 Thematch programme cover | |||||||
| Event | FA Charity Shield | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Date | 20 September 1950 | ||||||
| Venue | Stamford Bridge,London | ||||||
| Referee | Arthur Ellis | ||||||
| Attendance | 38,468 | ||||||
←1949 1951 → | |||||||
The1950 FA Charity Shield was the 28thFA Charity Shield, an early season exhibitionfootball match hosted byThe Football Association. The 1950 match was held between theEngland squad that had competed at the1950 World Cup, and the squad that had participated in an exhibition tour ofCanada in the same summer.[1] While in its early years the format of the Charity Shield had varied, by 1950 the match was an unusual variation from the normal game between theleague champion and theFA Cup winner.
| Fulham |
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| Stamford Bridge |
| Capacity:38,500 |
 |
England had entered theFIFA World Cup for the first time in 1950, having previously missed the tournament due to the FA (and otherHome Nations football associations) boycott ofFIFA.[2] The tournament had gone badly, with an under-prepared England team eliminated in the first round, including suffering from a1–0 defeat to theUnited States, whose team was largely made up of amateurs.[3] The decision to send a team on a goodwill tour — a fairly common practice by the FA at the time[4] — toCanada at the same time as the World Cup is now seen as evidence of this poor preparation, with key players such asStanley Matthews andNat Lofthouse unavailable for all or part of the World Cup due to their selection for the tour.[5] This was the last time to date that the Charity Shield was held between two FA teams (in 1913, 1923–26 and 1929 it had been between an England Professional XI and theEngland amateur team), though an FA XI would later compete in the1961 FA Charity Shield against thedouble-winningTottenham Hotspur team.
The match itself finished 4–2 to the World Cup squad. Matthews, who had been part of both squads, played for the Touring XI.[6]Liverpool F.C. defenderLaurie Hughes was badly injured in the match, and never played for England again. He remained at Liverpool for the rest of his career, but the injury is seen as having prevented him from fulfilling his potential.[7]
       England World Cup XI |  F.A. Canadian Touring Team |
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