This weekend the fifth round of the FA Cup will hand out a good amount of prize money. But for the non-league clubs out of the draw, where would that money have been spent?

Just the 16 teams remain in this weekend’s FA Cup fifth round, and there will be no representation from below the Championship.

Six teams from the third and fourth divisions, including League Two Doncaster, were in the fourth round while the last of the 32 non-league teams was eliminated in the third round, when the Premier League teams entered the draw.

For clubs lower down in the pyramid, FA Cup prize money can be life-changing, letting them settle debts, invest and enjoy a less turbulent future.

In recent seasons Newport have been a big beneficiary of an extended FA Cup run, Sutton United were promoted to the Football League in 2021 for the first time having reached the FA Cup fifth round four years prior, and in 2017 Lincoln City – then in the fifth tier – defied the odds to reach the last eight. This year even National League Tamworth took Tottenham Hotspur to extra time at the Lamb Ground.

FA Cup crucial

The FA Cup is full of stories of clubs lower in the pyramid benefitting from the prize money earned, even if replays have been chalked off the calendar. 

Lincoln chief executive Liam Scully told City AM: “The money the FA Cup provides clubs throughout the football ecosystem can be game changing – we have experienced this first-hand as our own run in the competition was a catalyst for growth and the journey we are now on.”

Added non-league Dorking Wanderers co-founder Marc White: “We’ve seen some glorious examples in the FA Cup this year, like Tamworth, who took Spurs to extra time. And my personal opinion is that the FA Cup is a brilliant opportunity to put way more money into the men’s and ladies’ game than it currently does.

“When you look at the profits of the Premier League clubs and then look at the prize money of the FA Cup, they probably look at it as chicken feed. But to a non-league club or a National League team, that type of money is huge.”