As always Wikipedia knows everything:
"The competition is a knockout tournament with pairings drawn at random. However, the qualifying round draws and the 1st Round proper draw are regionalised to reduce teams' travel costs. If a match (other than the semi-final or final) is drawn, there is a replay, usually at the ground of the team which played away from home for the first game. Drawn replays are now settled with extra time and penalty shootouts, though in the past further replays were possible.[citation needed]
Originally the competition included as many qualifying rounds as were required to reduce the number of teams to 32. In 1999 the format was amended to match that of the FA Cup, with six rounds prior to the semi-final stage, albeit without qualifying rounds. Teams from the Football Conference received byes through the early rounds, in a similar manner to the way in which the leading clubs receive byes in the FA Cup.[4]
As of 2008–09 the competition featured four qualifying rounds and four rounds proper before the semi-finals. Teams from Step 4 enter at the preliminary round stage, those from Step 3 at the first qualifying round, those from Step 2 at the third qualifying round, and those from Step 1 at the first round proper.[12]
This year's calendar:
Round Date Matches Clubs New entries this round Prize money
Preliminary Round 5 October 2013 64 276 → 212 128 £2,500
First Round Qualifying 19 October 2013 72 212 → 140 80 £2,700
Second Round Qualifying 2 November 2013 36 140 → 104 none £3,250
Third Round Qualifying 16 November 2013 40 104 → 64 44 £4,000
First Round Proper 30 November 2013 32 64 → 32 24 £5,000
Second Round Proper 14 December 2013 16 32 → 16 none £6,000
Third Round Proper 11 January 2014 8 16 → 8 none £7,000
Fourth Round Proper 1 February 2014 4 8 → 4 none £8,000
Semi Finals 15 February and 22 February 2014 2 4 → 2 none £16,000
Final 23 March 2014 1 2 → 1 none Runner-up £25,000 Winner £50,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FA_Trophy
