This year’s FA Cup has been loaded with excellent upsets, but Lincoln City has upstaged everyone. The fifth division side was probably thrilled just to get to the fifth round of the competition and draw Burnley away, but they’ve gone a step further, beating the Clarets 1-0 off a dramatic last-minute corner scored by defender Sean Raggett.
Fifth division Lincoln City knocks Premier League team Burnley out of the FA Cup
It’s one of the best upsets in recent FA Cup history.
Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
By simply getting to this game, Lincoln guaranteed themselves a massive payday. In the FA Cup, teams get an even split of matchday and TV revenue no matter where the game is played. With this game taking place at a nearly sold-out Premier League stadium and making it onto TV in England, the revenue from this one game likely equaled or exceeded Lincoln’s budget for an entire season.
This is the first time that a non-league side — a team outside of the four fully professional divisions of English soccer — has made the quarterfinals of the FA Cup since the tournament took up a format similar to its current one in 1925. The last non-league side to make it this far in any year was Queens Park Rangers in 1914.
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