Alfie Joey on why some of the former magic that made an FA Cup final so special has been lost
IF I asked you who was playing in the Cup Final today, some of you might even say ‘What Cup Final?’ I must confess I had to check myself.
This year’s 2026 men’s football FA Cup Final will be contested between Chelsea FC and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium and to the delight of older footy fans everywhere – the kick-off has actually been moved back to the classic 3pm slot this year after years of tea-time starts.
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There was a kind of magic about the FA Cup in the 70s and 80s that was bigger than footy. It was a national event, for some it was the only game they watched all year.
The drama began for me before you even turned the telly on because the newspapers played a crucial part.
Pull-out supplements galore, background trivia and features and I loved the papers that provided exaggerated caricatures of the managers and players.
That all warmed me up for the telly coverage that began in the morning, not five minutes before kick-off. Grandstand on the BBC or World of Sport on ITV – and choosing between them felt oddly important.
One channel might have your type of pundits, the other a better theme tune or better montages. And of course, which channel had your favourite commentator, Brian Moore or John Motson?
The build-up itself was part of the occasion and included lots of interviews with players, fans, behind the scenes coverage and then the Road to the Final summaries all built the drama with live coverage of players leaving their respective hotels and making their way to Wembley.
Comedians popped up to ease the tension and provide comic relief. I remember Eric Morecambe, pipe in gob, making killer quips one year and in 1974, Bruce Forsyth being in charge of the pre-match entertainment on the pitch (sorry Magpie fans, it was the year Newcastle were well beaten by Keegan’s Liverpool).
Oh, and the teams recorded terrible songs, quite a few of which somehow made the pop charts! Entertainment and football existed happily together and it was all the better for it.
Most of all, there was hope. Real hope. Underdogs actually won! David often slew Goliath and it was fantastic to witness.
Second Division Sunderland, of course, started this trend, defeating the mighty Leeds United in ‘73 and it still feels mythic. Southampton overcoming Manchester Utd in ‘76. Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town FC defeating Arsenal in ‘78, one of my all-time favourite finals.
The following year The Gunners lost to The Hammers (Second Division). These weren’t quaint little stories tucked away for social media clips afterwards. They were front-page seismic shocks in the sporting world.
The 1987 and 1988 FA Cup finals almost feel like the last great back-to-back fairytales before football changed forever.
Coventry City, who had never won a major trophy in their entire history, beating huge favourites Spurs, starring dreamy duo Waddle and Hoddle.
Finally, we had the wonderful chaos of ’88 when unfashionable Wimbledon FC beat the darlings of the media, Liverpool FC. Motty described it brilliantly; “The Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club.”
What changed? Kerching!! Money, mainly. The Premier League transformed the sport into a more polished product, slicker, richer, more serious globally, but for people like me wearing rose tinted glasses, it was at the expense of some of its eccentricity and innocence, and I’d argue the moment it was no longer truly the sport of the working class.
The modern game may be technically superior and more professional in almost every way but sometimes it feels as though we lost a little warmth, a little weirdness and a little romantic wonder along the way.
So maybe today, with that return to 3pm, we regain a wee bit of what made it magical.
Facts and footnotes:
l Liverpool missed a penalty in ’88, the first penalty ever saved in an FA Cup final at Wembley, when Dave Beasant stopped John Aldridge’s kick.
l Sunderland’s ’73 victory made them the first Second Division winners since 1931 with some bookmakers having them at 32–1 to win.
l Coventry manager John Sillett famously danced on the pitch after their ‘87 victory in a club shop bowler hat.
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