CLASSIC FOOTBALL DVDs

The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is an English association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of the FA Premier League and the winners of the FA Cup. It is equivalent to the Super Cups found in many countries.

If a team wins The Double (both the Premiership and the FA Cup), then the Double winner plays the Premier League runner-up. The match is contested at the beginning of the following season, and has traditionally been played at Wembley Stadium, although for the past few seasons it has been played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, while Wembley has been being rebuilt. The newly built Wembley held the 2007 final for the first time since 2000.

While still an honour in the English game, the Community Shield's status is far lower than that of the Premier League, FA Cup or League Cup. It is widely considered to be a minor trophy, and is usually not spoken of as an honour at all. Community Shield games are almost always treated as friendlies by both sides in the modern era; this was best illustrated when Roy Keane famously failed to break a smile when lifting the trophy for Manchester United in 2003.

Also of note is that no winning team in the modern era has opted to hold an end of season open-top bus parade after winning only the Community Shield, despite it being the custom in England after a club has won a trophy. Among followers of football, the Community Shield is often most attractive as a spectacle in that it offers a first glimpse of the newly-signed players for each team.