Handle with care: why the iconic FA Cup is more than just a silver trophy | Emma John

That’s not a problem, because only a chosen few will ever lift it. There’s one superstition that’s pretty common across sports’ major trophies – you don’t touch them til you’ve won them. It doesn’t matter if you’re a megawatt pop star (Rihanna, 2014) or an over-rated internet chef (Salt Bae, 2022), the wider football fandom will not find it adorable that you lifted the Fifa World Cup. There are some things that celebrity shouldn’t buy.

The Stanley Cup, the outlandishly large 19th-century punch bowl presented to NHL champions, seems to wield a particularly strong power in this regard. Not only is there a widespread belief that touching it before you’ve won it dooms your efforts, but there appears to be a trickle-down effect too and some teams won’t even lift the conference trophy they’ve won en route to the final.

Newcastle captain Joe Harvey holds aloft the trophy after the 1952 final. Photograph: PA

But a sporting trophy doesn’t need a long history to achieve an aura. England’s Test series against New Zealand, beginning in June, will be to compete for the Crowe-Thorpe trophy, which was unveiled during England’s 2024-25 tour and is coming to these shores for the first time. It’s an elegant and unique work, crafted from bat-willow its namesakes once used to score centuries for their countries. Carved by Māori artist David Ngawati, the trophy has the status of ataonga, or treasure, which means it must be treated with reverence. Certain tikanga (protocols) must be observed as a result, like appointing kaitiaki (guardians) for its care, or speaking a blessing over it during its journey.

Few other cricketing prizes can match that level of sacredness. The Ashes urn was probably nothing more than a cosmetics container sitting around in a ladies’ dressing room before the fateful day it was presented to England’s captain Ivo Bligh. Its origins are a cute joke between two people who would go on to get married. So while it may have come to symbolise the white heat of cricket’s oldest and fiercest rivalry, you could argue it’s also a love token between two nations that have never really got over each other.

On the only occasions when the urn has travelled from Lord’s to visit its Australian cousins, the tiny terracotta pot has been met with the kind of reception you’d expect for a holy relic. People who never thought they’d encounter the Ashes in person have broken down in tears at the sight. One former curator vividly remembers the hushed moment in Tasmania as a mohawked man knelt down before it and said a prayer.

Kevin Keegan, Bill Shankly, chairman Sir John Smith and Bob Paisley on an open-top bus parade with the trophy after Liverpool’s win in 1974. Photograph: Liverpool FC/Getty Images

The Ashes urn is so inaccessible that it famously can’t even be handled by the teams that win it, who have to make do with a dummy version (and the large Waterford crystal replica that functions as the series trophy). And yet its fragility has only added to its significance. Sometimes conservation best practice and the spirit of the game turn out to be one and the same thing.

So don the white gloves, and cherish the symbolism. The fact that most of us will never get to touch the FA Cup is, after all, what makes it so special. Even the fifth time around.

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