The FA Cup 2007/08 semi-finals are served: Portsmouth v Barnsley and Cardiff City v West Bromwich Albion will play on April 5. Both matches as well as the Final match on May 17 will be played at the new Wembley Stadium.
But let us took a brief look at the rich history of the oldest and best domestic Cup competition in the world created on 20th July 1871 after a proposal by FA Honorary Secretary Charles Alcock when he said: “It is desirable that a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association, for which all clubs belonging to the Association should be invited to compete”. The competition was finally approved three months later. The original trophy, much smaller than the present one, was made by Messrs Martin, Hall & Co. and cost £20. In 1895 , after Aston Villa had won the competition, the cup was stolen from the window of a firm of football outfitters in Birmingham where it had been placed on display. It was never recovered. Manchester United have won the Cup the most times (11), followed by Arsenal (10) and Tottenham Hotspur (8). 42 different clubs have won it. In January 1922 the Duke of York, later to become King George VI, cut the first turf to mark the beginning of the building of Wembley Stadium and it was completed in under a year at a cost of £750,000. The Cup Final was played each year at Wembley Stadium except the war years until 2000.
The new Wembley hosted its first Final in 2007. Sir Bobby Robson, a Cup winner as Ipswich Town’s manager, once said: “The FA Cup Final is the greatest single match outside the World Cup Final - and it’s ours”.

Only three Premiership teams are definitely through the Quarter Final.
FA Cup holders Chelsea have been given an away tie in today’s Sixth Round draw. The Blues will travel to Barnsley, who sensationally won at Anfield last Saturday. The other two, Manchester United and Portsmouth, have been drawn to play each other at Old Trafford. United won 2-1 when they met in the Fourth Round last season, also at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’.
Ricky Lambert’s late goal on Saturday put Bristol Rovers into the last eight for the first time for half a century. Even Jack Sparrow will be struggling to get a ticket with half of Bristol wanting to see the Pirates take on West Bromwich.
Sheffield United or Middlesbrough v Cardiff City; Manchester United v Portsmouth; Bristol Rovers v West Bromwich Albion and Barnsley v Chelsea are the Quarter Final matches.
The FA distributes prize money and broadcast payments to clubs for their participation in The FA Cup.
The FA’s stated objective is to use The FA Cup to redistribute funds throughout the game and together the prize fund and the television monies represent an investment in the competition of around £15 million.
All clubs receive money from The FA’s Prize Fund, while for matches on TV, live or highlights, or on the radio.
The most significant payments are: £900,000 for each winner of semi-finals matches and £1,000,000 for the FA Cup winner.

The performances against Manchester United last week have proved that the team from Juande Ramos can compete with the best. Tottenham played against Manchester United twice in a week with a 3-1 defeat in the FA Cup on January 27 followed by United snatching a 1-1 draw in injury time in the Premiership on Saturday. The team from White Hart Lane was certainly deserved more than the 3-1 loss in the FA Cup tie as it took the lead and missed key chances at 1-1. However, the game changed with Michael Dawson’s dismissal and subsequent penalty converted by Cristiano Ronaldo, but the 10 men still managed to strike the woodwork with five minutes left.
Tottenham was even more unfortunate at the Lane as Berbatov’s 21st minute goal was contested by Carlos Tevez goal in the fourth minute of added time and where was only time to restart before the final whistle. According Juande to play against Manchester United, who is second of the league table, is very difficult.
Tottenham has lost five games out of 24 since Juande took charge of his first game against Blackpool on October 31, moved from 18th up to 11th in the league, made it to the Carling Cup Final and progressed to the Round of 32 in the UEFA Cup. Therefore Hotspur supporters are now very exciting and expect even a better performance during last months of the season.

The Cup is a competition not so much highly valued in some countries although in England, as it also happens in many other things, it is quite different. FA Cup still emanates the old fashion football. Emotion, full up stadiums, direct matches. Face to face games. And it is a tournament where anybody can provide a surprise. The English Football Association gives maximum importance to this tittle. A good example takes place last weekend where the Premiership competition was stopped to dispute a qualifying round of the FA Cup. And for a lot of clubs in England the exiting fact of going ahead or out from this competition was enervating most of supporters. In the FA Cup the topic of not to be confident with any enemy even small is hundred per cent certain. Ask this to Liverpool FC who in last 32 qualifying round last Saturday was out of the competition for several minutes in the match against the modest Havant & Waterlooville, a team five categories below Liverpool, who fought with dignity in front of the famous team of Anfield Road. Moreover, the great virtue of this competition is the profits that modest clubs obtain. For that small club, for example, this qualifying round supposed an important economical input because the FA gives a third of the money collected to the team who plays away. Therefore a third of the money collected at Anfield Road was directly to the strongbox of Havant. And still more important – the social milestone that supposed for an small city to dispute that match. If only 2,000 people attend the matches that Havant plays at home, more than 6,000 supporters went to Anfield and sold out all the tickets reserved for them. There are still some qualifying rounds before reaching semi-finals round and final match which probably is the most exiting football match that supporters are waiting for to attend it at New Wembley Stadium.