When Crystal Palace face Liverpool this coming Sunday, 10th August they will be contesting their first Community Shield in the 103rd edition of the new season’s traditional ‘curtain raiser’. The Community Shield, or its ancestor Charity Shield, dates back to before Palace were formed as a professional club. Throughout the early years of the match’s history, the Football Association tinkered endlessly with a range of versions before finally settling on the current system of the league champions playing the FA Cup winners although there was still the odd tweak along the way. A clear example of football authorities faffing about when more important matters were not addressed, which we have been accustomed to in recent years.
For the first five years, the Charity Shield pitted the champions of the Football League against the winners of the Southern Football League. In 1908 the inaugural game between Manchester United and Queens Park Rangers ended in a draw at Stamford Bridge but unlike its modern equivalent, there was time and the appetite for a replay, which United won 4-0, the first of their record 21 victories in this competition. The only time the Southern League champions managed to beat their Football League counterparts was in 1910 when Brighton overcame Aston Villa, giving the South Coast club their most important piece of silverware.
In 1913 the Football Association decided to change the format so rather than clubs competing in the match the FA selected the two teams themselves with professionals lining up against amateurs. Unsurprisingly the Professional XI won comfortably, with Aston Villa’s Harry Hampton scoring four goals in the 7-2 win. Because of the First World War the match was not contested again until 1920 when there was further fiddling about, with the competing clubs being the First Division winners, West Bromwich Albion beating Second Division winners Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. Although the venue stayed the same for the following year, the format was altered to the current selection of top flight champions, Burnley against the FA Cup winners, Tottenham, who avenged their defeat the previous year by winning 2-0.
The FA insisted on yet more tinkering in 1923 as the competition reverted to a match between the Professionals and Amateurs and in 1925 the Amateurs finally won the match. They did so comprehensively, beating their opponents 6-1 and followed that up with a 6-3 victory the next season. In 1926, further meddling saw the FA Cup winners Cardiff take on amateur side Corinthians before reverting back to FA Cup winners playing the League champions. That lasted a year before the Professionals played the Amateurs for the last time in 1929.
From 1930 onwards the current format of FA Cup winners against the League champions was resurrected but in all its wisdom, the FA still managed some further messing around. After graciously deciding that England were going to enter the 1950 World Cup that first England squad took on an FA eleven chosen from a team that quite bizarrely had gone on tour in Canada at the same time as the World Cup was being held in Brazil. At least the England World Cup team won this match after their infamous loss to the USA in Belo Horizonte and having failed to qualify out of their group.
There was still room for other selection criteria to be utilised, understandably so in 1961, as double winners, Tottenham took on an FA Select XI who they beat 3-2 at White Hart Lane. Then it was the clubs’ turn to play around with who would contest the match. Ten years later when Arsenal emulated their North London rivals in winning both Division One and the FA Cup, they spurned the chance to play in the Charity Shield as they were already committed to a lucrative European tour. So the defeated FA Cup finalists Liverpool met 2nd Division champions Leicester City and this pattern was repeated in the following two seasons as each of the clubs that won the league and FA Cup declined the invitation, which allowed 3rd Division champions Aston Villa to play 4th placed Manchester City in 1972 and City defended their trophy against 2nd Division champions Burnley the following year.
Having been played on a variety of club grounds across the country with countless different versions, in 1974 the match was moved to Wembley, which was marked by one of the more memorable Charity Shield contests. It is remembered not for the scintillating skills or any great goals but for a contretemps between an Englishman and a Scot. A feisty encounter in what was Brian Clough’s first match of his ill-fated and short-lived management career of Leeds, was exemplified by Johnny Giles elbowing Kevin Keegan in the face. That this only warranted a booking clearly riled the aggrieved Keegan who took his anger out on Billy Bremner who retaliated, leading to both players being sent off.
An exasperated Barry Davies commented that “this is just what English football did not want to see. Surely we have go to get away from this.” Having been dismissed, both players showed their disgust at the decision by peeling their shirts off and throwing them to the floor. Davies’ anger grew and he had not finished with his condemnation of their behaviour – “And really this is a side of English football, the face of English football, we do not want to see.” While Davies disapproved of such feistiness many others were revelling in such petulance. The two teams met again in 1992, on the eve of the formation of the Premier League, providing one of the best matches of recent years when Leeds came out on top of a seven-goal thriller courtesy of an Eric Cantona hat-trick, his first in English football. The match is also remembered for a comical own goal by Gordon Strachan in the last minute when his attempt to clear the ball off the line failed miserably.
Most managers now treat the match as more than just a glorified pre-season friendly, back in 2018 Guardiola referred to it as ‘the first final of the season’. Having won their first major trophy with May’s FA Cup triumph over Manchester City, Palace are preparing to take their Community Shield bow. By contrast Liverpool are making their 25th appearance, having won sixteen previously. Oliver Glasner’s approach to the fixture is characteristically upbeat and full of positive intent.
“When you have the chance to win silverware, go for it,” Glasner said. “We will go for it. We are facing the champions. A team who invested £300m, buying high-quality players. It is a great challenge. We will be ready. I don’t expect they will be in the best possible shape, the same with us at the beginning of the season. We will go for winning the next trophy. When you have the chance to win a second trophy in three months, go for it.” After all the shenanigans over European qualification, it is high time that the focus switches to matters on the pitch and to go for it.
The Football Mine 