The 1887–88 Football Association Challenge Cup was the 17th staging of the FA Cup, England's oldest football tournament. One hundred and forty-nine teams entered, twenty-one more than the previous season, although four of the one hundred and forty-nine never played a match.
This was the last season in which there were no qualifying rounds, so all entering clubs were placed in the first round. After the formation of the Football League, a set of qualifying rounds was introduced, with League clubs given the right to request automatic exemption to the first round proper.
^Bury scratched the game before KO due to them having brought ineligible players. They played a friendly instead which they lost 10-0
^The FA ordered a replay, but both clubs instead scratched from the competition
^Central conceded the tie before kick-off, and the clubs played a friendly, which Higher Walton won 8–1.
^Everton won 2–1, but were disqualified and suspended for one month for fielding 7 ineligible players, but not until they had already lost a second round tie to Preston North End; thus Bolton were re-instated
^Preston had already beaten Everton 6-0 on 26 November in the second round, and Halliwell in the third, when the FA expelled Everton from the competition; as a result Preston agreed to re-play their second round tie, against the re-instated Bolton Wanderers, before the draw for the fifth round
