Wigan became the first club to win the FA Cup and be relegated in the same season.

How many major finals have you had the pleasure of watching your team play in - and win - during your lifetime? If you're not a supporter of one of the Premier League's "big" clubs, the answer to that is probably very few, if any.

The second part of this question is, would you like to? The answer to that would be a resounding yes, but would it remain so if the cost of silverware was relegation from the top flight? That is a real possibility for two of the sides going head-to-head in the FA Cup quarter-finals - Leeds United and West Ham United. Both are just two games away from making it to a rare domestic final but, at the same time, there is a real possibility one of them will be relegated from the Premier League come May.

Wigan became the first team to win the FA Cup and go down from England's top flight in the same season, back in 2013. Now, languishing at the wrong end of League One, was their day of glory worth what followed?

The last time Leeds United got their hands on a major domestic trophy was 1992, when they lifted the final First Division title before the league was revamped to the Premier League. For the last time West Ham United can boast similar you must go back even further to 1980, when they beat Arsenal 1-0 to lift the FA Cup.

It's 30 and 20 years respectively since either have even made it to a major final on home soil, meaning many among their fanbase won't have seen them take part in one - yet alone win one.

And yet, still, both rang the changes for the previous round of the FA Cup. Daniel Farke made nine as Leeds beat Championship side Norwich City to progress while Nuno Espirito Santo made seven as West Ham beat fellow Premier League side Brentford on penalties. Both had a free week before their next Premier League fixture and, while both did ultimately get over the line, it's clear their priorities were elsewhere. It begs the question as to why.

The winner of this year's men's FA Cup will pocket £2.1m in prize money. A decent sum, perhaps, on the surface of it. That is until you compare it to the prize money on offer for finishing one position higher in the Premier League. According to the Premier League website, in 2024-25 each position was worth £2.7m, so finishing 17th, one place above the drop, earned £10.8m - more than five times the amount for winning the FA Cup.

Not only this, but the financial impact of relegation is enormous. Broadcast money, plus matchday and commercial revenue all take hits. And while the actual amount will vary on a club-by-club basis, football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes dropping out of the top flight in 2025-26 will cost clubs an average of £100m.

"The club that finished bottom of the Premier League two years ago, the last set of dates we have, got £111m," Maguire told the Daily Mail in January. "I think by the end of this season, we'll be looking at somewhere in the region of £120m from the television companies alone. That will drop to around £45m in the Championship, so that is already about £75m [lost]." Once you add the loss of matchday and commercial revenue, it means clubs are staring down the barrel of £100m+ losses.

So, when it comes to rotating players, is it really any wonder that managers are increasingly choosing to use domestic cup competitions as rotatory playgrounds? While there is seemingly a lot to gain for fans, and you could argue the players, that gain isn't nearly as appealing for many of those charged with steering the ships.

Ultimately it is Wigan fans who are best placed to answer what they preferred out of Premier League survival and winning the FA Cup, given they achieved the latter but got relegated in 2013. "Football shouldn't be about making up the numbers; it should be about winning trophies," says Martin Tarbuck, editor of the Mudhutter Football Express fanzine.

"That is why if you ask any Wigan Athletic fan whether they'd prefer to have stayed up that season, rather than win the FA Cup, you will receive a unanimous, resounding no in response. "As fans and as a club, we will take that glorious piece of silverware with us all until we take our last breath. There is no trophy for finishing in the lower half of the Premier League, football is about the glory and recalling the events of 11 May 2013 makes most Latics fans cry tears of happiness on demand."

This is the first time that a lot of fans, including myself, could see an FA Cup win. And as fans, this is the kind of moment that we live for. But I'd argue that focusing too much on the FA Cup right now is pretty likely to get us relegated and bring a whole new level of misery. We don't have a huge amount of squad rotation that we can do without weakening our side, and if we end up getting injuries or playing tired players in the Premier League, that could be the fine margin that ends up sending us down, which scares me.

So for me it's all about focusing on staying up at the moment and if we can manage to progress in the FA Cup too, that would be an incredible highlight in what's been a rather stressful season.

The FA Cup is where the excitement is. The goals, the energy, the sense of occasion, it's everything that's been missing in the league. And let's be honest, who wouldn't want a trip to Wembley? Maybe even two.

So, for me, right now, it's the FA Cup all the way. The league might matter in the long run, but football is about moments, and this cup run is giving us something to believe in. And I can't even begin to explain how excited I am to be in the East End on Sunday.

Mike: Very simple order of preference. 1: Stay in the Premier League. 2: Send Spurs down instead. 3: Add a little icing to the top of the cake with a cheeky lifting of the FA Cup.

Conor: It surely has to be Premier League survival. What's an FA Cup worth to us in the Championship?

Tim: Give the FA Cup as much of an effort as possible.

Pat: Premier League survival, undoubtedly. We've got to follow the money, unfortunately. Besides, even in the highly unlikely possibility that we would win the FA Cup, it would only be fleeting success.

Matt: Why are people making out that it's a binary choice? One doesn't have to come at the expense of the other. I want Leeds to try their best in whatever match they are playing between now and the end of the season.

Michael: I definitely want to stay up, but I can't deny that two trips to Wembley and the opportunity of seeing us score a goal there would be very special and memorable. How about we win the FA Cup and stay up?!

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