Who among those who love football did not stand in front of the TV on a Saturday afternoon to watch the final of the oldest competition in the world? From the old Wembley with its signature two towers, the Millennium Arm in Wales and a return to the new ultra-modern temple of the English. From black and white ERT imagery to digital analysis of pay-per-view channels, from Queen Elizabeth taking the field to greet the players, to the big surprises that outsiders have in store for us. The FA Cup Final left an indelible mark on our football youth.

This year the trophy will go to two Manchester teams. Already champion City, against United, who will fight not only for the cup, but also to prevent the “hated” compatriot from reaching the coveted treble, since the “citizens” are also in the Champions League final and, in fact, the absolute favorite against Inter.

Incredible as it may seem for an institution founded in 1872, City and United will meet for the first time in this game. The Red Devils have 12 wins, two short of Arsenal who have the most, while City have just six, the same number as Newcastle and Blackburn.

Another thing that makes tomorrow’s (06/03/23, 17:00) match different is that the organizers decided to start the final at 15:00 UK time, which was the last time it happened in 2011. This happened not only for the English to return to their traditions, but also to enable the police to patrol the areas outside the stadium and also in the stations, since it is estimated that about 61,000 fans of the two teams will travel from Manchester to London almost simultaneously. in the stands of Wembley, and the return to your city will be at the same time.

Of course, in addition to prestige, winning the Cup has financial benefits, although the amounts that the winner and the loser will receive are a drop in the bucket compared to their budgets. However, the winning team will receive 2,260,000 euros from the English Federation, while the finalist will receive 1,130,000 euros.

The history of the FA Cup Final began to be written on July 20, 1871, when the editors of the London magazine The Sportsman, at the suggestion of the Honorary Secretary of the FA, Charles Alcock, decided to establish an institution. The games began on 11/11/1871, 15 of the then 50 members of the federation took part in them. The final took place on March 16, 1872 and saw the Wanderers (a London club) face off against the Royal Engineers (consisting of soldiers serving in the English Army Corps of Engineers). The winners went 1–0 first with Morton Betts as the scorer, who for an unspecified reason announced the nickname A. H. Checker. The game was played at the Kennington Oval, which was attended by 2,000 spectators who paid a shilling to watch.

Now more than 700 teams from the first 9 categories of English football and several from the 10th take part in the FA Cup. In the early years, clubs from Ireland, Scotland and Wales also competed, but now they only compete from the latter. In fact, the only team outside of England to have won the trophy was Cardiff back in 1927, who beat Arsenal 1-0 in the final. Also, only one team from Scotland managed to reach the end of the track. It was Queens Park who played in the finals in 1884 and 1885 but lost to Blackburn both times.

• The first change came in the 1968 final, when West Bromwich beat Everton 1-0. During his tenure, Dennis Clarke replaced Tony Kay on the winning roster, and the first time players had jersey numbers was in 1933.
• In the 1956 final between Manchester City and Birmingham, the city’s German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann, who was also a member of the Nazis and whose agreement with the team in 1949 caused an uproar, was seriously wounded in the neck. Although he remains unconscious on the playing field for several minutes, he continues to play normally as there was no change at the time, playing with a broken neck. That doesn’t stop him from making impressive moves to give City a 3-1 win.
• Nikos Dabizas became the first Greek to reach the final of the Cup. The international stopper won the trophy in 1998 and 1999 with Newcastle. Both times his team was defeated by Arsenal and Manchester United respectively. On the contrary, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Kostas Tsimikas were more fortunate. The former came on as a substitute in the 2020 final in the 88th minute (in place of David Luiz) and celebrated Arsenal’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea, while the latter scored the winning goal on 14/05/2022. a penalty in Liverpool’s 6-5 win over Chelsea in the competition’s 141st final, marking the Reds’ trophy.