The FA Cup final – Nice to have somebody to cheer for… | OneFootball

The 2024 FA Cup Final is this Saturday.

It is a repeat of the 2023 final, a local derby between the holders Manchester City and their rivals, Manchester United.

Not since 1885 has the FA Cup Final been a repeat of the final from the previous season, when in the formative years of the competition, Blackburn Rovers triumphed in successive years against the Scottish club, Queen’s Park.

Of course, there have been a number of occasions where back to back finals have almost come to pass. For instance, had Arsenal overcome Manchester United at Villa Park in the 1999 Semi-Final replay, they would have set up a repeat of the 1998 final, their opponent, Newcastle United, also making the 1999 final.

Like many Newcastle United fans, my only interest in this year’s FA Cup final is because a win for the Blues will mean European football at St James Park is secured for a second consecutive season, something I hope happens, even if it means rooting for a club who have monopolised English football in recent years, and are currently defending themselves against 115 charges of breaching PSR regulations.

My lack of interest in the FA Cup these days certainly wasn’t the case in my youth.

The FA Cup is the world’s oldest football competition. The Football Association was formed in 1863 and its initial remit was to regulate and codify the game, producing a set of laws by which it could be played.

In July 1871, FA secretary Charles W. Alcock proposed the establishment of a Challenge Cup competition and in November 1871, the first round of FA Cup fixtures were played, with the first final, a 1-0 win for Wanderers FC against The Royal Engineers played at the Kennington Oval in 1872.

From that inaugural season, the competition continued to grow in terms of participation levels as well as prestige, and the magic of the cup existed for well over a century.

Subsequent decades saw the tournament produce moments of myth and legend, such as the White Horse and Matthews Finals, Bert Trautmann’s broken neck, and Cardiff City’s 1927 victory, which saw the FA Cup leave England for the one and only time.

When I was a kid, it was scoring the winning goal on the hallowed Wembley turf in the FA Cup final that dreams were made of. I don’t think winning the First division championship, a gruelling feat of endurance over 42 matches was seen in quite the same light. And, despite English clubs’ domination of European football in that era, even lifting the big cup, as Liverpool, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest all did between 1977 and 1982, somehow paled into insignificance when measured against the FA Cup.

Back then, FA Cup Final day was the only time you were guaranteed live football on the telly. The BBC Saturday afternoon sports show Grandstand started earlier than normal and was totally dedicated to proceedings taking place at the Empire Stadium. Popular TV shows like It’s a Knockout, Mastermind and Question of Sport featured over the years in the pre-match build up, all of them placing a heavy emphasis on those who supported the clubs that were contesting the final later in the day.

Intrepid reporters would situate themselves on the team buses as they weaved their way through the thronging streets of north west London towards Wembley and interviews would spill into the stadium and onto the hallowed turf, with the players sporting their specially designed Cup Final suits, looking more like they were on their way to a wedding than a game of professional football.

During those years, in the immediate aftermath of the whole spectacle, I decanted to the local park where I briefly became the likes of Bobby Stokes, Jimmy Greenhoff and Roger Osborne.

It wasn’t just what happened in glorious May sunshine that made the FA Cup so thrilling. The third round, played on the first Saturday in January was when the big boys joined the fray.

If you were looking for romance and giant killing, the third round rarely disappointed. In 1974, Colchester stunned Don Revie’s Leeds United at Layer Road with a remarkable 3-2 victory and over the years that followed, I can recall Harlow Town, Shrewsbury, Halifax and Sutton United all putting clubs from England’s top division to the sword in what were major upsets. And lets not forget Blyth Spartans’ heroic exploits in 1978 when they came within a whisker of reaching the quarter finals.

Newcastle United’s FA Cup campaigns were of course, nothing short of abysmal and as a kid, I often consoled myself by thinking there was always next year.

After the Wembley final of 1974, it took almost a quarter of a century before NUFC got to the final again.

In between, there weren’t any semi-final appearances and only twice did we progress as far as the quarter finals, against Derby County in 1976 and Everton in 1995. In between, we suffered the ignominy of losing to the likes of Wrexham, Chester, Exeter and Grimsby.

I’m wondering whether the first repeat final in nearly 140 years has exacerbated why for me, the FA Cup has lost its appeal and been devalued in the modern era. There are other reasons of course.

Perhaps most notably, was the shameful FA sanctioned boycott of the 2000 competition by Manchester United. At the time, the Mancunians had just won the treble and were due to take part in FIFA’s inaugural World Club Championship. The FA applied pressure to Manchester United to participate in the competition in Brazil, which was scheduled for early January 2000, believing that if there was a boycott of FIFA’s new tournament, it could seriously affect England’s 2006 World Cup bid. Although it always struck me that Manchester United could have fielded their reserve side, when the FA was prepared to prioritise an event on the other side of the world, the message they sent in relation to the FA Cup was pretty damning.

Then there are the Semi-Finals, now played at Wembley. It was the 1991 tournament when the FA decreed that both Semi-Finals, Sheffield and North London derbies, should be played at the old stadium. Coming so soon after Hillsborough, it seems that the FA capitalised on the disaster that unfolded at the FA Cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest when 97 people lost their lives.

It was a decision that set a precedent that would be followed in later years and since the new Wembley opened, all Semi-Finals have been played at the national stadium in a bid to boost the FA’s coffers. For me, this has diminished the experience and epic Semi-Finals that I can recall being played at Hillsborough and Villa Park and to a lesser extent, Highbury, Goodison and Maine Road in the 70s and 80s have been lost forever.

Money undoubtedly talks and in 2009, the tradition and purity of the tournament was further eroded when the FA agreed to a sponsorship deal for the competition. ‘The FA Cup sponsored by Littlewoods’ was how the tournament became known. Sponsorship might be a relatively easy way of generating income, but the commercialisation of the brand meant the competition lost its sanctity and purity.

The scheduling of the Final had been questionable in recent years. Whilst the 2024 final is bringing down the curtain on this season, it hasn’t been uncommon for the FA Cup Final to play second fiddle to the more financially prestigious Premier League.

In 2011 Manchester City beat Stoke City 1-0, giving them their first domestic trophy in 35 years. Meanwhile, on the same day, rivals Manchester United were playing in one of four Premier League fixtures that saw the red half of Manchester claim the Premier League title. Two years later, Wigan Athletic provided a rare and genuine cup final upset, beating Manchester City 1-0. Three days later, the Latics were relegated after they lost their final Premier League game 4-1 against Arsenal. It is difficult to imagine the psychological and emotional impact that playing those two games three days apart would have had, let alone the physical recovery and preparation time following a Wembley final.

Scheduling has become even more farcical in recent years. This year, the final might be back to the traditional 3pm kick off time, but it has kicked off as late as 5pm in the past, with all of the logistical difficulties such a late start (and finish) means for ordinary fans. There has also been the bizarre decision to schedule fifth round ties to take place midweek, without replays. Of course, second replays were phased out some time ago but now the FA has determined that no replays whatsoever will take place from next season.

Finally, there is the big six stranglehold on the famous trophy. When I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, the so called big six didn’t have exclusivity over the winners ribbons in the way that they now have. Between 1973 and 1980, three clubs from outside the top division won the FA Cup. And that in part is what gave the competition its appeal.

Since Newcastle United’s back to back defeats in the finals of 1998 and 1999, only Leicester City (2021), Wigan Athletic (2013) and Portsmouth (2008) have managed to prise the famous trophy away from the grasp of the big six.

Despite the apathy, and despite Newcastle United’s appalling record in the FA Cup since those halcyon days in the 1950s when we won the competition three times in five years, we have at least got a stake in the 2024 Final and I’m pretty sure the whole of Tyneside will be cheering on Manchester City this Saturday. HTL.