The FA Cup prize fund has doubled for the upcoming season – meaning the financial rewards for Chester FC will be all the more significant if the Blues can progress in the competition.

Winners of the extra preliminary round of the world’s oldest club cup competition will now pick up £2,250, with £750 for the losers.

Those teams which triumph in the preliminary round will collect £2,890, while those sides which leave the competition at this stage will receive £960.

For the first qualifying round, winners of these games will now pick up £6,000 – double the £3,000 given at the same stage last season.

Chester FC will enter the competition this season at the second qualifying round, with a tie due to take place on Saturday, September 22.

And the financial incentive for winning that game and progressing to the next stage will now be £9,000.

Chester FC v Liverpool FC

Winning the third qualifying round will earn clubs £15,000, with the prize for those which win the following stage – where the Blues exited the competition last season with an abysmal 2-0 away loss against Kidderminster – and make it into the first round proper now standing at £25,000.

Should the Blues make it to the competition’s first round proper, they could face sides from either League One or League Two, with a reward of £36,000 prize money on offer if they triumph.

A total of £54,000 will be paid from the prize fund to those clubs which come through the second round unscathed.

Arguably the most exciting draw of the competition then follows with the third round proper, where teams from the Championship and the Premier League are introduced.

And as well as the lure of drawing one of the big boys, the reward for victory in this round now stands at £135,000.

Making it through the fourth round proper now offers an incentive of £180,000 for winning teams, while those which triumph in the fifth will pick up a cool £360,000.

At the business end of the competition, teams which win quarter finals can now expect to pick up £720,000.

And for those teams who make the semi finals and emerge triumphant will now collect £1.8m, with £900,000 being given to the losers of both ties.

As well as a second day out at Wembley and the famous trophy for the FA Cup winners, they will now pick up £3.6m from the prize fund.

The furthest the Blues have gone in the competition since the club’s reformation in 2010 was to the second round proper, where they earned a replay after holding then League One side Barnsley to a goalless draw at Oakwell , before bowing out after losing the replay at home 3-0 thanks to a Dale Jennings brace and a goal from Kane Hemmings.