Fa Cup Draw as March 9 Approaches
The fa cup draw will take place on Monday 9 March, staged at the London Stadium ahead of West Ham United’s fifth-round match against Brentford. The draw is scheduled to begin at approximately 7. 05pm GMT and will be presented by Darren Fletcher and Ally McCoist, with the balls to be placed into the pot by Joe Hart. Quarter-final ties are scheduled to be played around the weekend of Saturday 4 April.
What the Fa Cup Draw Reveals
The draw for the quarter-finals will feature eight entries, with ball numbers already allocated in advance. Liverpool secured a place in the hat after a 3-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux and will occupy ball number six. Other ball allocations set the potential match-ups and the immediate landscape for the last eight.
- Ball 1: Fulham or Southampton
- Ball 2: Port Vale or Sunderland
- Ball 3: Manchester City
- Ball 4: Leeds United or Norwich City
- Ball 5: Arsenal
- Ball 6: Liverpool
- Ball 7: Chelsea
- Ball 8: West Ham United or Brentford
Three fifth-round ties remain part of the immediate context as teams fight for places in the quarter-finals: Mansfield Town v Arsenal (12: 15), Wrexham v Chelsea (17: 30) and Newcastle v Manchester City (20: 00). These fixtures will determine which named opponents fill the conditional slots listed above. The sequencing of ball numbers means some potential high-profile pairings are already possible while others depend on the outcome of the remaining fifth-round matches.
What Happens Next?
With the draw set for Monday evening and ball allocations known, clubs can start planning for a quarter-final weekend that is scheduled across the April 4/5 window. For Liverpool, occupying ball six fixes their place in the draw and frames the scenarios they could face depending on how the remaining fifth-round ties complete. Teams in conditional slots — Fulham or Southampton, Port Vale or Sunderland, Leeds United or Norwich City, West Ham United or Brentford — will await results before the full bracket is confirmed.
Operationally, the presentation will be handled by named presenters with a former international keeper conducting the draw, and fans can expect the event to be staged live from the London Stadium as part of pre-match activity for the host tie. The sequence — fifth-round fixtures, a Monday draw at roughly 7. 05pm GMT, then quarter-final ties around the first weekend of April — sets a clear calendar for clubs, coaches and supporters planning travel and preparation.
There is uncertainty in two dimensions: the outcomes of the outstanding fifth-round fixtures, and any scheduling adjustments that could affect exact match dates. Those variables will be resolved through the remaining ties and the published quarter-final schedule, but the core timetable and the ball-number framework are in place ahead of the fa cup draw
