2007-08 FA Cup

2007–08 FA Cup

The FA Cup on the roof terrace of Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower on 12 May 2008
Country	England  Wales
Teams	731
Defending champions	Chelsea
Champions	Portsmouth (2nd title)
Runners-up	Cardiff City
Top goal scorer(s)	Rickie Lambert Craig Mackail-Smith (7 goals)
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

The 2007–08 FA Cup was the 127th season of the world's oldest football knockout competition, The Football Association Challenge Cup, or FA Cup for short. A record 731 clubs' entries were accepted for the competition.

The competition culminated with the FA Cup Final, held at Wembley Stadium, London on 17 May 2008. The match was contested by Portsmouth and Cardiff City, with Portsmouth taking the title 1–0, Nwankwo Kanu scoring the winning goal.

The appearance in the Cup Final by Cardiff City, a Level 2 team, marked the second time in 5 years that a team outside Level 1 of the English football pyramid appeared in the final game.

This was the last FA Cup to be broadcast by the BBC and Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, before coverage was handed over to ITV and Setanta starting in August 2008.

This round is the first in which Football League teams from League One and League Two compete with non-league teams.

This round marks the first time Championship and Premier League (top-flight) teams play. Matches were played on the weekend of Saturday, 5 January 2008. The draw was made on 2 December 2007 at 15:15 GMT by Kevin Beattie and Sammy Nelson, adjudicated by Sir Trevor Brooking.

Involved in the Third Round draw for the first time ever were Havant & Waterlooville and Chasetown. Chasetown are the lowest-ranked team ever to have reached this stage of the FA Cup. The draw itself produced few major ties, with the exception of Chelsea drawing their West London rivals, Queens Park Rangers, and Aston Villa drawing Manchester United as their Third Round opponents for the fourth time in seven seasons, and the second time in successive years.