All the oddities of the last round of the FA Cup

The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world - the first edition dates back to 1871 - but it always provides excitement and surprises with its spectacular and unexpected one-on-one encounters. This also applies to the unique and unprecedented equipment solutions required by the rules of a competition organised directly by the Football Association, the English football governing body.

The sponsorless Blackburn Rovers shirt

The preliminary rounds of the FA Cup are often the perfect ground for turnovers and debutants who would otherwise not find a place in the league, such as Blackburn Rovers, who fielded 15-year-old Rory Finneran in the home game against the rather modest Cambridge United. The only difference was that the youngster had to take to the pitch in a slightly different kit to his team-mates for his first professional game. Finneran's historic blue and white vertically striped jersey was uninterrupted by logos at chest height, giving it a cleaner look than the original. Rovers' commercial sponsor for the season is Totally Wicked, a vape company that is not allowed to be sponsored by underage players, which is the case with Finneran, so he had to wear a jersey without patches.

So underage footballers can't advertise tobacco brands, but they can play surrounded by banners and posters from the same companies, in addition to their team-mates' shirts of course. And the large number of fans and spectators under the age of 18 are constantly bombarded with adverts for consumer goods such as betting or alcohol, to which they do not yet have access. It's a hypocrisy that has always plagued English football: on the one hand, the most modern movement in the world, mindful of sustainability and diversity, and on the other, still tied to betting shops.

Arsenal's No More Red jersey

Arsenal also wore a special jersey for the game against Liverpool, the third edition of the all-white No More Red jersey, which was created to draw attention to the problem of violence against white people in the city of London. A jersey that didn't bring any particular luck to Arteta's team, who missed numerous scoring chances before being mocked by the Reds, and which differed slightly from the one previously shown on the north London club's social channels. Although the jersey was advertised as all white, this edition had the edges of the club logo and technical sponsors in black for better visibility.

Liverpool also decided to join Arsenal's initiative by wearing their third kit in purple, forgoing the classic red of the first kit and the white and green of the away kit, which would have inevitably clashed with Arsenal's white.

Manchester City's missing patch

FA Cup jerseys must normally include the competition patch with the cup crest and sponsor logo on the right sleeve. Emirates Airline, which acquired the naming rights to the competition in 2015, not only applies its branding to all promotional elements of the competition, but also to the patches that each individual team must display. However, not all clubs have decided to comply with this obligation. Manchester City, for example, did not wear it for years because Emirates is a direct competitor of Etihad Airways, the Citizens' historic sponsor, which emerged from the Emirates sovereign wealth fund that owns the club.

When they won the final against the surprise team Watford in 2019, City decided to write in the middle of the chest Choose Etihad, a tongue in cheek referring to the rivals airline. However, it continues to feature prominently in Guardiola's team's matches, from the banners on the sidelines to the inscriptions on the trophy, which the players have repeatedly raised to the sky in recent seasons.