Two men in their seventies who play tennis where I work are excitedly looking forward to tomorrow's FA Cup Final. They both moved here from England. One is an Arsenal fan, the other a Chelsea fan. The Chelsea fan wore his Chelsea sweatshirt to tennis today and showed it off proudly. The Arsenal fan talked philosophically about the need for Arsene Wenger to go and how he has little hope of a win for the underdogs. And they talked about their plans for meeting at one of their houses to watch the match together. They've probably planned who's going to sit where, and what they are going to eat. It's patronizing of me to say it sounded endearing, but I loved listening to their banter. It's my friend and me, some years down the road. It is another side to the magic of the FA Cup: these two expats reliving their boyhood memories of growing up in London wanting to emulate their heroes.
The Cup Final is a one-off match, the winner wins a trophy and goes down in the records as the 2017 winner. The other big match this weekend is what is known as the richest football match in the world: the Championship promotion playoff where the winners enter the land of promised, and delivered, millions of the Premier League. It could change the winners, Reading or Huddersfield. They could become a stable Premier League team for a few years (Southampton, Swansea?), implement a sound business model, sell their best players, buy smart and reap the benefits of the Premier League profits. Or they could aim to high, gamble, spend too much money to ensure Premier League longevity; or spend no money at all and hope to survive with the same squad and maximize their short time profits, and end up like Wigan, or Wolves, or Sheffield United or Wednesday : from the Premier League to League One in a couple of seasons. But that will come later. The playoff final itself is usually a pretty exciting and tense affair because there is so much at stake.
It'll be a good weekend of football. In case you are looking forward to sharing in the excitement with me I will declare now that due to life going on, I will probably not see one second of action. But I wish it is good and fun and worth the time invested for all of you.
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