THE FA Cup draw is one of those events that has football fans glued to their screens.
The practice of drawing teams out of a bag goes back decades – in a competition that is steeped in tradition.
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The world’s oldest football competition has retained some of its old charm in an age of VAR, robot assistant referees and goal-line technology.
The FA‘s draws look and feel very different to Uefa’s Champions League and Europa League draws, where paper team names are taken out of plastic balls.
Why have the FA Cup draw balls numbered?
The FA Cup numbers correspond to the tie winners from previous rounds.
So a team – or two teams – will be associated with that number.
Here are a selection of numbers from the FA Cup fourth round draw in the 2023-24 season:
1. Luton Town or Bolton Wanderers (replay)
2. Wrexham
3. Liverpool
4. Brighton & Hove Albion
5. Norwich City or Bristol Rovers (replay)
6. West Ham United or Bristol City (replay)
7. Tottenham Hotspur
8. Fulham
9. West Bromwich Albion
10. Southampton
11. Ipswich Town
12. Leeds United
13. Leicester City
14. Watford
15. Newcastle United
16. Sheffield Wednesday
17. Crystal Palace or Everton (replay)
18. Aston Villa
19. Nottingham Forest or Blackpool (replay)
20. Wigan Athletic or Manchester United (Monday)
21. Manchester City
22. Blackburn Rovers
23. Sheffield United
24. Swansea City
25. Chelsea
26. AFC Bournemouth
27. Coventry City
28. Brentford or Wolverhampton Wanderers (replay)
29. Plymouth Argyle
30. Maidstone United
31. Newport County or Eastleigh (replay)
32. Hull City or Birmingham City (replay)
If a tie has yet to be played or the tie from that round was drawn and goes to a replay, two clubs are associated with that number, such as Nottingham Forest or Blackpool.
How do they decide on the order for the numbers?
There are two criteria:
- How early that team came out of the draw. So if a team came from the first round or second round and made it to the fourth round, they will have a low number.
- Alphabetical order. This usually gives Arsenal a low number and York City a higher number.
