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As the cliche goes, it’s the stuff of which dreams are made.
The world’s oldest soccer competition, the FA Cup, continues to enthrall and throw up compelling storylines in England. For the uninitiated, the preliminary rounds begin in August, the big boys take part in the third round starting in January (by which time many games have already been played) and the final traditionally brings the curtain down on the English season in May.
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The drawing of each round is democracy in motion: all the remaining clubs are represented by a ball with a number on it and are plucked out with any match up’s possible (no seeding such as in tennis or football). And that is why the lowest ranked club left in the tournament — non-league Crawley Town — will play arguably the most well-supported and best-known club in world soccer, Manchester United, at their famous Old Trafford stadium in a few weeks.
And the ever so slightly cocky Crawley aren’t ruling out what would be one of the greatest upsets in the history of sports.
Crawley reached the fifth round of the cup last weekend, winning away at league side Torquay United (following up similar league scalps in the form of Swindon Town and Derby County, who have both been in the Premier League in recent years). Only a handful of non-league clubs have made it this far since World War II and if Crawley is going to become the first side to reach the quarter-finals, they’ll have to do it the hard way and overcome a Manchester United side who haven’t even been beaten in the league this season.
But the reason for Crawley’s optimism is indeed intriguing. Manager Steve Evans said, “the only non-league club capable of beating Manchester United is Crawley Town as we stand today. Miracles do happen.” Evans is referring to the fact that, despite being a non-league side (which traditionally means that the players are part-time and hold down other jobs), they’ve been backed to the hilt financially (supposedly stemming from Hong Kong) which makes a slight mockery of the 93 places that separates the two clubs in the soccer pyramid. Furthermore, Crawley have splashed the cash to a six-figure degree to bring in players, even though this pales in comparison to the many millions United spend every year.
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The bookmakers aren’t taking too many chances, ranking Crawley’s chances of winning at Old Trafford 33/1 (some Premier League sides are often as long as 16/1 to win at Old Trafford) whereas a tie (which would mean a replay at Crawley’s ground) is only 8/1. The two clubs are also more similar than both would care to admit: they’re both widely disliked (despite United’s fervent fanbase, you can still regard them as the New York Yankees of soccer while Crawley’s aggression in the transfer market has won them few friends), the two managers hail from Scotland (Evans said about himself and opposite number, Sir Alex Ferguson, “One’s a Celtic fan and one’s a Rangers fan”) and the teams share the same nickname of the Red Devils. But if Crawley do shock the soccer world on the weekend of 19-20 February, it might just be the proof required that the devil exists because the only way Crawley can win is if they sell him their souls.