Trophy Tours All The Rage

In recent years I’ve noticed a fairly new phenomenon, and that is the trophy tour. It seems that every major trophy spends it’s life between tournaments being dragged around schools, bars, hospitals, village halls and anywhere else they can think of taking it. Whilst it’s very commendable, letting the trophy engage with it’s public, it’s also slightly diluted by the practice of using ‘stunt doubles’. I had my picture taken with the Premier League trophy last may, but whether it’s the same one this years victors will get their hands on is hugely questionable.

So, the last week has seen the FIFA World Cup pitch up in Belfast for a film premiere, the Europa League Trophy is winging it’s way across Europe preparing for an official handover and the Stanley Cup in the US seems like it would attend the opening of an envelope!!

So, what’s next? Being FA Cup Semi Final weekend, that esteemed old trophy couldn’t miss out on the action. The FA have allowed supporters of Arsenal and Reading to take it on a roller coaster ride at Alton Towers. Presumably the relevance is that the journey to the FA Cup Final is a roller coaster ride? Let’s hope the Semi Final isn’t a cliffhanger, because if it is we’ll be faced with the prospect of the Cup dangling over some cliff edge in Dover at the beginning of May!