FA Competition Round Dates announced for 2026/27 season

Attentions are fully focused on the 2026/27 season and now the FA have released the round dates for all of their competitions for the upcoming season.

The FA have released the round dates for all competitions together, including the Women’s FA Cup – something that had seen receive criticism on social media for in previous years.

The FA Cup, FA Vase, FA Trophy and FA Youth Cup usually have their details released at the same time, but the addition of including the Women’s FA Cup is a welcome addition and gives everyone a full picture of the key dates in the FA competitions calendar.

The notable change in the dates is the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round not taking place on Saturday 1 August, which it was expected to be – with the round booked in for Saturday 8 August instead.

It will be interesting to see if the Hellenic Premier will start on the final midweek of July, which it has done for the last couple of seasons to cater for the FA Cup on the first Saturday of August, or whether the division will start on Saturday 1 August.

There is always a possibility that the Hellenic League start their Hellenic Premier campaign on the midweek after 1 August, with first league games still taking place before the FA Cup kicks off. It’s a tedious thing to wonder, but it will be interesting to see when they start their league campaign.

August is typically busy with the Extra Preliminary and Preliminary rounds of the FA Cup sandwiching the opening qualifying round of the FA Vase on Saturday 15 August.

The Women’s FA Cup also starts earlier, with the Preliminary Round taking place on Sunday 23 August – bringing both the Men’s and Women’s FA Cup Preliminary Round to the same weekend.

In the next couple of weeks the FA will release the teams accepted into each competition, before the draws take place in July.

Check out the round dates for all FA Competitions for the 2026/27 season below (subject to change).

FA Youth Cup

Extra Preliminary Round: Monday 17 August
Preliminary Round: Monday 31 August
First Round Qualifying: Monday 14 September
Second Round Qualifying: Monday 28 September  
Third Round Qualifying: Monday 12 October
First Round Proper: Saturday 31 October    
Second Round Proper: Saturday 21 November 
Third Round Proper: Saturday 12 December    
Fourth Round Proper: Saturday 23 January  
Fifth Round Proper: Saturday 20 February  
Sixth Round Proper: Saturday 13 March  
Semi Final: Saturday 10 April
Final: Saturday 8 May

Cover photo taken by and copyright to Brian Rossiter. Check out his Flickr account for all of his pictures by clicking here