Curse of the Capital

First Arsenal were outclassed by Barcelona; then Tottenham crashed out to a ruthless Real Madrid; now Chelsea have again succumbed in the latter stages to a team from England’s North-West. The only London link left to the UEFA Champions League is that of train and tube, as Wembley provides the setting for the showpiece finale on 28 May. 

London clubs’ interest in the UEFA Champions League is over for another year and, after a season which began with more teams entered from the Metropolis than from any city in the competition’s history, the curse of the Capital shows no sign of abating.

The phenomenon is not confined to London, either. Rome, Brussels, Athens, Ankarra; the names of capital cities not to have won the trophy are exhaustive.  Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin and Vienna are yet to even provide finalists for the Continent’s main event, despite teams for more traditionally working-class, industrial towns and cities bred a stream of winners.

Liverpool and Manchester hold eight wins and three runners-up awards between them and Nottingham and Birmingham have both brought home the bacon, with Leeds also featuring in the list of second-placed sides; Italy’s Milan, Turin, Genoa and Florence have all provided teams worthy of the final round; Munich, Hamburg, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Moenchengladbach and Leverkusen sides have each represented Germany in finals; while France has presented finalists from Marseille, Reims, St Etienne and Monaco in the past; Barcelona has Barcelona; and even Glasgow has been worthy of two final spots down the years.

Of Europe’s principal cities, only Amsterdam, Lisbon, Bucharest, Belgrade and Madrid (quite emphatically) have claimed the coveted silverware. No Capital city has earned the grand prize in its own backyard; Roma having come closest when falling to Liverpool in a penalty shoot-out in 1984.

Arsenal and Chelsea have arrived at a final apiece, whereas Tottenham are novices in the competition’s new format. However, just as Chelsea did in 1999/2000, the Lilywhites have celebrated their inaugural excursion into the Champions League with an impressive run to the last eight, only to be beaten by a leading Spanish outfit.

Whereas Rome, Paris and particularly Berlin do not appear able to challenge this statistical anomaly any time soon, surely it cannot be too long before London has its hands on the big eared cup for the first time. The Wembley way was not to be but, as Barcelona, Madrid, Gelsenkirchen and Salford battle it out for that famous Wembley victory climb, it seems inevitable that London’s time will come and, if its North can stave off Catalan interest in their captains and competition for entry from Manchester City Centre for a second successive year, those odds, which had Chelsea among the favourites even in the face of some wholly uninspiring league form this season, will be certain to shorten again.