Wembley Cup in style

Sun July 26

After two days at a relaxed pace in Northampton, it was back to the big smoke of London, where I’ll be now until Wednesday, when I head off to Munich, Germany.

Today was quite a thrill – myself and a friend (James) were guests of Wembley Stadium in a corporate suite at the final day of the inaugural Wembley Cup.

This pre-season tournament was played on Friday and today, with Sunday's menu featuring two matches – the first between Egyptian champions Al Ahly and Spanish giants Barcelona and the main game between English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur and Scottish icon Celtic.

After visiting Wembley last Monday to meet staff and take a tour, it was great to see it in event mode. Although there were only about 30,000-35,000 fans in attendance, the passion and the chanting of the Celtic fans was quite overwhelming. I can hardly imagine what it would be like with 90,000 in the stadium for the FA Cup final.

The corporate suite itself was great, with some fabulous food and drink on offer. I can proudly say we were the last to leave the suite when the lights went off and were one of the last seen leaving the stadium! A nice post-event pint and beef pie in a nearby pub rounded off the day nicely (fair to say I’ll be coming home larger than when I left…)

One interesting aspect of football at English venues is the no alcohol in the seats rule. In reality, it’s a national legislation that prohibits “consumption of alcohol by anyone with a view of the pitch.” So, corporate suites need to have the blinds shut while the game was in progress, meaning you either drank inside and missed the game or didn’t drink and watched the game outside. Quite strange.

Anyway, we had a great view and Celtic upset the local favourites 2-0, both goals scored in the first half. As far as “football” matches go, it was fairly entertaining. The team then walked up to the Royal Box, which was virtually right in front of us, to accept the Wembley Cup.

(Note – you can check out tour photos on my Facebook page.)

Off to Lord’s in the morning for a full day with the Marylebone CC people, followed by an MCC reunion with Josie, Narissa and Tomasz – and, of course, Fred the Ted!

Then it’s the All England Club on Tuesday for a taste of life at Wimbledon.