2015–16 FA Cup
| Football Association Challenge Cup | |||
| Country |
 England Guernsey Wales
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|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | 15 August 2015 – 21 May 2016 | ||
| Teams | 736 | ||
| Defending champions | Arsenal | ||
| Champions | Manchester United (12th title) | ||
| Runners-up | Crystal Palace | ||
| Matches played | 149 | ||
| Goals scored | 412 (2.77 per match) | ||
| Top goal scorer(s) |
Matěj Vydra (6 goals) |
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The 2015–16 FA Cup (also known as the FA Challenge Cup) was the 135th edition of the oldest recognised football tournament in the world. It was sponsored by Emirates, and known as the Emirates FA Cup for sponsorship purposes. It began with the Extra Preliminary Round on 15 August 2015, and concluded with the final on 21 May 2016. The FA winner would have qualified for the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League Group Stage. However, because Manchester United had already qualified for Europa by finishing 5th in the 2015–16 Premier League, the Europa League entry went to West Ham United, the highest team in the Premier League table which had not already qualified for European competitions.
Premier League side Arsenal were the defending champions after they beat Aston Villa 4–0 in the previous final on 30 May 2015, but were eliminated by Watford in the sixth round.
The winners were Manchester United, who defeated Crystal Palace 2–1 in the final after extra time.
The schedule are as follows.
The qualifying competition began with the Extra Preliminary Round on 15 August 2015. All of the competing teams that were not members of either the Premier League or the Football League had to compete in the qualifying rounds to win a place in the first round proper. The final (fourth) qualifying round began on the weekend of 24 October.
The First Round draw took place on 26 October at 7pm at the club house of the FA Charter Standard Community Club Thackley Juniors F.C. based in Thackley in West Yorkshire, and was broadcast live on BBC Two and BBC Radio 5 Live. The First Round Proper were played on the weekend of 7 November. 32 teams from the qualifying competition joined the 48 teams from League One and League Two to compete in this round. The round included two teams from Level 8 still in the competition, Northwich Victoria and Didcot Town, which were the lowest-ranked teams in this round; Northwich Victoria advanced to become the lowest-ranked team in the second round.
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