Wembley has become one of world football’s most revered football stadiums over the last 100 years, but only survived its infancy thanks to a Scotsman and some greyhounds.
The first FA Cup final at what was then called the Empire Stadium took place on April 28, 1923.
The stadium had been built in 300 days, at a cost of £750,000, for the following year’s British Empire Exhibition, which was held to demonstrate Britain’s enduring colonial strength in the wake of the First World War.
There were concerns over whether the 1923 final between Bolton and West Ham would even manage to draw a full house to the 125,000-capacity stadium, but ultimately it took mounted police to clear the pitch in order for the match to kick off due to overcrowding.
It has been estimated that well over 200,000 people gained access to the stadium for the match, which became known as ‘The White Horse Final’ after a light grey horse called Billy, ridden by policeman George Albert Scorey and who showed up white in the black and white images of the time, helped clear spectators from the pitch.
Bolton beat West Ham 2-0 in a match which kicked off around 45 minutes late.
Despite the popularity of that contest, the exhibition itself which followed in 1924 and 1925 was considered a commercial failure, and the stadium was all set for demolition had it not been for the intervention of two key individuals.
Sir James Stevenson, a Scot who was chairman of the exhibition committee, lobbied for the stadium to remain open, while Arthur Elvin stepped in to stop it going to the dogs by organising greyhound races on the stadium’s track, starting in 1927, which made Wembley financially viable.
Wembley is most closely associated with football but has hosted a myriad of other sports over the years – some more successfully than others.
The NFL has enjoyed great success in bringing its International Series of regular-season matches to the stadium, which has also hosted some enthralling boxing contests from Cassius Clay v Henry Cooper in 1963 to Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.
An attempt to popularise ski jumping in the UK by hosting a Winter Sports Exhibition – in late May – featuring a 150-foot jump constructed out of scaffolding did not catch on quite so well, and appears set to remain a one-off.
In an era before football enjoyed blanket coverage, the FA Cup final at Wembley was for many years one of the only games to be regularly televised internationally, making it a venue players all around the world dreamt of playing at.
Pele, the Brazil great who died late last year, said it was his biggest regret that he never played a match at Wembley, which he described as “a cathedral of football”.
The old stadium’s place in English football folklore was secured when it played host to the 1966 World Cup final, with the home team winning the trophy thanks to a 4-2 extra-time victory over West Germany.
By the 1990s, however, there were fresh calls for the stadium, now beginning to show its age, to be bulldozed.
Playing host to England’s matches at Euro ’96, with ‘Three Lions’ ringing out from the stands, was the old stadium’s last great hurrah, with its final match a sad, soggy affair in October 2000 as England slipped to a 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat to Germany which prompted the resignation of manager Kevin Keegan.
The rebuild, which cost over £700million, featured an arch to replace the famous Twin Towers as the stadium’s most eye-catching element.
It remains a go-to destination for national and international football events, and has already hosted two Champions League finals since it reopened in 2007.
What should have been one of its most memorable occasions turned into arguably its darkest day, as England lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy on penalties in July 2021.
The match was overshadowed by chaos outside and within the stadium. Individuals under the influence of drink and drugs created disorder, with around 2,000 people without tickets gaining entry.
Baroness Casey, who led an independent review into what went wrong on the day, highlighted a catalogue of “near-misses” which could have led to fatalities.
The final Wembley deserved came just over a year later, as England triumphed in extra time against Germany at Women’s Euro 2022.
The five UK and Ireland football associations are hoping to convince UEFA’s executive committee later this year to make Wembley the centrepiece of another Euros – this time the men’s competition in 2028.
Thanks to those who helped it through the uncertainty of its earliest days, the stadium could reasonably hope to still be hosting top-level sports in another 100 years’ time.
Bristol City Women 0-4 Man City Women: Hosts relegated as Fowler double inspires WSL leaders
Mary Fowler scored twice to set WSL leaders Manchester City on their way to a 4-0 rout of Bristol City, who suffered relegation as a result, on Sunday.
With Arsenal having drawn with Everton earlier in the day, Man City knew a victory would be enough to take the title race down to two teams.
That victory duly arrived in emphatic fashion, with all four of Man City's goals arriving in the second half.
Fowler's fantastic strike opened the scoring in the 62nd minute, with the Australia international doubling her tally soon after, paving the way for an Amy Rodgers own goal and Alex Greenwood's late header to seal a huge victory.
Arsenal are now out of the title race, with Chelsea - who have two games in hand on Gareth Taylor's team - the only side capable of catching Man City.
The Robins, meanwhile, will be playing in the second tier again next term.
Data Debrief: Bristol heading down with a whimper
Bristol City have failed to score in their last five games in the WSL, a run of 544 minutes without a goal.
They mustered just 0.09 expected goals (xG) to Man City's 3.4, with the visitors having now kept a clean sheet in nine of their 20 league games this season.
De Rossi demands more from 'tired' Roma ahead of crunch run
Daniele De Rossi acknowledged his Roma team may be tired, but he insisted they must not allow themselves to be embarrassed.
Roma fought back to draw 2-2 with last season's Serie A champions Napoli in a pulsating fixture on Sunday.
Tammy Abraham's late header secured a point for De Rossi's team, who took the lead through Paulo Dybala's penalty before going behind to goals from Matias Olivera and Victor Osimhen.
With Serie A set to have five teams in the Champions League next season, Roma occupy fifth spot with four matches remaining, but sixth-placed Atalanta are just two points behind with a game in hand.
There is also the small matter of a Europa League semi-final against Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen on the cards over the coming weeks, and De Rossi set the stall out.
"We drew, it is not a result to throw away, but it is not the result or the performance that we wanted," Roma coach Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia.
"At times you can steal the ball off Napoli, but we then gave it back again too many times. Napoli had a lot of chances in the first half, we did better in the second, but we have to do better.
"Look, we are tired, but we cannot start thinking that we’re tired and that means we can be embarrassed in the final few weeks of the season."
Roma host Leverkusen on Thursday before taking on Juventus on May 5, with a crunch clash against Atalanta – who are also into the Europa League semi-finals – set to follow after the away leg against Xabi Alonso's team.
Key to a successful end to the campaign for Roma will be keeping Dybala fit. The Argentine has been involved in the joint-most goals (12) in Serie A since the turn of the year, scoring nine and setting up three, level with Juve's Dusan Vlahovic.
PSG's latest Ligue 1 title arrives as Monaco lose to Lyon
Paris Saint-Germain have been crowned as Ligue 1 champions after Lyon overcame Monaco 3-2 on Sunday.
A 4-1 midweek win over Lorient ensured that one more victory would be enough for Luis Enrique's team to get over the line, but PSG failed to get the job done themselves when they faced relegation-threatened Le Havre on Saturday.
That game was the 700th match of the QSI era at PSG, and the club's 1,900th in France's top flight.
However, PSG's wait to win their third straight title did not last long, as less than 24 hours later, Lyon – who will face the Parisians in the final of the Coupe de France at the end of May – came out on top in a topsy turvy encounter with second-placed Monaco.
Substitute Malick Fofana was the matchwinner for Lyon, and ultimately the player who handed the title to PSG.
Wissam Ben Yedder had put Monaco ahead in the opening minute, but quickfire goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Said Benrahma turned the match on its head before half-time.
Ben Yedder netted his second to restore parity on the hour mark, and thought he had sealed his hat-trick when he volleyed in from a free-kick, only to have strayed offside.
With only a win good enough for Monaco to stay in the fight, the visitors were then caught out in the 84th minute, with Fofana racing onto Lacazette's throughball and finishing calmly.
After a dismal start to the season, relegation looked a real possibility for Lyon, but they are now, with three games remaining, still in with a shout of qualifying for Europe.
PSG on the other hand now have 12 Ligue 1 titles to their name, with 10 of those coming under QSI's ownership. Aside from the COVID-impacted 2019-20 season, five of their last six league titles have been secured before the start of May.
It also means Luis Enrique remains in the running for a treble in his first season at the club, with PSG taking on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semi-finals next week.
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