FA to scrap Cup Final champagne for winners
It’s to respect players’ religion
THE Football Association is to end the tradition of awarding a case of champagne to the FA Cup winners out of respect for players’ religious beliefs.
english football’s governing body has a long-held tradition of putting champagne in the winners’ dressing room following the cup final as a congratulatory gesture.
But following internal discussions the FA will no longer provide champagne so as not to offend players whose religious beliefs forbid alcohol use.
An alcohol-free champagne substitute will instead be given to the victorious club so players can still spray the contents of the bottles over each other in celebration.
Watford face Manchester City in this year’s cup final on May 18 at Wembley. Watford’s Abdoulaye Doucoure, along with Manchester City stars riyad Mahrez, Benjamin Mendy and Ilkay Gundogan follow Islam, which forbids the consumption of alcohol. In addition, some players are tee-total, while others are under the legal drinking age of 18.
The FA Cup is the annual knockout football competition in men’s domestic english football and is open to any eligible club down to level ten of the english football league system.
The FA’s decision is not believed to have been the result of complaints from teams or players in the past but prompted from within the organisation.
The Mail understands FA chiefs had considered implementing the change sooner but was concerned that they would be branded as ‘party-poopers’. The governing body is continuously tackling multi-race and multi-faith issues which have become prevalent in football in recent months.
Manchester City and england forward, raheem Sterling, has previously spoken out about racism in football – after being verbally attacked him self a number of times on the pitch. He is now calling for football clubs to face tougher penalties if their fans racially abuse the players.
In 2012, the Premier League stopped providing alcoholic champagne as man of the match awards after Muslim football refused to accept the bottles.
Frenchman Franck ribery, who converted to Islam in 2002, was reportedly extremely angry with a Bayern Munich teammate for pouring beer over him after they won the German football league – the Bundesliga – in 2013. Footage showed ribery running away from players, who were chasing him with alcohol on the pitch.
An FA spokesman said: ‘Winning teams will be awarded with non- alcoholic “champagne” for their celebrations in all FA competitions, starting from this year’s emirates FA Cup Final.
‘This is to ensure that we are as inclusive as possible to players and communities who may be prohibited from alcohol, as well as any players who are under 18.’
‘Inclusive as possible’