Why is the Community Shield important?
The FA Community Shield serves as the curtain-raiser for the upcoming English Premier League season, with the reigning EPL champions pitted against the incumbent FA Cup winners. According to the English Football Association, the one-off game ‘captures the excitement’ of the upcoming season. Despite occasional debates about its importance, when compared to the other major English tournaments held during the season — the EPL, FA Cup and the English Football League (EFL) Cup — the Community Shield is well revered. “It has been highly regarded and supported by the participating clubs and football fans for many years,” said an FA spokesperson.
One of the main reasons for this is the history associated with the competition, which dates back to the 19th century. The Community Shield evolved from the Sheriff of London Charity Shield, which was first introduced in 1898 as a traditional ‘gentlemen vs amateurs’ game. Its more serious incarnation was the Charity Shield, which debuted in 1908 — featuring Manchester United and Queen’s Park Rangers.
The Red Devils beat QPR 4-0 in a replay after drawing the initial game 1-1. Unsurprisingly, Manchester United are the record champions of the Community Shield, having won it on 21 occasions. The Community Shield has been held at the start of the season since 1959.
Community Shield Preview
Liverpool manager Arne Slot is relishing the chance to lift silverware in his side’s first game of the season as the new-look English Premier League (EPL) champions face FA Cup-winners Crystal Palace in Sunday’s Community Shield clash.
Arne Slot and Oliver Glasner
“It will be nice to start the season by winning a trophy. Unfortunately, we face a very good Crystal Palace side that has been very difficult to win against. They showed in the last FA Cup final [a 1-0 win over Man City] — and even in the semi-final [a 3-0 win over Aston Villa] — how difficult it is to win a one-off game against them,” Slot told reporters on Friday.
Transfer splurge
Despite storming to a record-equalling 20th English top-flight title last season with four games to spare, the Reds have splashed the cash, spending nearly $402 million (Rs 3520 crore) in the transfer market. New forwards Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike, plus full-backs Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong could get their first chance to impress the Liverpool fans at Wembley.
Meanwhile, Palace are in uncharted territory — this will be their first Community Shield match. The Eagles’s euphoria from the end of last season has been slightly soured since, as they were thrown out of the UEFA Europa League and demoted into the UEFA Conference League — the third tier of European competition — over a breach of multi-club ownership rules (US businessman John Textor owned a stake in Palace and is the majority owner of French club Lyon, who have also qualified for the Europa League). Under UEFA multi-club ownership rules, Lyon has been allowed to keep their place in the second-tier competition of European football as they finished higher in the French top tier (6th in Ligue 1) than Palace in the EPL (12th) last season.
By contrast to Liverpool’s transfer bonanza, Palace have spent just $2.7 million (Rs 23.6 crore) on left-back Borna Sosa and a new reserve goalkeeper in Walter Benitez.
However, more importantly, the south London club has managed to keep hold of all of their prized assets — winger Eberechi Eze, forward Jean-Philippe Mateta, midfielder Adam Wharton, and defender Marc Guehi — despite interest from various English and European giants. This gives Palace manager Oliver Glasner the belief that his side can build on last season’s momentum to take on Liverpool.
Palace have point to prove
“We want to show we are able to compete with every single team. When you have the chance to win silverware, then go for it… and we will go for it. We want to start this season on a completely different level, with a different mindset and a higher standard,” said Glasner.
Last five Shield results
. 2024: Manchester City 1-1 Manchester United; City won 7-6 on penalties
. 2023: Arsenal 1-1 Manchester City; Arsenal won 4-1 on penalties
. 2022: Liverpool 3-1 Manchester City
. 2021: Leicester City 1-0 Manchester City
. 2020: Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool; Arsenal won 5-4 on penalties
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