The FA Cup is one of the most oldest tournaments in the English football. Every year, teams form the league compete against one another. These teams come from all skill levels of English football ranging from the National League System to the English Premier League. The tournament is played knockout style. Hundreds of football teams compete from multiple divisions to win.
The Cup has been followed by many success stories and failures. There are exciting upsets like when lower division teams beat higher division ones. The winner of the tournament receive multiple prizes. They earn the FA Cup, a place in the UEFA Europa tournament, and a right to compete in the FA Community Shield match. The Fa Cup is one of the most popular football competitions. Viewers want to watch their favorite teams through every game. However, this is hard to do as broadcasters normally implement blackout restrictions on in-market games. Globally, many will be geo-blocked. Join us as we go over how to stream the FA Cup with a VPN.
How to Watch FA Cup with a VPN
Here’s a quick guide for watching FA Cup football games with a VPN.
- Sign up for ExpressVPN (30 day risk-free money-back guarantee)
- Install the ExpressVPN browser extension, desktop, or mobile app.
- Launch the ExpressVPN app and select a server in your chosen region.
- Cheer on your favorite team through BBC Sports or any of the popular streaming services that broadcast the games.
FA Cup History and Team Info
The FA Cup started in 1871. It is the oldest football tournament in the world. The first winner was Wanderers F.C. This was held 16 years before the Football League had its first game. One of the best wins came from the Cups early years. It was 26 to 0 win in 1887. In 1901, the Hotspurs became the first non-league team to win the Cup. Over the years their have been some other non-league teams that rose to challenge league teams like Yeovil Town. There have also been some awesome moments like Andy Locke’s hat-trick that pulled off in 2 minute and 20 seconds. Arsenal set a record on most FA Cup wins in 2017 at 13. This was a year after Manchester United had tied them at 12. They have both been dominant winning their first trophies in the early 1900’s. Every team has an opportunity to make history by winning their first or next FA Cup.
The FA Cup plays out as a knockout tournament with twelve rounds. It starts of with the Qualifying Competition. They normally play these games at the first drawn team’s home field. The 9 and 10 clubs face off to then join the level 8 clubs in the Preliminary rounds. They then face off in three more rounds against the 7th, 6th, and 5th level clubs. The winners of these rounds go on to play in the Competition Proper. It starts with the First Round when they are joined by the 3rd and 4th level clubs. The next round of competition consists of those teams playing again in 20 matches. The Third round is where the second division and the Premier League teams join in. They start off with 32 teams. Which is far from the original over 300 teams that started. Once the teams hit the semi-finals they normally start competing in Wembley Stadium, which is neutral grounds. The Quarter-finals do not start until there are only 8 teams left. These teams normally have around a month to prepare for each match. The FA Cup Finals is one match the two teams that have proven themselves among the best.
2022-2023 FA Cup Schedule
The 2022-2023 FA Cup is set to start on August 6th. The competition consists of single elimination matches that will whittle down teams over time. As the season long tournament progresses, the competition will get steeper and more teams from the Premier League, and English Football League will join in. The final match of FA Cup Tournament is set to take place on June 3rd.
Take a look at a more in-depth schedule:
- FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round: August 6th
- Preliminary Round: August 20th
- First Round Qualifying: September 3rd
- Second Round Qualifying: September 17th
- Third Round Qualifying: October 1st
- Forth Round Qualifying: October 15th
- First Round Proper: November 5th
- Second Round Proper: November 26th
- Third Round Proper: January 7th
- Fourth Round Proper: January 28th
- Fifth Round Proper: March 1st
- Quarter-finals: March 18th
- Semi-finals: April 22nd
- Finals: June 3rd
Use a VPN to Bypass FA Cup Blackout Restrictions
Before we get more in depth as to how to watch FA Cup games with a VPN let us tell you more about the benefits of using a VPN for watching sports. Sports often have blackout restrictions for multiple reasons. One is an attempt to encourage more people to go to the game. Another is that the broadcast is only available in certain countries or regions. A VPN can help you out in these situations because it allows you to change your IP address. It does this by allowing you to choose a server location and assigning you an IP address from the region. If you choose a server in an area that the game is watchable, then you will be able to stream it. A VPN also hides your IP address and helps protect your privacy.
English Premier League has hundreds of games each year. They are available through NBC Sports, fuboTV, Hulu Live, Amazon Prime Video, Sky Sports, BBC Sports, SlingTV, Star Sports, and BT Sports. While they offer access to out of market games, they often blackout in market games. Some also geo-block those who want to watch from other regions of the world. Connecting to a VPN will help you avoid the blackout restrictions to cheer on your favorite team all season long.
How to Watch FA Cup Games with ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is our favorite VPN for sports. Two of the most important factors for streaming games live are speed and reliability. Without the proper speed, matches will not be able to play in high quality. ExpressVPN allows you to use as much bandwidth as needed. This means you will be able to watch the game in HD. ExpressVPN makes sure you are safe while accessing your favorite sports. They do this by masking your location and not keeping activity logs. They also have a 24/7 support team that can be reached via live chat anytime. ExpressVPN is a fast and reliable service that can stream all your favorite sports with.
ExpressVPN is a great service that values your privacy. They do not keep activity logs on their users. They will help you unblock almost any service by changing your location. ExpressVPN has over 3000 servers across 94 countries that will help you stream all your favorite teams. We are excited to share an exclusive ExpressVPN discount. You can sign up and receive 49% off a year of VPN with an extra 3 months added for free. They also offer a 30 day money back guarantee. This will allow you to test out the service and see the benefits it provides.
