England - FA Community Shield

About FA Community Shield

FA Community Shield History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage

The FA Community Shield is an annual single football game played at Wembley that features the winners of the Premier League and the winners of the FA Cup. If one team wins both titles, then the match will feature the winners of the Premier League against the runners-up.

Organized by the Football Association (the FA), the FA Community Shield was created in 1908 as the Charity Shield and was rebranded as the FA Community Shield in 2002. It is widely regarded as the curtain-raiser for the English football season as it has been played at the start of each season since 1959.

Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool are among the most successful teams in FA Community Shield history.

Starting from the 1960s, the BBC held broadcast rights for the FA Community Shield in the United Kingdom, and remained in charge of TV broadcasts until the 1990s, when the media rights were sold to paid-TV provider ITV. ITV has since held the TV broadcast rights to the FA Community Shield since the early 1990s and in the ensuing decades, has provided coverage both on TV and via live-streaming.

Meanwhile, in the USA, ESPN secured media rights to the FA Community Shield in 2018 after signing a multi-year deal that gave the network access to live-stream the annual match on ESPN+.