By my calculations, next Saturday sees the 139th FA Cup final kick-off at 3pm at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. The oldest football tournament in the world (first competed for in 1872) sees Liverpool take on West Ham in the traditional end of season showpiece.
Lots of hoary old footage of finals gone-by will be dredged up (Ricky Villa's dribble anyone?), a random member of the Royal Family will be wheeled out to greet both sets of players and the TV commentary will remind us that there's millions across the globe tuning in to this fantastic event. Ah, the magic of the Cup.
Although I'm pleased that a small piece of English ceremony can bring pleasure to the world's couch potatoes, the spell has certainly worn off on me. Frankly, the FA Cup is a bit of a bore.
Admittedly, it did provide us with the best televised game this year (Luton 3 Liverpool 5) and also a welcome defeat of Chelsea (thanks to those Scousers again), but apart from that it has been firmly kept in the shadow of the Premiership and European competitions, where it has been for the last ten years.
It'll be a great day for West Ham who haven't had a huge amount to cheer about since their last appearance in a final in 1980 - and a poignant one too, coming so soon after the death of Ron Greenwood and John Lyall, two West Ham managerial greats. And the Liverpool fans will enjoy
themselves, as they always do.
Although the FA Cup winners get a place in next season's UEFA Cup, even that's already been decided in the Hammers' favour as Liverpool have a place in the superior Champions League, thanks to their 3rd place finish in the Premiership.
So all that's left to play for is pride and a place in history. Oh yeah, and a shed-load of wonga - £1m to the winner. At least the chairmen of both clubs will be on the edge of their seats.
I'm not the only one unexcited about domestic cup competitions - most of Europe aren't big fans of theirs either. UEFA used to run a competition for the cup winners of each country called (with great originality) the European Cup Winner's Cup. It was scrapped in 1999 due to the sheer number of weak teams who took part. And the reason there were so many bad sides is precisely because it was only the British who liked their domestic cup competitions in the first place. Fittingly the last final took place in England at Villa Park between Lazio and Mallorca. Apart from me, no one remembers.
And if you're a massive fan of apathy in the Greater Europe, why not catch a couple of those unloved Cup finals this week? The Austrian Cup final is on Tuesday night, the Greek and Serbian versions on Wednesday and on Thursday evening you can see the second leg of the final of the Italian Cup. None will be heavily attended. The Argentineans (not actually in Europe, I concede) don't even have a knockout tournament for their teams and never have done.
For the sake of research, I did settle down last Sunday to watch the final of the Dutch Cup. Don't tell anyone, but it was actually rather good. Ajax and PSV faced each other in front of a packed De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam with both sets of fans creating a fantastic atmosphere for 90 minutes. It was a full-bloodied, end-to-end affair with two red cards and a winning goal in the last minute. If the FA Cup final on Saturday is anything like it's Dutch counterpart the watching millions will be in for a treat. And it might even restore my faith in the competition. Well, maybe.
