FA Community Shield Tickets 2007

The English Premier League champions take on the FA Cup winners in London. But will fans be subjected to below-strength sides in the season’s curtain-raiser?

The Community Shield (formerly known as the Charity Shield) is the traditional curtain-raiser to the English Football Season. In the past, the game has been a keenly-contested fight between the winner of the English Premier League (formerly the Football League) and the FA Cup.

In recent times, however, the game has been downgraded in importance, with the competing sides fielding below strength sides, preferring to keep their best players for the long domestic and European season instead.

It’s hard to blame clubs for this – the Community Shield is hardly a vital trophy to win, and doesn’t pull in the money like the Champions League or Premier League do, but many fans still feel cheated when they see weakened sides after paying a lot for tickets and travel to the game.

Two of the biggest culprits for this have been Chelsea and Manchester United, the two football clubs that will contest the Community Shield on August 5th, 2007. With this in mind, will the tickets be worth buying tickets for?

In this instance, they may well be. Manchester United and Chelsea fought a titanic tussle on three fronts in the 2006/07 season, and will be eager to draw first blood for the forthcoming campaign. It will also be the first Community Shield to be held at the newly revamped Wembley Stadium in London for seven years.

The 2000 Charity Shield, coincidentally, was a clash between Premier League champions Manchester United and FA Cup winners Chelsea. The Blues from Stamford Bridge won on that day, with goals from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mario Melchiot securing a 2-0 victory.