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“Between 1970 and 1974, five matches were played by the losing semi-finalists for the honour of being officially third or fourth in the FA Cup,” writes Neil Stacey. “The matches were scrapped in 1975. The players involved in these matches were apparently given ‘a memento’ by the FA, but I have no idea what that was, or what the clubs won for coming third. Please can you put the details on the website sometime, so we can find out what the full story is.”
When it comes to universally unpopular football innovations, the FA Cup third-place play-off is up there with Greg Dyke’s League 3 and Andy Townsend’s Tactics Truck. Brought in to replace England v England Youth internationals as a Cup final warm-up, it took place five times between 1970 and 1974, and then never again. The results aren’t even included on the FA’s official website.
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