What is the community shield and does it count as a trophy?

A look at the FA Community Shield, how the match works, its history, and the ongoing debate about whether it should count as a major trophy in English football.

Every August, before a ball has been kicked in the Premier League, two clubs meet at Wembley for a match that somehow manages to spark hundreds of arguments every year. Not about football, but about whether winning the Community Shield actually means anything.

How the Community Shield works

The FA Community Shield is an annual match between the previous season's Premier League champions and the FA Cup winners. It takes place at Wembley at the start of August, a few weeks before the league season begins. If the same club won both competitions, the shield is contested between the league champions and the league runners-up instead. Given how often the bigger clubs dominate both, this happens fairly regularly.

It's a single match with no extra time. If it's level after 90 minutes, it goes straight to penalties. The FA organises it rather than the Premier League, which partly explains why it sits slightly outside the main calendar rather than being fully woven into it. There's no seeding, no qualifying, and no second chances. You win on the day or you don't. As formats go, it's about as simple as it gets.

A brief history of the Community Shield

The competition has existed in various forms since 1908, making it one of the older fixtures in English football. For most of its history it was known as the Charity Shield, with proceeds going to charitable causes. The name changed to the Community Shield in 2002 to reflect a broader focus on grassroots and community programmes.

For much of the twentieth century the match was played at the home ground of one of the competing clubs. Moving it to Wembley gave it a more ceremonial feel and helped turn it into a proper occasion, rather than a glorified pre-season friendly with a nicer trophy.

It hasn't always been a polite affair. The 1974 edition between Liverpool and Leeds produced one of the more notorious moments in the competition's history, with Billy Bremner and Kevin Keegan both sent off and subsequently banned after throwing their shirts to the ground as they left the pitch.

Arsenal have been the most successful side in the competition's history, winning it more times than any other club. For the bigger Premier League sides, the Community Shield has become a fairly regular fixture on the calendar, which perhaps says something about how seriously the participants take it when the time comes.

Does the Community Shield count as a real trophy?

This is where everyone has an opinion and nobody fully agrees. 

The argument against is familiar. Squads aren't fully fit, so managers are usually forced to rotate heavily and give fringe players a run out. Plus, the league season hasn't started yet and the result has no bearing on anything that follows. That’s why nobody brings it up in April when the title race is going down to the wire.

The argument for is equally straightforward. It’s an official FA competition with a real trophy at the end of it. Players receive winners' medals. Clubs list it in their official honours. Managers who have won everything else still name it when asked about their haul for the year. If it truly meant nothing, none of that would happen.

The honest answer is that it sits in its own category. It’s not a major trophy in the way the Premier League, FA Cup, or Champions League are, and nobody seriously argues otherwise. But calling it completely meaningless ignores the fact that it is a competitive match between two good sides at a national stadium, played for a piece of silverware that some clubs have never won. Whether it counts probably depends on which side of the argument you need it to be on.

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Whether the Community Shield counts as a proper trophy is a debate that will never fully be resolved. What it does do is mark the start of a new season, with a big game at Wembley and something at stake. And after a long summer without football, for most fans, it’s enough to get them excited again. 

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