Somehow this week, true football lovers need to shift gear from the magic of Madrid to the cacophony of Cardiff: from the glorious Gunners shooting down Real Madrid on Tuesday to the more mundane prospect of Manchester United winning the League Cup on Sunday.
The competition started out as the plain old League Cup in 1961, generally offering a consolation prize to those not good enough to win anything else. That much became apparent when, in 1982, it was rechristened the Milk Cup and became football’s first sponsored competition.
The milk quickly went off and a year later along came a photographic company to make it the lethal-sounding Canon Cup. Then the Littlewoods, the Rumbelows, the Coca-Cola, the Worthington — and now the Carling Cup.
Ah, the fascinating history of it all. Wonderful. As long as you’re an Aston Villa fan. In 1977, Villa won the longest-ever cup final. Playing Everton, they needed two replays and extra time at three different venues — Wembley, Hillsborough and Old Trafford — involving 330 minutes of football. Still, more than 200 000 fans paid to watch Villa lift their third League Cup.
Anyway, at the Millennium stadium on Sunday, Wigan can finally hit the big time. Unlike their rugby league club, they’ve never played in a major cup final — and they’ve been offered an extra 500 seats on top of their original allocation of 27 000 for Cardiff. ”This will already be the greatest ever convoy of Wigan Athletic fans,” said club spokesperson Matt McCann.
Hmm, that’s not saying much. Manchester United get more than 60 000 fans most weeks. And their American chairperson Bernard Glazer isn’t even bothering to come over to watch his first final since taking over. They haven’t won a trophy in two seasons, but this hardly counts. But it does mean something to Wigan, the side that somehow slipped past Arsenal in the semifinal.