The FA Community Shield (formerly known as the Charity Shield) is English football’s annual match contested between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium.
Though some consider it to be little more than a glorified friendly that merely signals that the start of English Premier League season is right around the corner, we’re firm believers that the FA Community Shield is actually a rather nice idea.
Not only does it mean more football (which is always a plus in our books) but all the proceeds from the game are also distributed to community-based initiatives and charities in the UK. In fact, proceeds from this year’s Community Shield match will be donated to those affected by the recent Grenfell Tower fire.
If that hasn’t sold you on the Community Shield’s perennial existence, maybe some of these facts will (or won’t) change your mind:
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The first ground to host the fixture was Stamford Bridge in 1908. The winners of this match were Football League champions Manchester United, who beat Southern League champions Queens Park Rangers to win the Shield for the very first time.
This year’s encounter on Sunday 6th August will be the 95th FA Community Shield. The match itself will be contested by 2016–17 FA Cup winners, Arsenal, and the 2016–17 Premier League champions, Chelsea.
Drawn games initially resulted in each participating team sharing the trophy for six months each. This strange tradition continued all the way until 1993 when penalties were introduced to alleviate the problem.
In light of this, two clubs have actually only ever “won” a Community Shield as a result of a draw. In 1964, West Ham’s only shield “win” was a result of a 2-2 draw with Liverpool and in 1984 it was Aston Villa who would record their only FA Community Shield title as a part of a “shared” trophy with Tottenham.
The 1961 Shield contest was also an anomaly after Tottenham Hotspur became the first team of the 20th century to win the League and FA Cup Double. The team was quite obviously unable to play themselves so they played a Football Association XI instead.
In 1971, Arsenal became the second team to win the Double since the introduction Shield; however, owing to their previously arranged pre-season friendly matches, they could not take part. Leicester City were instead invited as Division Two champions to play FA Cup runners-up Liverpool. Leicester went on to win the trophy.
The following year, league champions Derby County and FA Cup winners Leeds United both declined to take part in the Charity Shield. As a result, Manchester City, who finished in fourth in the First Division, and Third Division champions Aston Villa were invited to take part. Manchester City won 1–0.
In 2002, the Charity Commission found that the FA failed to meet its legal obligations under charity law due to failures in specifying what money from ticket sales went to charity, and delaying payments to the charities nominated. The competition was thus renamed the Community Shield.
Unlike most other football competitions where only 3 substitutions are permitted, teams in the Community Shield are permitted up to 6 substitutions.
The most successful team in the competition are Manchester United who have won the Shield 21 times (including 17 outright wins and 4 shared titles).
Manchester United also hold the record for the most consecutive losses, having lost four finals on the trot from 1998 to 2001.
Neither team involved in the Shield match in 1950 was actually a club side. A “World Cup Team” made up of players from the England squad for the Brazilian World Cup defeated a “Canadian Touring Team” comprised of players from an FA party that had toured Canada in the same year.
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Community Shield, Sunday August 6, 2107. BeIN Sports Arabia 11, 5pm (Gulf time)
