Community Shield Betting
About the Community Shield :
The FA Community Shield, formerly known as the Charity Shield, is the traditional curtain-raiser to the domestic season between the League and FA Cup Champions. The very first Charity Shield match was played in 1908 between Manchester United and Queens Park Rangers. In 1974 the Football Association?s Secretary Ted Croker proposed that the Shield be played at Wembley each year as a curtain-raiser to the new season between the reigning League Champions and FA Cup holders.
Liverpool are the current Community Shield holders after beating rivals Chelsea 2-1 in Cardiff and on the 5th August 2007, The Community Shield match will return to Wembley Stadium.
The Football Association Community Shield can be likened to the Super Cups found in many other football playing countries. If one team wins the double - both the Premiership and the FA Cup - then the double winner plays the Premier League runner-up in the Community Shield match. The game is contested at the beginning of the following season.
Profile of the Community Shield :
The Community Shield does not rank nearly as highly as that of the Premier League, FA Cup or League Cup competitions and is in fact a minor trophy played almost always in the manner of a friendly game. Certainly none of today?s winning teams opt to hold an end of season open-top bus parade after winning solely the Community Shield, despite it being the custom in England after a club has won a trophy.
But of course The Community Shield does play a major role for the Football Association as a means of raising funds for various charities throughout the UK. These funds are raised from profits from ticket sales and the sales of match day programmes. Later, funds are distributed to clubs who participated in the first round, proper, of the FA Cup and they in turn are asked to nominate a charity or community-based organisation who will receive a share of these funds. Any funds still remaining are then donated to The FA Charity Partners.
History :
The Shield was first played for in 1908-1909 and replaced the Sheriff of London Charity Shield that had been introduced ten years earlier.
Today, if at end of the match the scores are level, the game is decided with a penalty shoot-out. However, between 1949 and 1993 the Shield was usually shared if the game was drawn and interestingly enough, West Ham United and Aston Villa are the only two clubs to have shared Community Shield titles with other clubs without winning one outright.
With the formation of the FA Premier League, the Shield became a match between the Premier League and FA Cup winners from 1993 onwards and in 2002, the competition was renamed The Community Shield resulting in part from a scandal surrounding questionable distribution of money raised for charities. Arsenal were the first winners of The Community Shield with a 1-0 victory over Liverpool.
Community Shield Betting and Free Bets :
We have a number of online bookmakers who offer Community Shield Betting but some of the more prominent names are :
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