ribbons"). However this isn't entirely true, as during the game the cup actually has both teams' sets of ribbons attached and the runners-up ribbons are removed before the presentation. Individual members of the teams playing in the final are presented with winners' and runners'-up medals. The present FA Cup trophy is the fourth.

The first, the 'little tin idol', was used from the inception of the Cup in 1871–2 until it was stolen from a Birmingham shoe shop window belonging to William Shillcock while held by Aston Villa on 11 September 1895, and was never seen again. The FA fined Villa £25 to pay for a replacement. Almost 60 years later, the thief admitted that the cup had been melted down to make counterfeit half-crowns.

The second trophy was a replica of the first, and was last used in 1910 before being presented to the FA's long-serving president Lord Kinnaird. It was sold at Christie's on 19 May 2005 for £420,000 (£478,400 including auction fees and taxes) to David Gold, the joint chairman of West Ham United FC. David Gold has loaned this trophy to the National Football Museum which is housed in Preston North End's Deepdale Stadium and it is on permanent display to the public.

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Venues for the tournament

Matches in the FA Cup are usually played at the home ground of one of the two teams. The team who plays at home is decided when the matches are drawn. There is no seeding system in place within rounds other than when teams enter the competition, therefore the home team is simply the first team drawn out for each fixture. Occasionally games may have to be moved to other grounds due to other events taking place, security reasons or a ground not being suitable to host popular teams. In the event of a draw, the replay is played at the ground of the team who originally played away from home. In the days when multiple replays were possible, the second replay (and any further replays) were played at neutral grounds. The clubs involved could alternatively agree to toss for home advantage in the second replay.

Traditionally, the FA Cup Final was played at London's Wembley Stadium. Early finals were played in other locations and, due to extensive redevelopment of Wembley, finals between 2001 and 2006 were played at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The final returned to Wembley in May 2007. Early finals venues include Kennington Oval, in 1872 and 1874–92, the Racecourse Ground, Derby in 1886, Fallowfield Stadium, Manchester in 1893, Burnden Park for the 1901 replay, Bramall Lane in 1912, the Crystal Palace Park, 1895–1914, Stamford Bridge 1920–22, and Lillie Bridge, Fulham, London in 1873. In more recent times the infamous 1970 final replay between Leeds and Chelsea was held at Old Trafford in Manchester. This was the only time between 1923 and 2000 that the FA Cup final or the FA Cup Final replay was held at a stadium other than Wembley.

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Eligible teams

All clubs in the Premier League and Football League are automatically eligible, and clubs in the next six levels of the English football league system are also eligible provided they have played in either the FA Cup, FA Trophy or FA Vase competitions in the previous season. Newly formed clubs that start playing in a high league, such as AFC Wimbledon or FC United of Manchester, may not therefore play in the FA Cup in their first season. All clubs entering the competition must also have a suitable stadium. It is very rare for top clubs to miss the competition, although it can happen in exceptional circumstances. Manchester United withdrew from the 1999–2000 competition due to their participation in the FIFA Club World Championship, although this was highly controversial at the time.

Welsh sides that play in English leagues are eligible, although since the creation of the League of Wales there are only six such clubs remaining: Cardiff City (the only non-English team to win the tournament, in 1927), Swansea City, Wrexham, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport County and Colwyn Bay. In the early years other teams from Wales, Ireland and Scotland also took part in the competition, with Glasgow side Queen's Park reaching the final in 1884 and 1885 before being barred from entering by the Scottish Football Association.

The number of entrants has increased greatly in recent years. In the 2004–05 season, 660 clubs entered the competition, beating the long-standing record of 656 from the 1921–22 season. In 2005–06 this increased to 674 entrants, in 2006–07 to 687, in 2007–08 to 731 clubs, and for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 competitions it reached 762.

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FA Cup gamble as Spurs turn tide against Fulham

Bentley responded with a goal two minutes into the second period, Pavlyuchenko then added a second, before Eidur Gudjohnsen completed victory over Fulham that takes Spurs to Wembley for a semi-final with Portsmouth.

Gudjohnsen applauded Redknapp's bravery, saying: “I was well happy with his last substitution because it's risky but it worked.

“It was a fantastic decision. With David getting the goal early it gave us a boost, then we pressed forward really well and that won us the game.

“It's a good squad and we're showing that in the League and cup. We have a tough run-in but we have players of good quality and I'm just pleased to be here.”

Bentley added: “It might have been my first touch and I don't think I've done that before. We came out and looked to pick the tempo up.

“That's what I tried to do and my first touch went in. We needed to put a stamp on the game, that's what the manager told us.

“We'll be confident going into the game against Portsmouth. It's a great place to play and I can't wait to be there.”

Spurs have a dress rehearsal against Portsmouth on Saturday in the Premier League, but there is concern over the fitness of two players.

Vedran Corluka left White Hart Lane on crutches, while Sebastien Bassong limped out with an ankle problem.

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The knockout tournament

The competition is a knockout tournament with pairings for each round drawn at random – there are no seeds, and the draw for each round is not made until after the scheduled dates for the previous round. The draw also determines which teams will play at home.

Each tie is played as a single leg. If a match is drawn, there is a replay, usually at the ground of the team who were away for the first game. Drawn replays are now settled with extra time and penalty shootouts, though until the 1990s further replays would be played until one team was victorious. Some ties took as many as six matches to settle; in their 1975 campaign, Fulham played a total of 12 games over six rounds, which remains the most games played by a team to reach a final. Replays were traditionally played three or four days after the original game, but from 1991–92 they were staged at least 10 days later on police advice. This led to penalty shoot-outs being introduced. Replays are no longer held for the semi-finals or final.

There are a total of 14 rounds in the competition — six qualifying rounds, followed by six further rounds (the "proper" rounds), semi-finals, and the final. The competition begins in August with the Extra Preliminary Round, followed by the Preliminary Round and First Qualifying Round, which are contested by the lowest-ranked clubs. Clubs playing in the Conference North and Conference South are given exemption to the Second Qualifying Round, and Conference National teams are given exemption to the Fourth Qualifying Round. The 32 winners from that round join the 48 clubs from League One and League Two in the First Round (often called the First Round Proper). Finally, teams from the Premier League and Football League Championship enter at the Third Round Proper, at which point there are 64 teams remaining in the competition. The Sixth Round Proper is the quarter-final stage, at which point eight teams remain.

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About FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football, run by and named after The Football Association. The name "FA Cup" usually refers to the English men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also held. Its current sponsored name is the FA Cup sponsored by E.ON.

The FA Cup was first held in 1871–72, and is the oldest association football competition in the world. Because it involves clubs of all standards playing against each other, there is the possibility for "minnows" from the lower divisions to become "giant-killers" by eliminating top clubs from the tournament and even theoretically win the Cup, although lower division teams rarely reach the final.

The holders of the FA Cup are Chelsea, who beat fellow Premier League side Everton in the 2009 final on 30 May 2009.

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