The 994-Club Cup — A Competition Like No Other
Non-League football in England is vast. From the National League at Step 1, where clubs chase dreams of the Football League, all the way down to Step 6, where football is played for the love of the game on pitches far from the spotlight — there are 994 clubs spread across six steps of the pyramid, each with their own history, their own supporters, and their own ambitions.
The 994-Club Cup brings every single one of them together in a single competition.
This is not a regionalised cup. From the moment the draw is made, a Step 6 side can find themselves lining up against a National League outfit, and both clubs play every match on equal terms. One competition, 994 clubs, one champion.
How are matches decided? For Phase 1 – round 1, Team A’s score for their 1st League fixture is put against Team B’s score from their 1st League fixture, then for round 2, Team A’s score for their 2nd League fixture is put against Team B’s score from their 2nd League fixture and so on, you get the idea. League results from matches 1-9 are used for Phase 1, matches 12-18 for Phase 2 and matches 21-27 for the Knockouts. Obviously, teams play League matches at different times, so some fixtures may take weeks, some results will be known by 5pm on a Satruday.
Phase 1 — The Group Stage
The competition begins with 850 clubs — the 994 minus 144 pre-seeded sides — drawn into 85 groups of 10. The draw is carefully balanced: no group contains more than one Step 1 or Step 2 club, no group has more than two clubs from the same step, and no two clubs from the same league can be drawn together. The aim is variety and fairness from the very first match.
Within each group, every club plays the other nine once — nine matches per club, split across nine rounds so that each round produces a clean set of five fixtures per group. Points are awarded in the usual way: three for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat, with goal difference and goals scored used to separate teams level on points, and alphabetical order as the final tiebreaker.
At the end of Phase 1, the top four clubs from each of the 85 groups advance — 340 clubs in total. But that is not the end of the road for every fifth-placed side. The 28 best fifth-place finishers across all 85 groups — ranked by points, goal difference and goals scored — also earn their place in Phase 2. That means 368 clubs progress from the group stage.
Phase 2 — The Second Group Stage
Those 368 qualifiers are joined in Phase 2 by 144 pre-seeded clubs. These are the clubs who earned the right to skip Phase 1 by finishing in the top three of their respective divisions in the previous season — rewarding consistent excellence with a direct route into the second stage.
Together, all 512 clubs are drawn into 64 groups of 8. Again, the draw operates under strict constraints: no group can contain more than three bye clubs, no two clubs from the same Phase 1 group can be drawn together, and no group can have more than two clubs who finished in the same Phase 1 position. Each club plays seven matches across seven rounds of four fixtures, with the top two from every group advancing to the knockout stage.
128 clubs make it through.
Phase 3 — The Knockout
From 128 clubs to one champion — seven knockout rounds decide the winner of the 994-Club Cup.
The bracket is seeded by Phase 2 performance. The 64 group winners are ranked by their points, goal difference and goals scored from Phase 2 and seeded 1 to 64. The 64 runners-up are ranked and seeded 65 to 128. In the Round of 128, teams that finished top of their Group in Phase 2, play Group Runners up from Phase 2.
Should a knockout tie finish in a draw, there is no need for extra time or a penalty shootout. Instead, the tie is decided by Phase 2 seeding — the better-ranked side from the group stage advances. It is a system that rewards the quality shown across seven group matches rather than the lottery of a single moment, and ensures that every game in Phase 2 carries genuine weight right to the final whistle.
The knockout rounds proceed from the Round of 128 through the Round of 64, Round of 32, Round of 16, Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals, before one club is crowned champion in the Final.
Follow the Action
Every fixture, result and table from all three phases is tracked live on this website. Use the phase buttons to navigate between the group stages and the knockout bracket, search for your club to find their group and results, and follow along as 994 clubs compete to become the first ever winner of the 994-Club Cup.
Who goes all the way? That is what we are here to find out.