By Freddie Gay

A

The FA Cup is a very special football competition. Not only is it the oldest football competition in the world, it has a unique structure. This is because it is not just professional teams that participate. Many non-professional teams from small towns and villages also enter this famous competition.

B

The first four leagues in England are professional. But there are six more leagues below that,with small non-professional teams. These teams enter the competition long before the league teams, in qualifying rounds. However, some will make it to the first round, where they may play a team from the third or fourth league. A few even make it to the third round, where big Premier League teams enter.

C

Throughout its history there have been many shocks. On a handful of occasions, teams from outside the professional leagues have beaten Premier League teams. A Premier League team usually wins the competition, but there will always be a number of shocks every year. For example,in 2017 a team from the fifth league, Lincoln City, beat a Premier League team, Burnley FC.

D

Fans of small clubs love the FA Cup. They see it as a chance for their local team to beat a big team. Small teams do not have much money, unlike the big English teams, so beating them makes the supporters of these small teams feel great. Fans of small teams often feel that football has just become about money for big teams and the true meaning of the game has been lost.

E

Indeed, the FA Cup used to be an important competition for big teams. Nowadays, most of these clubs are more worried about the other competitions they play in. Some people feel this is a shame, given the special history and structure of the competition.

Activity 1

Is football popular in your country? Do people watch games from England? Why do you think football is so popular in many parts of the world?

Activity 2

a. Read the text and think carefully about the meaning of the words in bold. For each word

write:

■ whether it’s a noun, verb, preposition, adjective or phrase

■ a short explanation of the meaning or a word that means the same.

b. Now match each word (1–7) to the correct meaning (i–vii).

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i. an adjective which means something is very special because there is nothing else like it

ii. a noun phrase that describes a less important stage of a competition. This stage happens before the main stages

iii. a noun that describes the parts of a whole

iv. a phrase that means a low number

v. a preposition that is used to say something is different from another thing

vi. a preposition that means something happened many times during a period of time

vii. a verb that means ‘take part’

c. Compare your explanation of each word to the one given. Is it similar? Do you think you are good at guessing the meaning of words or do you need more practice?

Activity 3

The reading text has five paragraphs (A–E). In which paragraph can you find the following information?

1. details about a very surprising result

2. how supporters of small clubs feel about the FA Cup

3. the kinds of teams that take part in the FA Cup

4. the attitudes of big clubs towards the FA Cup

5. when big teams enter the FA Cup

Activity 4

A noun phrase is a group of words that behave like a noun in a sentence. For example,they can be the subject of a verb:

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or the object of a verb:

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The words in the noun phrases below (1–6) have been mixed and so they are not in the correct order. Put the words of each of these noun phrases into the correct order.

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