TOMORROW sees the biggest game of the season – but which one?

For Manchester United fans it will be the clash against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park that could see them take their 19th top-flight title, and for the supporters of Blackpool and Wolves it will be the battle for crucial points in the relegation fight as they take on Bolton and Sunderland, respectively.

And, of course, for all Town fans it will be the first leg of their League I play-off semi-final against Bournemouth with a place in the Championship beckoning.

Giants fans will probably argue that theirs is the big game as St Helens come to the Galpharm Stadium for a showdown that would mark the home team down as genuine Super League title contenders should Nathan Brown’s boys come up with the victory.

But the fact that there are all these competitors for the title of ‘Match Of The Day’ just goes to show that the FA Cup is truly being devalued year upon year.

When I was young, FA Cup final day was THE day of the year.

While I’ll admit my recollections may have become rose-tinted and hugely inaccurate over time, as far as I remember FA Cup final day ran something like this.

Get up at 6am and put on most appropriate kit for the day – remember football kits in those days were not fancy replica affairs but either a blue shirt with white collar and cuffs and white shorts or a red shirt with white collar and cuffs and white shorts (please note shorts did not exist in other colours than white until Brazil won the 1970 World Cup on colour television and the truth was revealed that you could have other shades).

At 6.15am wake parents and start agitating to have the television on, even though at that time it was still running the test card.

Finally get the television put on when the people at the BBC had deigned to get up and start broadcasting and get ready for an entire day in front of the box.

First up would be two cub reporters standing in the dark outside hotels somewhere in the home counties pointing vaguely towards the building and saying in there, preparing for the big day, are Alan Ball, Jeff Astle, Jim McCalliog, Colin Bell, etc, etc.

Then it would be the first of the FA Cup final specials – probably ‘It’s a cup final Question Of Sport’ with former players representing that year’s two finalists.

That would be followed by a look round the Wembley dressing rooms and a player by player run through the teams – which strangely everyone seemed to know well in advance (there were no tinkering managers in those days).

Then it would be time for ‘It’s a cup final Celebrity It’s A Knockout’ and then the first chance to see the players, post full English breakfast, as they got on the bus to head for Wembley.

Then it would be ‘It’s a cup final General Hospital’ or ‘It’s a cup final Terry and June’ and then the players would be shown driving up Wembley Way through the fans for the big event.

Obviously I think I may have gone a bit off track with a couple of the programmes, but you get my drift.

Over recent years the big television cup final experience seems to have drastically diminished – this is probably down to two factors.

Firstly, that slick operators like Sky have made such whimsical programming look rather passe and, secondly, that when you look at modern television are there really the programmes that can be adapted for a cup final?

On the second point I think the programmers are just lacking imagination.

Question Of Sport is still on the air and that could be followed by ‘It’s a cup final Cash In The Attic’ where legendary players from either camp dig out their memorabilia – perhaps this season we could have had a quick run through Tony Book’s collection of shinpads before visiting George Eastham out in South Africa to see his collection of tribal masks.

And you could have ‘It’s a cup final Come Dine With Me’ where two players from each team host dinner parties in Cup week.

Imagine the thrill of seeing Mario Balotelli throwing a strop at Rory Delap’s pad and hurling the Spaghetti Bolognese at the wall because it is not as good as his mother makes.

Then Delap trying to take revenge at Carlos Tevez’s al fresco do the following night only for his attempt to throw the corned beef, sprout and turnip curry the Argentine wizard has served up at the garden fence, ending with him hurling it into next-door-but-one’s backyard.

Surely all of us would happily get up at 6am for this kind of entertainment.

But at least for those followers of tomorrow’s two finalists (the Citys of Manchester and Stoke in case you missed it in all the blather about a team from Salford) the FA Cup final will still be the biggest game of the day and best of luck to both teams – though I must admit I am hoping to see the lads in sky blue shirts in the stands doing ‘the Poznan’ about four or five times.

The way Stoke have been playing, Bobby Manc’s team will probably need to score that many goals to win.

AFTER the controversy over the 2018 and 2022 World Cups being handed to Russia and Qatar respectively, FIFA president Sepp Blatter promised transparency.

However, some people like cleaning up to be dealt with in all possible haste and former FA and England 2018 bid chairman Lord Triesman decided Sepp needed a nudge.

The upshot is that FIFA is now looking like a bag of bacteria cowering in front of a dishcloth soaked in Dettol.

However, while the powers that be remain in charge, who is going to do the cleaning?

Experienced and independent cleaners should keep a close eye on possible openings at an address in Zurich, Switzerland – it could prove lucrative!