The road to Wembley

Que Serra Serra
Whatever will be will be
We're going to Wembley
To bring home the Cup

Such is the refrain of the fans of the two English football clubs who have made it to the FA Cup Final. Luckily I am in a win-win situation here - either Manchester United win their 12th FA Cup or the cup is won by less fancied London club Crystal Palace, who are captained by Australian, Mile Jedinak (or Mike Jedinak  as he was incorrectly named by ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott when he publicly congratulated him on captaining the Soccerroos on winning the Asian Cup).  With the Ned Kelly beard he is sporting there is no mistaking Mile is an Australian. So if the Red Devils do not prevail then we can witness the first Australian to hold up the cup as captain.

Australian Socceroos captain Mile Jedinak is congratulated by team mates after converting a penalty

Sadly Tom and I will not be at Wembley - but when United did win their semi-final to advance, yes I did get out Dr Google and have a look at tickets.  Tickets were available, but at 427 quid a ticket even I thought better of it.  But I was impressed to see that the Association frees up an enormous number of tickets for supporters. Wembley holds 90,000 and Manchester United have 28,000 tickets for members.  Furthermore, United has a distribution system that rewards supporters for their loyalty by prioritising those who have attended the most home games in the season.  Fancy that - filling the ground with grass roots supporters - consider that AFL.  Participating clubs in the AFL Grand Final get only 11,000 tickets for supporters in the larger capacity MCG - disgraceful.

The Football Association is the oldest existing football competition in the world, dating from 1871. The first teams were made up of wealthy former public school boy amateurs from the south of England.  

Blackburn Rovers became the first team from the north to win the cup in 1883, defeating Old Etonians. Upon his team's return to Blackburn, captain Albert Warburton proclaimed: "The Cup is very welcome to Lancashire. It'll have a good home and it'll never go back to London."

The Cup has a long and fascinating history.  I have watched many a Cup in the wee hours and this year we will impose on our English friend Pauline to fire up her telly and watch it in the comfort of her lounge.  I am told that this is not the first time we have watched the Cup live on telly in England. Tom assures me that on our very first visit to England in 1985 we popped into a London pub to watch Manchester United beat Everton.  Frankly, while I have hazy memories of warm beer in a pub on our first day in London I can't recall any part of the game, by which I can only assume that I had a cracking time !  Looking back on the Man U team back in 1985 what is noticeable is that all the players are either from the UK or Ireland - not one Spaniard/Brazilian/Ghanian amongst them.

This is not the first time United and Crystal Palace have faced each other in the Cup. They met in 1990 and the match finished excitedly at 3-3 after extra time. In the replay, United won 1–0.  That was Palace's first Cup appearance and the team they fielded was the last all-English team to play there FA Cup final. It was United's seventh Cup win, seeing them match the records of Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur. It proved to be the turning point in Manchester United's history after a few lean seasons; over the next 20 years they collected a total of more than 20 major trophies in England and Europe.