What do the numbers mean on FA Cup draw balls?

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.

Denis Law and Terry Venables perform the FA Cup draw in 2000Times Newspapers Ltd

The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the worldPA

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.