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Sportshour

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Live Saturday morning global sports show with reports, debate and humour

Live Saturday morning global sports show with reports, debate and humour.

Sportshour: New Year, Same Old Magic!

New Year, Same Old Magic!

03/01/2015

BBC World Service - Sportshour, New Year, Same Old Magic!

January means the FA Cup 3rd round. We have a special show dedicated to the competition

We are treated to a tour of the National Football Museum’s FA Cup greatest treasures, from the original trophy to a programme from the only FA Cup Final to be held during wartime. The collection also includes George Best’s shirt when he scored six against Northampton in the 1960s, and FA Cup finalist Willie Cunningham’s knee ligaments, as well as many other historical curiosities.

The Security of the Cup 
We travel all over the globe with John Birt, the security guard charged with looking after football’s most famous trophy. It requires its own seat on planes as well as 24 hour attention. We hear some of the more unusual scrapes the cup has got into!

The Spoils of the Cup 
What do players do with their FA Cup win bonus?  They take their car to Yianni Charalambus who in turn makes it into a small house on wheels. We meet the man who 'pimps' footballers’ rides.

The Tour of the Cup
We catch up with Keith and Leon as their FA Cup tour reaches the 3rd round. Having met the guys in August at the extra preliminary round, they have followed the winners of each tie, travelling in excess of 1000 kilometres and spending hundreds of dollars, but now the big guns have arrived will they make it to Wembley, or will Keith’s honeymoon scupper their plans!?

The Medicine of the Cup
It’s not just the FA Cup third round that dominates football in January, the transfer window opens too! So what does it take to fulfil the final obstacle of a transfer?  We’re complete a football “medical”.

The Freedom of the Cup
Imagine living in a place where the FA Cup was banned. In fact all football was outlawed!  Well, when Islamist militant group Al-Shbaab were in power in Somalia that's exactly what happened. That, along with 20 years of war, had left the national football team languishing at the bottom of world football’s ranking. The football-mad nation have, however, begun the long road of football redemption. Their progress has been documented in the film Men in the Arena by US director JR Biersmith. One of the players he tells this story through is Sadiq Mohammed. We speak to both.

Sporting Witness… heads back to the 1970s when teeny tiny Hereford humble Newcastle in FA Cup third round folklore.

Photo: The FA Cup trophy on display ahead of the FA Cup Second Round match between Hartlepool United and Blyth Spartans at Victoria Park on December 5, 2014 (Credit: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

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