Why the Charity Shield became the Community Shield after a Charity Commission intervention

Arsenal play Manchester City in Sunday’s Community Shield, the annual curtain-raiser ahead of the new Premier League season.

The tournament has existed for over a century, but in 2002 it changed its title from the Charity Shield to its current name.

It had been known since its inception in 1908 as the Charity Shield, a continuation of the original Sheriff of London Charity Shield: an annual one-off match between the best amateur and best professional club in England, which had begun in 1898. The proceeds of the matches would go to charity.

A schism between professional and amateur clubs led to the Football Association (FA) barring clubs from the breakaway Amateur Football Association from participating in the games. A successor competition pitted the Football League winner against the winners of the Southern Football League.

As English football developed on a national league scale, the game was played between invited clubs at various stadia around England.

In 1974, then-FA secretary Ted Croker formalised the format, which lasts to this day, of the champions of England playing the FA Cup winners (or the league runners-up if a team wins the double) of the previous season, generally at Wembley Stadium in London. There have been eight games played away from Wembley since the format changed 52 years ago.

This year’s edition will be played at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, due to an existing concert booking at Wembley.

Why did the match name change?

In 2002, the FA was forced to change the name of the competition by the Charity Commission — the independent, non-ministerial government department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales.

It came following an inquiry into the 2000 match between Chelsea and Manchester United, which considered claims that charities were not benefiting as they should from the money raised from the game.

Chelsea’s players celebrate with the Charity Shield trophy after beating 2-0 Manchester United at Wembley Stadium in August 2000 (Ben Radford/ALLSPORT)

The Commission judged that the event broke fundraising regulations and requirements set by national charity law.

It also ruled that the FA had failed to specify the amount of money that went to charities, that there were delays in disbursing funds and a lack of transparency over gate revenue allocation.

The findings concluded that ticketholders were not informed exactly how the charities would benefit, although it added that the charities had previously received all the money they should have: 35 per cent of the gate receipts.

Some fans who bought tickets did not receive a “solicitation statement” at the point of sale which would inform them how the money available for charities would be calculated and distributed. The FA had enclosed fliers with tickets purchased through their own system, but it was found that fans who had bought directly from their clubs had not received such information.

The inquiry also found participating clubs had unacceptable delays in making donations to the nominated charities.

Both counts were deemed to breach charity regulations and, as a result, the name had to be changed to no longer include the word ‘charity’.

“We want to ensure that good causes continue to receive financial support from football through the FA Community Shield,” an FA spokesperson said in 2002, when the decision was made.

Where does the money go?

Revenue from ticket and programme sales from the Community Shield is collected by the FA and distributed among the 124 clubs that took part in the FA Cup from the first round onwards.

Each club then donate a portion of the money to up to three local charities or community-based projects of their choice, with any remaining money going to the FA to use towards their own charity partners.

Alzheimer’s Society has been the FA’s official charity partner since 2021 and has an agreement that runs through to the end of the 2027-28 season. Previous charity partners include the British Heart Foundation, Teenage Cancer Trust partnership and Breast Cancer Care.

Proceeds also go to the Wembley Community Club, which serves the community in Brent, the London borough where England’s national stadium is located, by supporting not-for-profit charities, schools and community groups.

The Felix Project, a London-based food distribution charity, also benefits from the Community Shield. During the 2024-25 season, the FA’s funding helped to provide 124,000 meals.

At every event held at Wembley Stadium, including the Community Shield, one per cent of event-day revenue is given to the Wembley Stadium Foundation (independent of Wembley Stadium), which invests in community projects that use sport, movement and culture to remove barriers to access and create opportunities.