How to Watch 2025–26 FA Cup Third Round Draw on TV, Live Stream

Every Premier League side will learn their first FA Cup opponent on Monday evening.

The FA Cup draw is laced with history. / Alex Pantling/Getty Images

The FA Cup third round draw is finally upon us.

This season’s competition began for 446 clubs back on the first weekend of August, when teams from step nine of the English footballing pyramid kicked off the extra preliminary round. Roman Glass St George could not back up their 7–0 win and the rest of the ninth tier have since fallen by the wayside, but there will be four teams from outside the professionalised Football League involved in Monday’s draw—twice as many as last season.

Crucially, all 20 Premier League clubs will also find themselves in the hat. No subsequent round of the competition provides more of the trademarked “Magic of the Cup” quite like this first intermingling of divisions.

Non-league Tamworth famously pushed Tottenham Hotspur desperately close to a staggering upset in last season’s third round, forcing extra time after missing a gilt-edged chance on home turf in the dying embers of the first 90 minutes. Perhaps Spurs had been put off by their dressing room, which was a converted portacabin behind one of the stands. Tamworth had done their best to make them feel at home, painting the modest surroundings in Tottenham colours.

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The Lambs regrettably fell in the slaughter of the first round proper this season, but the likes of sixth-tier Weston-super-Mare and Macclesfield as well as National League Boreham Wood will be hoping to mount a memorable cupset of their own.

Here’s how to watch the occasion unfold.

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What Time Is the 2025–26 FA Cup Third Round Draw?

• Location: St. James Park, Brackley
• Date: Monday, Dec. 8
• Time: 6:40 p.m. GMT / 1:40 p.m ET / 10:30 a.m. PT

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How to Watch 2025–26 FA Cup Third Round Draw on TV, Live Stream

Country	TV Channel/Live Stream
United States	ESPN Select, ESPN App
Canada	Sportsnet
United Kingdom	TNT Sports 1, discovery+, TNT Sports YouTube

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Ball Numbers of FA Cup Third Round Draw

The picking of the balls is always an intriguing occasion. / Alex Pantling/Getty Images

1. AFC Bournemouth
2. Arsenal
3. Aston Villa
4. Birmingham City
5. Blackburn Rovers
6. Brentford
7. Brighton & Hove Albion
8. Bristol City
9. Burnley
10. Charlton Athletic
11. Chelsea
12. Coventry City
13. Crystal Palace
14. Derby County
15. Everton
16. Fulham
17. Hull City
18. Ipswich Town
19. Leeds United
20. Leicester City
21. Liverpool
22. Manchester City
23. Manchester United
24. Middlesbrough
25. Millwall
26. Newcastle United
27. Norwich City
28. Nottingham Forest
29. Oxford United
30. Portsmouth
31. Preston North End
32. Queens Park Rangers
33. Sheffield United
34. Sheffield Wednesday
35. Southampton
36. Stoke City
37. Sunderland
38. Swansea City
39. Tottenham Hotspur
40. Watford
41. West Bromwich Albion
42. West Ham United
43. Wolverhampton Wanderers
44. Wrexham
45. Macclesfield
46. Grimsby Town
47. Shrewsbury Town
48. Swindon Town
49. Weston Super Mare
50. Barnsley
51. Boreham Wood
52. Milton Keynes Dons
53. Wigan Athletic
54. Fleetwood Town
55. Salford City
56. Mansfield Town
57. Cambridge United
58. Brackley Town or Burton Albion
59. Blackpool
60. Walsall
61. Exeter City
62. Cheltenham Town
63. Doncaster Rovers
64. Port Vale

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When Is the FA Cup Third Round?

There is plenty of time for expectation and anticipation to build. The draw takes place more than a month before the actual fixtures get underway. The exact dates of times of each game will be determined once the teams involved have been revealed, but the FA have already confirmed that the third round will take place on the weekend of Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.

For the Premier League sides involved in the title race, this could come at a very inopportune time. Arsenal, for example, host reigning top-flight champions Liverpool on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. What state Arne Slot’s team will be in by then is unclear—and Mohamed Salah’s involvement is just one of many factors to consider.

However, the unhappy Egypt international is not the only potential absentee on FA Cup third round weekend. The Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinals are scheduled at the same time. A glut of Premier League clubs could very well be missing several star players due to international duty, including Manchester United and their three-man contingent of Bryan Mbeumo (Cameroon), Amad Diallo (Côte d’Ivoire) and Noussair Mazraoui (Morocco).

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