For many, the best thing about the FA Cup is the minnows getting their moments of glory, giant killings and plucky underdogs getting one over the big boys.
But what if one of these underdogs were funded and their side warped by the big boys, the competition's big-name sponsor Budweiser? An underdog like Wembley FC?
For those who don't know, Budweiser have started backing Wembley and, as part of the deal, have installed Terry Venables as manger and brought in ex-stars such as Graeme Le Saux, Ray Parlour, Brian McBride and an ever effeminate-looking Claudio Caniggia and will star in an ESPN documentary.
While it's a bit 'mid-90s fantasy football', if this was a regular arrangement, as weird as it may be, it may be fair enough but it isn't. Terry and co can only take part in FA Cup games.
Aside from it smacking of a publicity stunt, this is also unfair on a footballing level. Regular players who toil away for Wembley FC in the league will miss out on taking part in the greatest domestic cup competition in the world through no fault of their own, at the expense of a bit of revenue and publicity.
That's not even taking into account these paid-for stars directly influencing the competition itself. In Wembley FC's FA Cup opener, against Langford FC, Caniggia scored in what turned out to be a 3-2 win. One goal that could have been the difference between Langford picking up some much-needed prize money. Prize money that, to Wembley, would just be a bonus on top of what Budweiser are already supplying them with.
It happens in Sunday League games up and down the country, every so often a team will turn up with a couple of semi-pro lads in tow who don't normally play. You know they shouldn't be there, they know they shouldn't be there but they are and you get on with it, probably raking a couple of studs down one of them as you do.
There's even an exceptional episode of The Simpsons where the nuclear power plant Homer Simpson works for has a works softball team. The plant's owner, the mega-rich and dark-hearted Mr Burns, is so desperate to see the side, made up of blue collar workers, win the league that he dispenses with his regular team in favour of bringing in ringers from Major League Baseball.
(N.B. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you do. Not just because it is one of the best comedy episodes ever made, but it will be highly useful in understanding the wonderfully witty comparisons about to be made.)
But this isn't Sunday League or The Simpsons, this is the FA Cup. Genuine dreams and stories could be scuppered by a plastic, gimmicky publicity stunt.
Yes, it's about as likely that Wembley will get to Wembley as it is Graeme Le Saux will develop gigantism through guzzling Ken Griffey Jnr's nerve tonic; Ray Parlour ends up clucking like a chicken alongside Roger Clemens and Claudio Caniggia is more likely to end up being kicked off the park by some Cameroon-inspired Combined Counties League centre-half than get kicked off the team for not shaving off his Don Mattingly-esque sideburns but it is clear that in an attempt to spice-up the FA Cup, Budweiser have made it into a joke straight from The Simpsons.
Only it's just not funny.
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