The FA Cup is the oldest domestic football competition in the world. There aren’t many bigger statements than that.
The trophy was first contested in the 1871–72 season and won by the Wanderers, defeating the Royal Engineers at Kennington Oval in London. Wanderers won 1–0 thanks to Morton Peto Bett’s goal in the 15th minute of the first half. East London outfit Leytonstone retained the trophy the following season. There have been 44 Cup winners since its inception 153 years ago.
The club that has won the award most often is Arsenal, who have lifted the trophy 14 times. Four of them have occurred in the last 10 years. Manchester City won the FA Cup by beating city rivals Manchester United 2-1 in the final of the 2022/2023 season.
Pep Guardiola’s side are still in with a chance of winning back-to-back FA Cups after beating Championship side Huddersfield Town in the third round of this year’s competition, while Arsenal’s defeat was one of the big opener defeats. Home to Liverpool. As always, there was plenty of action in the FA Cup. As the rivalry continued, there were big games, big upsets and big potential tie-ins.
Here’s everything you need to know about the 2023/24 FA Cup, including when the matches will take place, draw times and potential prize money. For the first four rounds of FA Cup fixtures and replays, match dates are generally very fixed. Usually in 2-4 days.
However, some strange circumstances made this not the case. Scarborough Athletic and Forest Green Rovers had to replay their first round match after the FA ruled that Forest had sent off an ineligible player.
One of their players was on loan from another club and Rovers had not received written permission from the team for him to play in the competition, thus breaching FA Cup Rule 109. Rovers won the replay 4–2. The following table shows the dates for each round of the FA Cup, including the final match times.
Meanwhile, the draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup will take place on January 8, ahead of the third round final between Manchester United and Wigan Athletic.
