The FA cup quarter finals were this weekend and they definitely brought their fair share of drama along with them. Arsenal were trounced by championship side Southampton, West Ham had dramatic late equalizers against Leeds to eventually crash out on penalties.
Just another one of those matches was the Man City vs Liverpool match, which saw the former win 4-0 following a stunning hattrick by Erling Haaland. The match saw city eleiminate Liverpool and move on to the Semi Finals of the FA cup.
However, with every round of the FA cup in which City participates there is always one particular question that the fans have – Why is City’s FA Cup patch different from that of the other teams.
City wear an FA cup patch that only features the name of the competition and the number 7, to symbolise the number of times they have won the competition. The interesting part about it is that it does not feature Emirates, who are the sponsors of the competition.
The main reason for this? City are sponsored by Etihad Airways who are the direct competitors of Emirates in the Gulf Airlines sector. The middle eastern company have been City’s sponsors since the 2009/10 season and even hold the naming rights to their stadium.
Why is Manchester City the only team not wearing the official FA Cup badge on their kit?
— Sky Blues (@SkyBluesXtra) April 4, 2026
Thread pic.twitter.com/2UqMLQZPtG
When the FA cup signed the deal with Emirates back in 2015, Etihad included a very strict clause in their contract. Man city were not allowed to have any other rival company on their jersey.
The problem was initially solved, with Manchester city not wearing an FA cup badge on their jersey at all. It was only from the 24/25 season onwards where they adopted the current model.
The rivalry took an interesting turn during the 2019 FA cup final when they altered their sponsor from “Etihad Airways” to “Choose Etihad”, just a slight nod as to which is the right side. Clearly no love lost between the two sides.
The patch is without a doubt a source of good luck as they have reached the final of the competition 5 times since 2015, having won it twice. They have also reached the final on three consecutive occasions from 2023-25.
Manchester City are once again in pole position to reach the final and potentially even win the FA cup, a triumph that could see them cap off a season that could easily have been written off. Having already won the Carabao cup, City will now hope to clinch the FA cup and with some luck maybe even win the Premier league to cap off a historic Domestic Treble. But for that City fans will have to wait till 12th April for their return to Premier League action against Chelsea
