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  • World Soccer

    150 YEARS

    Apr 16, 2021 6 minutes

    Michel Platini was in expansive, relaxed mood on a sun-splashed breakfast terrace before a Champions League draw in Monte Carlo. He was the all-powerful head of UEFA, explaining why he was transferring the Champions League final from its traditional midweek slot to a Saturday.

    “It’s the real day you must have for a cup final,” he told me. “When I was a young boy I remember the excitement, every year, for the day of the FA Cup final in England. We did not have much football on television then and this was the great occasion: Wembley, 100,000 fans, the anticipation, the singing, maybe the Queen or whoever – and the most important match.”

    The 1950s and early 1960s, with the new magic of television, brought the dramatic reality of the FA Cup to fans around the world. That first Saturday in May was always “Cup Final Day”. Fans in England, for all their own passion, were

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