The

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Sports Direct FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as D ...

2008 was the 88th staging of The Football Association of Ireland Challenge Cup, or FAI Cup for short. This season was the second one sponsored by Ford. The 2008 FAI Ford Cup officially kicked off in late March, when four clubs from the Intermediate and Junior leagues battled it out in the first round for the opportunity to join 18 A Championship, Intermediate and Junior clubs in the second round. The ten winners of those ties were joined in the Third Round by 12 Premier Division and 10 First Division clubs. The competition ran until late November, with the final taking place on Sunday, 23 November 2008 at the RDS.FAI Cup final confirmed for RDS
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First round

Fixtures were played on the weekend of Sunday 30 March 2008.

Second round

Fixtures were played on the weekend of Sunday 20 April 2008. ¹Played on April 13, 2008 as Corduff FC gave up home advantage in tie due to unavailability of side on April 20.

Third round

Matches played on the weekend of Sunday, 8 June 2008. The draw took place on Monday, 12 May 2008 and was made by

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), popularly nicknamed "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian former Association football, football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Football in Italy, Italian football ...

and

Marco Tardelli Marco Tardelli (; born 24 September 1954) is an Italian former football player and manager. At club level, he played as a midfielder for several Italian clubs; he began his career with Pisa, and later played for Como, Juventus, and Internazion ...

, and televised live on

RTÉ Two (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Republic of Ireland, Irish Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, television, RT� ...

Fourth round

Matches played on the weekend of Sunday, 17 August 2008. The draw place on Monday, 7 July 2008 and televised live on

Quarter-finals

Matches were played on the weekend of Sunday, 14 September 2008. The draw took place on Monday, 25 August 2008 and was made by Turlough O'Connor and David Flood, and televised live on

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Quarter-final replays

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Semi-finals

Matches were played on the weekend of Sunday, 26 October 2008. The draw took place on Monday, 29 September 2008 and was made by John Ryan and David Flood, and televised live on

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Final

The 2008 FAI Cup Final took place on Sunday 23 November 2008 at the RDS,

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

References

External links

Official website

{{2008-09 in European Football (UEFA)

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...