Tottenham will begin their FA Cup campaign with a home tie against Portsmouth at the start of January. In the hat for Monday's draw with Premier League and Championship teams coming into the equation, Antonio Conte's men will host the League One outfit over the weekend of Saturday, January 7, 2023.
The game will be the first meeting between the sides since the FA Cup semi-final encounter at Wembley that Portsmouth won 2-0 in April 2010. Following Monday evening's draw at Anfield, both sets of fans were talking about one player in particular.
The man in question was indeed Tottenham's Dane Scarlett, who is currently on a season-long loan deal at Portsmouth. So can the 18-year-old take to the pitch against his parent club when the teams meet at the turn of the year?
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According to FA Cup rules, Scarlett will not be eligible to play for Portsmouth against Tottenham. The rules state: "The Association will not give permission for players on loan or work experience to play against the lending club".
That means the highly-rated youngster will have to watch from the sidelines for the third FA Cup match on the spin. Not given permission by Tottenham to play in their FA Cup first round clash away at non-league Hereford, Spurs did the same last weekend for Portsmouth's cup win over MK Dons at Fratton Park.
Scarlett has needed the go ahead from Tottenham to take to the field in the FA Cup as it's made clear in the regulations that loan players are ineligible to play in the competition unless permission is given in writing by the lending club. Even if Tottenham had given Portsmouth the green light for the player to play in the first two rounds of the competition, he would still not be able to face Tottenham in round three due to the aforementioned rule.
Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher knows all about the rule after he was impacted during his loan spell at Crystal Palace last season. Starting in three of the Eagles' four FA Cup games as he helped them to the semi-finals to set up a mouth-watering clash against his parent club, the 22-year-old had to watch on as Chelsea sealed a place in the final with a 2-0 victory.
As Scarlett is not cup tied in the competition he could in fact play for Tottenham against Portsmouth if they wanted to recall him at the start of January. The England Under-20s international has five goals and two assists from his 22 games in all competitions for Pompey this season.
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