Professional Documents
Culture Documents
has bolted
arenas, soundtracked by sub-operatic muzak and
further heightened by Close Encounters lighting. The
English Premier League is fought out by pumped-up
supermen with the other-worldly sheen of a Pixar
cartoon. The intention of this kind of presentation is to
blur the boundaries between real life and video game,
the more effectively to sell lager.
On television the FA Cup is packaged differently.
When it comes time to remind the English public of
the place they supposedly reserve in their hearts for
the oldest and most venerable cup competition in
the world, the iconography softens and throbs with
nostalgia. The images used to frame the TV coverage
of the competition are suddenly like something out of
Roy Of The Rovers. It’s as if punk never happened, let
alone PlayStation. It’s as if every boy in every street in
plan to
Yorkshire but he played most of his football in Wales
and the West Country (when he wasn’t working as
a carpenter). In 1972 he was playing for non-league
Hereford when they were drawn in the third round
of the Cup against Newcastle, in the days when that
meant a bit more than it does today. The replay took
place at their own Edgar Street ground in front of a
packed house. The whole town seemed to be in or
More than 300,000 fans turned up to watch around the place. Small boys who couldn’t get in were
the first FA Cup final held at Wembley
the fans’. None wore headphones In the 85th minute, with Hereford one-down and
or hid behind shades. Cup final yards out. He appeared too tired to struggle forward
through the swamp with the ball. Instead, marshalling
day was a festival, a pilgrimage, that despairing last lung-full of air, he managed to
swing his right foot at it. Miraculously that foot made
an investiture at the palace” contact through the puddingy surface and the ball
not only achieved sufficient escape velocity to get
the case that kids corner. The pitch was immediately obscured by the
jubilant figures of small boys in parkas. Luckily, the
goalkeeper, a former German prisoner of war called
Bert Trautmann, playing the last quarter of an hour
in Buenos Aires BBC cameras had been there to record what became
a talismanic goal, subsequently dusted off every time
with a broken neck. He wasn’t diagnosed until three
days later. At the time no subs were permitted and so it
fired watching Contrast that with one of the main upsets of the third
round of this year’s FA Cup. When Crawley Town of the
By the time I was a kid in the 1950s, the white
suit had been passed on and some of the younger
Chelsea thrash
Conference embarrassed Derby County it was on their members of the crowd had to read the words of Abide
own pristine pitch, there wasn’t a postman, a chippie With Me off the song sheet. Nevertheless the event still
or other part-timer to be seen and the winner was had a very special thrill. It was, after all, the only football
hearing Abide two divisions to play for Crawley. The top side didn’t
look any sleeker or more superhuman than the non-
showed it, competing to see who could attend it with
With Me sung League side. Here was proof that we live in a flattening
world where haves and have-nots come in all shapes
by a 14-year-old and sizes and giants and their would-be slayers are
not so easily cast. Wither the FA Cup in this new world,
Got Talent.
inspector and players loyalties last only as long as it
takes the spit to dry on their club’s badge?