The on-loan Brighton man should be able to play for Leeds United on sunday despite turning out for Chelsea in the previous round.
Facundo Buonanotte could be handed a first Leeds United start in the FA Cup against Birmingham City this weekend - despite playing for Chelsea in the previous round.
A rare start came in early January as part of a Chelsea side who thumped Charlton Athletic 5-1 in the FA Cup third round, with Buonanotte notching one assist in 68 minutes. Historically, that would have ruled the attacking midfielder out of featuring in the competition for Leeds this season but that has changed.
Ahead of the 2025/26 campaign, the FA relaxed their rules surrounding so-called ‘cup-tied’ players, allowing them to represent a maximum of two clubs over the course of the competition. That can either be split between the qualifying rounds and FA Cup proper or two different teams in the proper rounds.
The official FA ruling states: "A Player shall only play for one Club in the Competition during the same Season, save that a Player that has played for one Club in the Qualifying Competition and/or the Competition Proper may play for a maximum of one other Club in the Competition Proper (but may only play for a maximum of one Club in any given round of the Competition)."
Buonanotte Leeds United FA Cup eligibility explained
While the FA’s wording is far from clear, it essentially states a player could theoretically represent a non-league club in the preliminary rounds before going on to play elsewhere once the proper competition gets underway. Or, in Buonanotte’s case, they can feature for two different clubs within the proper rounds.
Buonanotte’s participation in that third-round Chelsea win over Charlton should not, therefore, make him ineligible for Sunday’s fourth-round trip to Birmingham with Leeds. Manchester City are in a similar position with Marc Guehi and Antoine Semenyo both able to face Salford City this weekend, despite playing in the third round for Crystal Palace and Bournemouth respectively.
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With rotation expected at St Andrew’s on Sunday, Buonanotte will be grateful to be eligible having so far failed to break into the first-team. The attacking midfielder was even left out of the matchday squad entirely against Nottingham Forest, a decision the YEP understands was a selection call from Farke and not injury-related.
When asked how the loanee had responded to that decision ahead of Tuesday’s 2-2 draw at Chelsea, Farke said: "It was not too much - we had the training session obviously on Saturday morning with a smaller group, a proper, proper session.
“Also yesterday [Sunday] was more or less like a light session, and also tactical preparation [so] it was not that he could impress too much in the training session. But Facundo is a top guy, and we're all happy that we have him here, and for that he reacted in the way we expected."
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