FA Cup vs FA Vase: What the 2026/27 Prize Money Really Means for a Step 5 Club

A bigger-than-usual crowd of supporters in coats and scarves lines the railing of a small floodlit non-league football ground on a grey late-autumn afternoon, with players mid-match on a wet pitch and a modest clubhouse behind

This Saturday, 31 October, is FA Vase second round day. A week later, on 7 November, the FA Cup first round proper kicks off with League One and League Two clubs in the draw. If you sit on a Step 5 committee, your club probably played in both competitions this season. Most of you are now out of one of them.

So it's a good week to look at what the two cups actually pay, because the gap between them is bigger than most club budgets allow for. And the honest answer to "should we be relying on a cup run?" is no. Here's why, in numbers.

What the FA Cup pays in 2026/27

The FA publishes the prize fund for every round. Prize money goes to both clubs in every qualifying round, with the winner getting three times what the loser gets. These are the 2026/27 figures, per club:

| Round | Winners | Losers | |---|---|---| | Extra preliminary round | £1,125 | £375 | | Preliminary round | £1,444 | £481 | | First round qualifying | £2,250 | £750 | | Second round qualifying | £3,375 | £1,125 | | Third round qualifying | £5,625 | £1,875 | | Fourth round qualifying | £9,375 | £3,125 | | First round proper | £47,750 | £15,800 | | Second round proper | £79,500 | £21,200 |

Step 5 clubs enter at the extra preliminary round, which was played on 8 August. That's the bottom of a 743-club competition, with 651 non-league clubs in the qualifying rounds.

Add it up and you see where the money is:

Lose your first tie: £375.
Win one, lose one: £1,606.
Win five ties, then lose in the fourth qualifying round: £16,944.
Win all six qualifying ties and reach the first round proper: £23,194 banked, plus at least £15,800 more on 7 November. That's £38,994 even if you lose, and £70,944 if you win.

The first round proper is the cliff edge. One tie on a November Saturday pays more than the six qualifying rounds before it put together.

Hardly any Step 5 clubs get there. This season, five level 9 clubs (Step 5) made the third qualifying round: Barton Town, Cirencester Town, SE Dons, Tadley Calleva and Trafford. Two reached the fourth qualifying round. SE Dons lost 2-0 at Sholing. Tadley Calleva, in their first ever fourth qualifying round, held National League Aldershot Town 2-2 before going out in the replay. That's a brilliant run, worth a five-figure sum, and it still stopped one round short of the big payday. No Step 5 club is in this year's first round draw.

What the FA Vase pays in 2026/27

The Vase is the national cup built for Steps 5 and 6, so it's the competition you have a real chance of going deep in. The prize money is on a different scale:

| Round | Winners | Losers | |---|---|---| | First round qualifying | £550 | £160 | | Second round qualifying | £725 | £225 | | First round | £825 | £250 | | Second round (31 Oct) | £900 | £275 | | Third round (28 Nov) | £1,125 | £350 | | Fourth round (9 Jan) | £1,875 | £600 | | Fifth round (6 Feb) | £2,250 | £725 | | Sixth round | £4,125 | £1,350 | | Semi-final | £5,500 | £1,725 | | Final (16 May) | £30,000 | £15,000 |

Some clubs get an exemption into a later round based on how far they went last season. Reading City, for example, go straight into Saturday's second round after reaching the fourth round in 2025/26.

For a club that started in the first qualifying round back in August:

Lose this Saturday: £2,375 for the season.
Win this Saturday: £3,000 banked, with £1,125 on offer at the end of November.
Go out in the fifth round in February: £6,725.
Reach the final: £17,875 banked before the day, plus £15,000 if you lose.
Win the whole thing: £47,875.

That last figure is the one to remember. Win ten ties from August to May and lift the Vase, and you earn £125 more than a club that wins one FA Cup first round tie.

What this means for your budget

Don't budget for prize money at all. Put it in the accounts when you've won it, not before. A club that budgets for "a decent Vase run" is budgeting for money that one bad Saturday can wipe out.

Budget the costs instead. Cup ties bring costs you control less than league games: longer away trips, coach hire, extra stewarding for a bigger home crowd, and the time your volunteers give up. Before the draw for each round, have the treasurer check what the competition rules say about match expenses and how the gate is shared, so a "money-spinning" tie doesn't end up costing you. The FA's competition rules are published on its website. Read them before you hire the coach, not after.

Ring-fence cup money for one-off spending. If you do get a run, spend the money on things that last: pitch equipment, a ground grading job you've been putting off, a deposit on floodlight repairs. Using it to plug the hole in this season's running costs just moves the problem to next season, when you might lose in the first round.

Know your exemption position for next year. Exemptions are earned by how far you go this season. Going one round further this year can mean skipping the mid-August qualifying rounds next year, which saves a trip or two at the busiest point of the season's start.

Where cup runs really pay: the crowd

The prize money is fixed. What isn't fixed is what you do with the extra people who turn up.

A Vase third round home tie or a big FA Cup qualifying derby can bring a crowd several times your league average. Most of those people have never been to your ground before. If the only thing they spend money on is a pie and a pint, you've had a good day. If they also join your weekly draw, sign up to your newsletter or buy a season pass for the rest of the league season, you've had a good year.

Three things to set up before your next big home tie:

A matchday draw that runs on phones. Put a QR code on the turnstile, the programme and the bar. People who'd never queue for a paper raffle will enter in 20 seconds. Platforms like PlayFundWin handle the draw admin, so your volunteers can watch the game.
A reason to come back. Have the next three home league fixtures on a board by the exit and on your website's homepage on the day.
A way to stay in touch. Ask for consent to email, clearly, at the point of entry. A cup crowd you can't contact on Monday is a one-off.

The money from a Vase run is welcome, but it's small. The supporters a cup run brings through the gate are worth more, if you plan to keep them.

The bottom line

For most Step 5 clubs, a good FA Cup run means a few thousand pounds and a great story. A great Vase run means a few thousand more and a trip to the final. Only the FA Cup first round proper changes your finances, and almost nobody at Step 5 gets there.

So plan your season on the money you can count on, treat every cup win as a bonus, and use the bigger crowds to build something that lasts beyond the final whistle.

If you're looking for money you can plan around, our grassroots funding watch for winter 2026 lists the grants still open this season. For more on how the national cups are organised, read our pieces on why acceptance day matters for the FA Cup, Trophy and Vase and the FA Trophy first round proper.

Prize money checked 29 October 2026 against The FA's published 2026/27 prize funds for the Emirates FA Cup and the FA Vase. Round dates from The FA and Football in Berkshire. Qualifying results from published 2026/27 FA Cup records. Totals are our own sums of The FA's per-round figures.

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