FA Cup 3rd Round Draw live on BBC Two

One of the most anticipated dates in the football calendar arrives on Monday when the draw for the FA Cup Third Round Proper takes place in Hull, live on BBC Two.

Following this weekend’s Second Round, there will be 64 balls in the hat as all Premier League and Championship clubs enter the competition for the first time this season.

The remaining 20 League One, League Two and non-league clubs who have reached this stage of the competition will be hoping for a glamour tie against the likes of Manchester United or Arsenal, who are the most successful teams in FA Cup history.

Holders Arsenal are ball number two, with their fellow 11-times winners Manchester United number 25., while Warrington Town, the lowest-ranked team left in the draw, are number 55 providing they defeat Gateshead.

With the return of the world’s oldest domestic cup competition to BBC TV screens this year, the corporation has put in its mark by revamping TV coverage of the FA Cup this season, including the return of the draw to Mondays in a new primetime slot.

Each of the draws will be staged at a different footballing location throughout the competition, all of which will be hosted by BBC Match of the Day 2 presenter Mark Chapman in front of a live audience.

The draw for the third round proper will be staged at The Deep aquarium in Hull, with former England striker Alan Shearer, who was a losing FA Cup finalist with Newcastle in 1998 and 1999, will help conduct the draw alongside local Humberside grassroots volunteer Paul Adamson.

BBC Two’s half-hour programme covering the draw will also include reports and features on the weekend’s second round action, as well as live interviews with special guests from selected clubs who are involved in the third round draw.

Third round ties will be played over the weekend of January 3-4 with BBC TV screening two live ties, including first pick, while fellow FA Cup broadcaster BT Sport will also show two further live games.

The FA Cup returns to BBC television after a six-year absence and fans will be able to watch up to 16 live matches on BBC One and BBC Two throughout the competition, as well as comprehensive highlights of every round.

One of the BBC’s innovations to revamp coverage of the early rounds of the competition is a new FA Cup Final Score show on Sundays, where eight of the first and second round matches will be moved to a new Sunday 2.00pm kick-off slot as part of an interactive programme, with goals and key moments shown as they happen.

FA Cup third round weekend will be given special treatment across BBC TV, radio and online, with both selected matches being broadcast live on BBC One over the opening weekend of 2015.

Aside from the two live games on BBC One, Saturday’s Football Focus will be broadcast live from one of the match venues, plus there will be Match of the Day highlights on both Saturday and Sunday.

A similar pattern will follow for future rounds, culminating in FA Cup final week, when a special documentary will be aired on BBC One, with the showpiece match being played at Wembley on Saturday, May 30, 2015.

The BBC has a four-year contract to screen live FA Cup games running until 2018, in partnership with BT Sport.

BT Sport will also screen live coverage of every FA Cup draw on Monday nights in its daily sports news programme SportsHUB, presented by Des Kelly, with the second round Draw being simulcast from 7.00pm on Monday, October 28.

For more details about this season’s FA Cup, visit www.thefa.com/thefacup.

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 Monday 8th December

 FA Cup 3rd Round Draw

 LIVE: 7.00pm-7.30pm  BBC Two  /  BT Sport 1

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#Football: FA Cup 3rd Round Draw in full – Ties to be played on January 3-4 – BBC & BT's live games to be confirmed pic.twitter.com/MOKQOiCDsb

— Sport On The Box (@SportOnTheBox) December 8, 2014

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