Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

 2006-07 has been a gripping football season: the Premiership title changed hands and the relegation battle went to the final day of the season. Three English teams made it to the last four of the UEFA Champions League and Liverpool could yet win it.

Chelsea took the first selection of silverware on offer this season in February when they fended off Arsenal to lift the Carling Cup at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. However, while Chelsea couldn’t muster enough strength to see off the Red Devils in the Premiership, they got the better of them in the remaining piece of ’07 English silverware: the FA Cup.

The largest domestic cup in the world, the competition is now over 130 years old and its history and prestige still manages to create a tremendous amount of interest from football fans all over the globe. Yet in recent years the influx of wealth into the modern game has created celebrities out of its top players, garnering the critism that they’re little more than overpaid actors.

This attitude prompted barry l to pose the question “has the FA Cup lost its so-called ‘magic?’” The responses were varied from the community, but it seems that all agree that even though there has been an above inflation increase in both ticket prices and players wages, cup final day still manages to melt the heart of even the most stone cold of football fans and turn them into either bouncing bundles of joy or and saddened, teary eyed messes.

The final game of the tournament has been played every year at Wembley stadium since its introduction in the 1871-72 season apart from the war years and the recent re-building of the new stadium. The old stadium held immense status and deep footballing memories so, wondered Prince, “is Wembley [still] the home of football?” It appears that even after all of the delay and under estimated construction costs the home of football still resides in North-West London. Hammers reinforces this point: “Wembley always will be, and has been, the home of football. The name conjures up so many memories that it will always have a place in our history”.

Saturday the 19th saw an electric atmosphere inside the newly opened stadium: a sea of blue and red met both teams. The game, watched by HRH Prince William, was evenly balanced. It took a remarkable goal by Didier Drogba in extra time to finally separate the teams. Congratulations to Chelsea on their win.

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team