THIS season’s FA Cup winners will bank just half what Arsenal received last year – at £3.4million.
The Gunners scooped a total £6.8m for beating Chelsea at Wembley in May.
Hefty prizes from their wins in previous rounds added to a £3.6m fee for going all the way.
But The FA have slashed the prize pot in half for the 2020-21 edition of the tournament.
No replays or fans, at least for the vast majority of matches, means a very different feel to the world’s oldest cup competition.
This weekend’s third-round match winners will receive £61,500, down from £135,000.
The teams crashing out at this stage, be it by a defeat or a coronavirus outbreak, will take home just over £20,000 for their troubles.
Prize money bumps up to £90,000 for winning in the fourth round, with £180,000 on offer in the fifth.
Arsenal banked some much-needed cash with their cup win in MayCredit: PA:Press Association
Quarter-final victors will earn £360,000 and £900,000 will go to each of the semi-final winners.
Even the sides that lose the semi-finals will take home the not-inconsiderable amount of £450,000.
The team that goes all the way will pocket £1.8m from the final, meaning a total £3.4m banked throughout the tournament.
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Chelsea were awarded £1.8m for losing last season’s showpiece, a fee cut by 50 per cent in line with other savings this time around, to £900,000.
The wholesale reductions mark a hasty retreat from FA bosses in attempting to further incentivise the competition.
Prize money was doubled in 2018-19 to encourage sides to take the FA Cup more seriously, but has now been cut back down to its original size.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
