The Community Shield - or Charity Shield if you’re not a teenager - is a trophy which ushers in the new football season and is traditionally greeted with the same kind of reaction normally reserved for a visit from a doorstep Gousto salesman.
On Sunday, Manchester City and Liverpool will battle it out for this trophy which barely registers for the fans of teams that aren’t involved. One hopes for just a smidge of the intensity which made last season’s title run-in between the two North West rivals compelling viewing.
Traditionally the trophy is contested between the Premier League Champions and the FA Cup winners but because Manchester City won both, Liverpool received the invitation as Premier League runners-up.
Here are some facts you never thought you wanted to know about the Community Shield
- The fixture dates back to 1908 and replaced the Sherriff of London Charity Shield which was first played for in 1898. The original thinking behind the game was a game between professionals and amateurs but when a number of clubs fell out with the FA, the Shield’s format changed to more closely resemble the competition as we know it today.
- Current holders Manchester City have won the trophy five times
- In 1950, England’s World Cup team played an FA representative team that had just returned from a tour of Canada
- In 1972, Derby and Leeds declined to take part in the Charity Shield
- If the game ended in a draw between 1980 and the early 1990s, the finalists would share the trophy, keeping it for six months each. From 1993, penalties were introduced.
- The Shield was replaced in 2016 and the original sold at auction with the £40,000 proceeds going to the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research
- Manchester has hosted the game 11 times (Old Trafford 6, Maine Road 5)
- In 2002, the Football Association was found to have failed to meet its legal obligations under charity law meaning the competition had to renamed the Community Shield
- Chelsea and Newcastle have been beaten in this game five times each
- In 1992, Eric Cantona scored a hat-trick for Leeds in a 4-3 win over Liverpool. He joined Manchester United later that season.
- Everton played in the game four times in a row between 1984 and 1987
- The game was played at Cardiff Millennium Stadium from 2001 to 2006
- The First Division champions met the Southern League champions - the first game under the new rules was Manchester United versus Queens Park Rangers. United won a replay 4-0 after the first game ended 1-1.