Editor's Note: The FA Vase concludes on May 9th, with a final at the iconic Wembley Stadium. An arena normally reserved for giants will play host to two minnows, vying for a prize that is too small to even be called a trophy or a cup, but one that still manages to draw attention from all corners of England. They'll play for the 'Vase' — an award appropriately after an item that's functional, commonplace, and not necessarily precious in the way that silverware is, but capable of holding extreme, earthly beauty all the same.

That describes everything about this competition: Equal parts gritty and glorious, simultaneously average and extraordinary, and often graceless and beautiful at the same time.

These are people, not professionals, who get to live their football dreams for one day — but that opportunity has been forged by the fire of hard work, lost sleep, reshuffled priorities, heavy sacrifices, and rounds upon rounds of qualifying.

That's the journey you never usually get to see because there weren't national TV crews or high-profile journalists there — but there was one man who saw it all.

He's renowned football photographer David Bauckham, and he's captured the FA Vase from beginning to end. Here is his story.

***

Now in its forty-first season, the FA Vase is a knock-out competition for clubs at Steps 5 and 6 of the English non-League Pyramid — in other words those who compete in the various County Football Leagues — with the reward of a Final at Wembley Stadium.

The Vase effectively replaced the FA Amateur Cup in 1974, after the Football Association decided to abolish the official distinction between ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ footballers.

Share this Story

19 de November de 2019

an essay by Julie Logan

The story of the 2019 #AudiFCBTour

Arsenal FC x Where Is Football x adidas London

Playing for your country, against your country

Leicester loves you more than you know...