Starnes: In the FA Cup, anything can happen

When the whales face the minnows, great stories are written

As far as I can determine, soccer’s FA Cup is the longest running team event on earth — any sport. This weekend, all across England, it enters the fourth round proper of a contest that has been going for 132 seasons. Only world wars could stop it.

This season is about average, with 763 teams entered, from minnows to whales. The draw includes village sides, which might draw a crowd of 50 and a few family dogs on leashes, to Premier League champions who can pack in 50,000.

There can be amateur players, who might have to plead for the day off from work, pitting their skills against big-time pros collecting weekly pay cheques of $190,000.

And sometimes, just sometimes, the minnows swallow the whales.

How, I ask you, can there be a more exciting prospect? Everyone loves the underdog and celebrates when the kingpins of the English game are cut down to size. And only the FA Cup provides that opportunity.

What fascinates me the most are the stories of giant killers, unlikely heroes, lordly amateur stars, gritty out-of-work blue collar boys. Historic moments litter the days since it all began in the 1871-72 season.

With mercenaries and billionaires having hijacked much of the elite end of the English game that we watch so avidly every weekend, it is vital to protect its heritage. And it is the FA Cup on which we should all be hanging our hats.

Some of the top clubs, more intent on retaining their league status or winning big-time tournaments, have taken to blooding younger players — no-names if you will — and resting their brightest stars. Shame on them.

What right do they have to water down moments of a lifetime for players who will never command big pay cheques but, nonetheless, carry a deep love for the game. Soccer should be owned by the people, not the money grabbers.

If you want to understand the roots of the game, it is worth reading Underdogs: The Unlikely Story Of Football’s First FA Cup Heroes.

Author Keith Dewhurst takes us back to 1879 and a team of cotton mill workers from the grubby small town of Darwen, close to Blackburn in Lancashire. Honest workingclass men struggling to make a living in depressing industrial days.

So who did they draw in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup but Old Etonians, former pupils of the most illustrious private school in England. Class warfare, you might say.

On the one side, judging by Dewhurst’s research, was a raggedy bunch of men playing in cutoff trousers on a field that sloped so much that one end was often waterlogged. On the other was a team of privileged gentlemen, always impeccably dressed to play and ready to repair to their clubs after the game for a celebratory drink. Men worried about where the next penny was to come from versus the moneyed aristocracy.

To further weigh the scales against them, the Darwen men had to travel to London for the game — a draw after at one time being 5-1 down. Then again, for another draw and a third time to lose. They did not slay the giants, but they certainly were the harbingers of the future, where the working class fan took over the game we now know.

What other snippets can I offer to enhance the romance of the Cup?

How about the first FA Cup final played at the spanking new Wembley Stadium in 1923? Officially it could accommodate 127,000, but 200,000 showed up to watch Bolton and West Ham. Those locked out stormed the gates and rushed the field.

It is suggested the game should have been a postponed for safety’s sake, which didn’t happen because King George V was there and the fans were an angry lot who could have got nasty. So police on horseback — especially the lasting image of one officer on a white steed forcing the crowd back — went to work and pushed fans to the sidelines.

Corner kicks were tough to take and police had to clear a path to allow players to take a run at the ball. For the record, Bolton won 2-0.

While on the subject of crowds, last year’s final between Manchester City and Stoke was beamed to 400 million fans in 160 countries, a clear testament to the pull of the Cup.