VAR will not be in operation during Chelsea and Morecambe's FA Cup third round tie at Stamford Bridge, it has been confirmed.

But the organisers of the FA Cup have confirmed a different approach in this edition of the tournament. The extra officials and accompanying technology will only be in place from the fifth round onwards, meaning that all games in rounds three and four will have no VAR regardless of the venue at which they are hosted.

With the third round of the 2024-25 FA Cup set to begin, test your knowledge on football's oldest competition with these five questions.

Replays used to offer lower-level teams a chance to extend their run in the competition, as well as a potential cash injection

The FA Cup third round (stream all games live on ESPN+, U.S. Only) gets underway on Thursday -- but VAR won't be used in any of the ties. VAR was introduced into the FA Cup in the 2017-18 season starting in the third round -- but only in ties when a Premier League club was at home "due to the infrastructure,

Of course, “Third” is a bit of a misnomer, as we’ll explain. You see, the competition to qualify for the FA Cup started back on August 3rd with 442 teams in something called the “Extra