The FA Cup 2019-20

What Is the FA Cup

The 2019-20FACup (also known as the Football Association Challenge Cup) is the 139th edition of the oldest football tournament in the world. It is sponsored by Emirates and known as The Emirates FACup for sponsorship purposes. Premier League side Manchester City are the defending champions.

The Emirates FA Cup Season 2019-20 Round Dates

Fourth Round Qualifying Saturday 19 October 2019

First Round Proper Saturday 9 November 2019

Second Round Proper Saturday 30 November 2019

Third Round Proper Saturday 4 January 2020

Fourth Round Proper Saturday 25 January 2020

Fifth Round Proper Wednesday 4 March 2020

Quarter Final Saturday 21 March 2020

Semi Final Saturday 18 April & Sunday 19 April 2020

Final Saturday 23 May 2020

The History of the FA Cup

The FA Cup was the first of football’s great competitions, providing the blueprint for structuring the game in a more formal fashion and has proved to be, both at home and abroad, organised football’s founding father.

More than simply the showpiece occasion to bring down the curtain on an English season, it became the world’s cup final, the best-loved and most watched domestic game on earth, the fixture that people all over the planet would do anything they could to catch.

It is the competition that fostered professionalism, created and fuelled the rivalry between clubs great and small, instigated the game’s global television market and yet still reminds us that, be they ever so mighty, the biggest and the best in the world can still be brought down to earth by a committed bunch of journeymen, hurling themselves around on a mud heap on a bitingly cold January day.