Hands up if you can name all eight sponsors of what is now known as the Carabao Cup.
For 21 years from 1960, the Football League Cup was, well, just the Football League Cup until, at the start of the 1981/82 season, it became the first English football competition to take the name of a brand after agreeing a £250,000 deal with the Milk Marketing Board.
Ahead of the 1982 final between Liverpool and Spurs, Bruce Grobbelaar posed with a giant milk bottle in a Wembley goal. The milk went off after five years and Littlewoods took over before Rumbelows, an electrical and electronic retailer that never made a profit in its 24-year existence, had a couple of years as title sponsor.
Since then, it has been the Coca-Cola Cup, the Worthington’s Cup, the Carling Cup, the Capital One Cup and now - after a one-season hiatus as the EFL Cup - the Carabao Cup. Quite the colourful, commercial history.
But for large parts of its existence, some football snobs have had another name for it. The Mickey Mouse Cup. The runt of the trophy litter. Now, try demeaning the competition in front of Newcastle United and Liverpool fans.
Yes, there are times when clubs - and not just Premier League clubs, by the way - do not field full-strength teams in the Carabao Cup. But Sunday at Wembley will still be a welcome reminder of, quite simply, what football should still be all about.
In Newcastle, there has been talk of a new stadium, talk of something called Project 2030, talk of the Saudis pushing the club into the second phase of growth, whatever that is. But none of that matters this weekend. None of it. Nor, amongst Liverpool supporters this weekend, does it matter if Virgil, Trent, Mo sign or don’t sign. (That’s all getting a bit tedious anyway).
Mickey Mouse? No, it will be momentous. Momentous for Arne Slot, his first Wembley final. And, of course, momentous for Newcastle supporters who have not seen their side win a domestic trophy in 70 years.
Veteran Newcastle fans will still feel the pain of the 3-0 FA Cup final defeat to a Kevin Keegan-inspired Liverpool 51 years ago. The fact that, since that date, Liverpool have won countless trophies and, in this season’s Premier League, have another already getting engraved, might mean this Carabao Cup final carries slightly less significance.
But try telling that to Liverpool fans when John Brooks blows the first whistle. Moments like that are what you follow your football club for, not for a quest to finish fourth in a league table, or to top the Deloittes List.
A few days ago, Sir Jim Ratcliffe said one of Manchester United’s ambitions should be to become the most profitable club in the world. No, Jim, that is one of YOUR ambitions.
The commercial churn of elite football - rip-off replica shirts, expensive TV subscriptions, rising ticket prices - is becoming increasingly wearisome, as is the idea that a Premier League club should prioritise finishing fourth or even 17th over trying to win a trophy. Thankfully, we still have the occasional game that serves as a reminder of why fans truly love their clubs and love the game. And that is why it is no Mickey Mouse Cup.
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