DOUBLE YOUR MONEY!

Clubs to cash in as FA Cup fund gets a boost...

NON-LEAGUE football will reap the benefits of FA Cup prize money being doubled next season – with the losers in the two Preliminary rounds also set to cash in.

A new international TV deal – signed in 2016 and reportedly worth £820m – will start in the new season and it has allowed the Football Association to sink more money into the famous competition.

While it might be small compared to the £3.6million the FA Cup winners will ultimately bank, clubs winning in the Extra Preliminary Round will now take home £2,250 and the Preliminary Round victors

will earn £2,890. Losing clubs in each round will receive £750 and £960 respectively.

A win in the first round qualifying will be worth £6,000 – up from £3,000 – while the second round qualifying is now £9,000 and third round qualifying £15,000.

Making it past the fourth round qualifying stage and into the competition proper will boost the coffers by £25,000.

If a club reached the third round proper after starting in the first round qualifying, they would earn £145,000 in prize money alone.

Jody Brown’s Heybridge Swifts were the lowest ranked club in last season’s first round proper, where they played Exeter City, and he has welcomed the increase.

“The experience is great, but the money leaves a legacy,” Brown told The NLP. “With us it is going into the infrastructure – the changing rooms are being renovated, some money has gone into the pitch, historic debts have been paid off.

“That money is really important to clubs at Step 4, and below and it’s good to see what the FA have done. There’s always more that can be done but you’ve got to start somewhere and increasing prize money is one of those areas.”