FA Cup under the hammer

The second, and oldest existing, FA Cup is to be sold at auction, it was announced today.

The trophy will be the highlight of Christie’s sale of football memorabilia on May 19 and is expected to fetch between £200,000 (€284,000) and £300,000 (€426,000).

The auction house said it was arguably the most important item of football history ever to be offered for sale.

The cup was presented to winning teams between 1896 and 1910 – and was held aloft in victory as Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Everton, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City won the competition for the first time.

It replaced the original trophy, which was stolen from a shop window in Birmingham and never recovered.

The first competition took place in 1872, and was won by Wanderers, a team formed by university and ex-public school players, in front of a crowd of 2,000 people.