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The Just Made It Up Cup

John Gilbert Ellis

Wednesday, November 8th, 2023

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Sorry Swindon
for denying you Europe,
after you beat Arsenal
to win the Football League Cup.

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 But beating the Arse
isn’t enough, when
you’re still a mere
third division football club.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 So, we’ve invented
the Anglo-Italian Cup
just for you, and other
unfashionable clubs.

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 You’ll get to play
the best Italian football offers
and we get to send Palace
and other assorted duffers.

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 The Italians will see
our clubs as exotic, so
Juve v Hull or Luton
will be gigantic,
send them suitably ecstatic.

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 Bet we can keep it going
for a couple of years,
until the Italians ask
“Why aren’t we playing
your Liverpool’s or Spurs”.

Notes

An old story, but one I’ve read back on recently. Swindon beat Arsenal brilliantly in the 1969 League Cup Final and our FA got too embarrassed to let them into European competition, as they were a third division outfit.

Someone has a brainwave, to appease Swindon and invents the Anglo-Italian Cup. The Italians enter their ‘top’ teams and we don’t. So Swindon, Blackpool, Hull, Palace, Fulham etc. get to play in Europe against Juventus, Lazio, Inter, Roma etc. and do surprisingly well.

Lasted a couple of years, but in the end trouble on and off the pitch put a stop to it. That and the Italians getting fed up with their teams playing the not so top teams from here.

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-just-made-it-up-cup/