(Part 4: 2001-2015)
Part 1 covering 1955-1970 is HERE
Part 2 covering 1971-1985 is HERE
Part 3 covering 1986-2000 is HERE
Part 5 covering 2016-2023 is HERE
2001 FA Cup Final
The ‘wide open spaces of Wembley’ were being demolished to make way for a new national stadium, so the cup final moved to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, where there wasn’t such a long walk from dressing rooms to the centre-circle. Would this influence whether teams wore pre-match jackets? Time would tell, but in 2001 only one side wore pre-match tops.
Liverpool’s players wore black quarter-zip tops as they emerged from the tunnel for the anthem/meet and greet, they featured the lower case Reebok word-mark on the right side as worn, opposite the club crest which was contained in a sewn-on patch. In the centre, game detail text circled the liver bird and LFC unenclosed by a shield. Further down, the mark of sponsor Carlsberg was applied in white.
Arsenal chose to enter the field in just match kit, and if jackets from the day exist, evidence of them is well hidden.
The final was notable not just for being the first one staged outside of England, but also as the first contested by two French managers, Arsène Wenger and Gérard Houllier. Arsenal took the lead in the second half through Freddie Ljungberg, but two Michael Owen goals in the last ten minutes won the trophy for the Scousers.
2002 FA Cup Final
Neither Arsenal or Chelsea wore jackets on the day, but Chelsea definitely had jackets available.
Mostly black, they had white collars, cuffs, waistbands, full-zips and pocket zips.
Embroidery was white too, from the Umbro mark which was the Umbro-text-inside-a-diamond versions, the club crest and game detail which was below the crest on the jackets, but above the crest on outfield player shirts. It read F.A. Cup Final, 2002, in mixed case on two lines.
Arsenal beat Chelsea 2–0 with goals from Ray Parlour and Freddie Ljungberg in the final 20 minutes of the game, completing a domestic Double for Arsenal.
2003, 2004 and 2005 FA Cup Finals
Maybe it was the reduced walk during the ‘walkout’ at Cardiff compared to Wembley, but game detail emblazoned track tops/anthem jackets/presentation suits, whatever you prefer to call them, fell out of fashion while the games were at the Millennium Stadium, and none were in evidence at the 2003, 2004 and 2005 finals. **sad face**
2006 FA Cup Final
We can rely on Liverpool, right? They have a rich tradition for anthem jackets, and not just for FA Cup finals, they’ve had some outrageously good jackets for League Cup finals, European competition finals and Charity Shield games too. They were one of the few sides playing in a Cardiff based FA Cup final that bothered with pre-match jackets, back in 2001, but here in 2006, the last year before Wembley reopened, the players entered the field sans-jackets for the first all-Reebok kitted final.
Jackets were made, however, but only club staff wore them on the day. All-red, including cuffs and waistbands, these were quite restrained with a relatively small liver bird in gold on the left breast (as worn) circled by gold embroidered game detail text reading F.A. CUP FINAL, CARDIFF 2006. It’s a shame that these weren’t more widely seen.
West Ham though, made sure the last final at the Millennium Stadium had some outerwear fully on display. The Hammers came out of the tunnel wearing Charcoal grey jackets that had darker grey panels above the Raglan sleeve seam that extended from the neckline to under the armpits. Reebok were using Rbk branding at this point, that mark on the right side (as worn) was opposite the club crest and game detail embroidery that read FA CUP FINALISTS, CARDIFF 2006 on two lines.
West Ham took the lead through a Jamie Carragher own goal in the first half and Dean Ashton made it 2–0 a few minutes later. Liverpool replied with a goal from Djibril Cissé and it was 2–1 at half time. Steven Gerrard equalised soon after the restart but West Ham retook the lead through Paul Konchesky. In injury time, Gerrard scored from distance to make it 3–3 and necessitate extra time. No goals were scored in extra time so the game went to spot-kicks, in which Liverpool outscored the Hammers 3–1 to lift the trophy.
2007 and 2008 FA Cup finals
No game detail bearing jackets at the 2007 final (Chelsea v Manchester United), the first at the rebuilt Wembley Stadium, nor were they evident in 2008 (Portsmouth v Cardiff, particularly sad this case as it was a final contested by teams that make it to one every lifespan of an African elephant), just run of the mill pre-match garb. Talk about the cup losing it’s magic!
2009 FA Cup Final
Though neither Everton or Chelsea wore pre-match jackets on a hot day at Wembley, Everton had some at least. In fact, they had a whole range of gear, heavy coats, polo shirts and two jackets, both of the same style, but one was royal blue and the other navy blue.
Perhaps one was part of a travel suit and the other intended for pre-match use, but there’s no photographic evidence of any of this gear being used on the day. The basic jacket design was used by several other Umbro teams, England for example had red jackets in this style, and a year later Hull City wore black jackets conforming to this template for the 2008 Championship play-off final.
2010 FA Cup Final
For successive finals, Portsmouth (2008) and Chelsea (2009) didn’t bother with pre-match jackets. Just in case you think this was a wider trend in football, it’s worth noting that Aston Villa wore white jackets when they lined-up before the League Cup final in 2010, and at the World Cup final in South Africa, both Spain and the Netherlands wore jackets as they took to the field.
2011 FA Cup Final
As originators of the FA Cup final outerwear convention back in 1955, it was heartening to see Manchester City take an active role in rebooting the tradition for the Nu-Wembley era when they reached 2011’s final.
For the 2010/11 season, Umbro issued the Citizens with ‘Mercer’ jackets, similar in design to the ‘Ramsey’ jackets issued to the England national team and named after Joe Mercer, City’s manager between 1965-71, a period that saw the club lift the First Division, FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup trophies. These jackets, sky blue bodies with multistriped collars, cuffs and waistbands in ‘Vista’ blue, ‘Zinfandel’ maroon and white, carried the shield bearing golden eagle crest introduced in 1997 with the word-mark of sponsor Etihad in white underneath.
An updated version of the jacket bearing the city of Manchester’s coat of arms was made for the cup final, and these tops had MCFC in maroon on the reverse. Stoke didn’t wear jackets as they emerged from the tunnel onto the pitch, and there is no evidence that adidas supplied any pre-match outerwear.
A solitary goal by Yaya Touré decided the game, earning Manchester City their first major trophy for 35 years.
2012 FA Cup Final
Scheduled to provide a clear four-week period between the end of the English season and the start of UEFA Euro 2012, the date of the final clashed with some Premier League fixtures. To avoid having the final played at the same time as league games, the match kicked off at the later time of 5:15 p.m.
Liverpool has already won the League Cup after squeaking past Cardiff on penalties in the February, meanwhile Chelsea had the Champions League final in Munich to come after their date at Wembley.
Chelsea’s FA Cup final outerwear record was once flawless: The wore a full tracksuit in 1967, the famed red zip-up tops in 1970 as well as jackets in 1994 and 1997. The 2000 final jackets were worn by staff and subs but not the first XI, and two years later in 2002 jackets were made but not sighted on final day. It all went wrong in 2007 though, and no jackets were made for that year, plus the 2009, 2010 and 2012 games. Disappointing.
Liverpool did have jackets in 2012 however, a design used throughout the 2011/12 campaign including a Premier League game at Manchester City when Glen Johnson’s jacket was missing the club crest, and before the League Cup final. There was nothing missing before the FA Cup final, but game detail embroidery was added under the adidas marks on the right breast (as worn), orbiting a golden liver bird. Liverpool’s jackets had red chests, underneath black Raglan sleeves with silver shoulder stripes and over a black lower body with hoodie style ‘kangaroo’ pockets that both hands can fit into. These were above printed red stripes that graduated to ever thinner bands until only black space remained.
Ramires put Chelsea in front in the 11th minute and they extended their lead in the 52nd minute when Didier Drogba scored. Liverpool substitute Andy Carroll scored in the 64th minute to reduce the deficit to one goal, but ultimately Chelsea took the cup, their eighth success in the competition.
2013 FA Cup Final
As in the early 1980s, which saw QPR, Brighton and Watford make their FA Cup final bows, so the early 2010s was notable for last match debutantes. Stoke were the first in 2011, and in 2013 it was the turn of Wigan Athletic, who as every news outlet was keen to remind you, were owned by Dave Whelan of breaking-his-leg-during-the-1960-final and JJB Sports shops fame .
For the first time since 1996, the starting XI of both finalists were clad in pre-match jackets as they took to the field in 2013. Manchester City’s full-zip coats had a lot in common with their 2011 jackets, with striped collars, cuffs and waistbands, only there was no maroon this time, the stripes were tonal in several shades of blue. in 2011, the coat of arms of the city of Manchester replaced the crest on the left breast (as worn), but this time the crest was there, rendered in black and white to match trim on the game shirts, and the civic badge appeared on the right arm (as worn). No specific game detail appeared on these jackets.
Wigan wore jackets in the final that were distinct from those used in the Latics semi-final against Millwall. For the final, the Mi.Fit branded jackets looked to be matched to Wigan’s away kit colourway of black and yellow, with the zip and Mi.Fit logo in yellow. Whereas Wigan’s crest and game detail was yellow on black on the game shirts, the crest was full colour on the jackets but the word-mark of sponsor 12Bet and game detail text was applied in metallic gold: THE FA CUP FINAL above the crest with WEMBLEY 11 May 2013 underneath.
On the reverse of the jacket, WIGAN and ATHLETIC were applied over two lines in gold lettering.
Manchester City’s Pablo Zabaleta was sent off for a second yellow card, becoming the third player to be sent off in an FA Cup final, and a minute into injury time Wigan’s Ben Watson headed the ball from a corner past Joe Hart to pull off an upset 1–0 win. In the week after the final, Manchester City sacked manager Roberto Mancini and Wigan were relegated from the Premier League, becoming the first club to win the Cup and drop out of the top tier in the same season.
2014 FA Cup Final
Arsenal warmed up in red Nike jackets with white sleeve stripes that had no game detail applied, and substitutes wore them while on the bench. They were not however, used when the Gunners’ starters entered the pitch ahead of the national anthem.
For their first FA Cup final appearance, Hull City took some of the ‘Tiro 13’ template jackets they’d worn before some Premier League games with them to Wembley. The black adidas tops featured the same game detail print as appeared across four lines on the match shirts: ‘The FA Cup With Budweiser, Final, Arsenal v Hull City, 17th May 2014’
However a decision was made on the day that it was too warm for jackets and both sides were jacketless when they met Prince William before kick-off.
Arsenal needed extra time to see off Hull City, who raced to a 2-0 lead in the first half, but had their hearts broken by an Aaron Ramsey winner on 109 minutes.
2015 FA Cup Final
Pre-match jacketry was back in full swing in 2015, when Arsenal returned to Wembley to defend the cup against challenger Aston Villa. By this point Arsenal had traded in Nike for Puma as kit supplier.
Aston Villa plumped for sky blue jackets made by their Italian supplier Macron. They featured self-coloured collars, cuffs and waistbands decorated by a thin line of claret trim and ‘kangaroo’ pockets. Printed panels on the upper sleeves containing a ‘waveform’ pattern of claret lines, the rest of the sleeves was solid blue. Under Macron’s word-mark in claret, centralised game detail text over four lines read: Arsenal FC v Aston Villa FC, FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, 30 May 2015.
Arsenal went with yellow and navy jackets to match the use of their change kit, they featured thick navy shoulder stripes that tapered as they approached the navy cuffs, and under the chest repeating thin navy bands broke up the yellow above the navy waistband. On the chest, FLY EMIRATES was stacked under Arsenal’s crest on the left side (as worn) and on the right side under Puma’s big cat logo in navy a silhouette of the FA Cup trophy had FA CUP FINAL above and WEMBLEY 2015 below in curved navy embroidery.
Arsenal made lighter work of this final, sweeping Villa aside 4-0 on their way to lifting the cup for a twelfth time, with six of those wins coming under Arsene Wenger.
HULL CITY KITS 