2024–25 FA Cup

The 2024–25 FA Cup was the 144th season of the Football Association Challenge Cup, the oldest football tournament in the world. It was sponsored by Emirates and known as the Emirates FA Cup for sponsorship reasons. The FA Cup is the main domestic cup competition for men's football teams in England. The qualifying competition began on 3 August 2024, with the tournament proper starting on 2 November 2024.

The final was played at Wembley Stadium, London, on 17 May 2025. Crystal Palace won the tournament for the first time, defeating Manchester City in the final and winning their first ever major trophy. As the winners, Crystal Palace earned the right to play against the 2024–25 Premier League champions, Liverpool, in the 2025 FA Community Shield, as well as qualifying for the 2025–26 UEFA Conference League play-off round. For City, this was their third consecutive FA Cup final appearance, and second consecutive defeat.

Defending champions Manchester United, having beaten rivals Manchester City in the 2024 final to win their 13th title, were eliminated by Fulham in the fifth round.

Teams The FA Cup is a knockout competition with 124 teams taking part from the first round proper, and all trying to reach the final at Wembley Stadium on 17 May 2025. The competition consists of the 92 teams from the Football League system (20 teams from the Premier League and the 72 in total from the EFL Championship, EFL League One and EFL League Two) plus the 32 surviving teams out of 653 teams from the National League System that started the competition in the qualifying rounds. The total 745 entrants was an increase of 13 from the previous season, and the most since 758 entrants were accepted in 2012–13.

All rounds were drawn randomly, usually at the completion of the previous round (discounting any last games of a round being played), depending on television broadcasting rights.

RoundMain date(Saturdays) Number of fixtures Clubs remaining New entries this round Winner prize money Loser prize money Divisions entering this round First round 2 November 2024 40 80 → 40 48 £45,000 £15,000 24 EFL League One teams 24 EFL League Two teams Second round30 November 2024 20 40 → 20 None £75,000 £20,000 None Third round 11 January 2025 32 64 → 32 44 £115,000 £25,000 20 Premier League teams 24 EFL Championship teams Fourth round 8 February 2025 16 32 → 16 None £120,000 None None Fifth round 1 March 2025 8 16 → 8 None £225,000 None None Quarter-finals 29 March 2025 4 8 → 4 None £450,000 None None Semi-finals 26 April 2025 2 4 → 2 None £1,000,000 £500,000 None Final 17 May 2025 1 2 → 1 None £2,000,000 £1,000,000 None

Rule changes This is the first edition of the tournament to be played without replays in the proper rounds since the 2020–21 FA Cup and the first edition of the tournament to have the final played one week before the end of the Premier League season. The changes were made as part of a six-year agreement between The Football Association and the Premier League due to pressure on the domestic calendar from expanded UEFA competitions, but were criticised since replays were cited as an important source of revenue for lower league clubs. The agreement saw all round dates return to weekends, with previous editions having had some dates in midweek.

VAR will be used in all matches from the fifth round onwards (and none prior), whereas in previous seasons it was used for all matches held in Premier League grounds and at Wembley Stadium.

Qualifying

Teams that are not members of either the Premier League or English Football League competed in the qualifying rounds to secure one of 32 available places in the first round. The six-round qualifying competition began with the extra preliminary round on 3 August 2024, with the fourth and final qualifying round kicking off on 12 October.

The winners from the fourth qualifying round were Rushall Olympic, Tamworth, Oldham Athletic, Brackley Town, Kettering Town, Solihull Moors, Rochdale, Scarborough Athletic, York City, Harborough Town, Curzon Ashton, Gainsborough Trinity, Hednesford Town, Alfreton Town, Guiseley, Maidenhead United, Horsham, Aldershot Town, Southend United, Boreham Wood, Weston-super-Mare, Sutton United, Dagenham & Redbridge, Wealdstone, Barnet, Chesham United, Tonbridge Angels, Woking, Forest Green Rovers, Maidstone United, Worthing and Braintree Town.

Rushall Olympic and Harborough Town were appearing in the competition proper for the first time. Of the others, Braintree Town had last featured at this stage in 2016–17, Wealdstone had last done so in 2015–16, Tamworth and Hednesford Town had last done so in 2013–14 and Kettering Town had last done so in 2011–12.

First round A total of 80 teams played in the first round: 32 winners from the fourth qualifying round, 24 from League Two (tier 4), and 24 from League One (tier 3). Eighth tier side Hednesford Town (Northern Premier League Division One West) were the lowest-ranked team in the draw, which was made on 14 October 2024 by Stuart McCall and Danny Webber at Valley Parade.