Under current FA regulations Cardiff would not automatically qualify for Europe by winning the FA Cup - as a Welsh side they would normally qualify via the Welsh Cup, a competition they have won 22 times.
But the FA board have approved a move to allow Cardiff to take the UEFA Cup place if the Championship side are victorious at Wembley next month.
Which is double standards because the last English winner of the Welsh Cup Hereford United (in 1990) could not qualify for Europe because they were ENGLISH.
FA: "The Board has given full approval for Cardiff City to participate in next season's UEFA Cup as one of England's representatives, should they win this season's FA Cup.
"It was decided that the Welsh national anthem would also be played ahead of the game."
UEFA had already signalled that they would offer Cardiff a wild card should they win.
UEFA communications director William Gaillard said: "We entirely understood the FA's reasons for their regulations and had no problems with them.
"We just believed that if Cardiff did win the cup and were not given qualification for the UEFA Cup then for sporting reasons we would look to offer them a wild card."
The Welsh Cup has been run (except during the two World Wars) every year since its inception in 1877-78. In the early years of organised football in Wales, football was very much the sport of North Wales rather than the rugby-playing south - the FAW was founded in Ruabon, near Wrexham in 1876, and Wrexham remained the site of the FAW's head office until 1986; it was not until 1912 that a southern team, Cardiff City, won the Welsh Cup for the first time.
The winning team qualifies to play in the following season's UEFA Cup (previously teams qualified for the CupWinners Cup which was discontinued in 1999).