The Charity Shield to be sold on behalf of the Bobby Moore Fund, Cancer Research UK

The Charity Shield In recognition of the 50th anniversary of 1966, a milestone in English Football when England won the FIFA World Cup, Thomas Lyte have re-built the retired Charity Shield. www.thomaslyte.com/the-charity-shield. The fourth edition of the Charity Shield, a unique object in its own right, has been handcrafted by an expert team of silversmiths to raise money for the Bobby Moore Fund, Cancer Research UK. www.cancerresearchuk.org/support-us/become-a-partner/our-charity-partners/bobby-moore-fund The Charity Shield will be sold at a live auction to be conducted by Graham Budd of Graham Budd Auctions, the specialist auctioneer of sports memorabilia. The sale is taking place at the Royal Garden Hotel, High Street Kensington, London, on the evening of Monday 10th October at 9.30pm. You can bid for this piece of football history by live online bidding through www.the-saleroom.com/grahambudd. There are no auctioneer's fees, live internet bidding fees or VAT to pay. What you bid is what you pay.  The new trophy is hand spun from 4.2kg Sterling 925 Silver. Standing an impressive 58cm squared, the trophy underwent the painstaking process of casting, hand chasing, hand engraving and polishing, with over 130 craft hours used to make this stunning piece. It is a perfect replica of the 1908 trophy which remains in The FA’s possession at Wembley.  This incredible piece of craftsmanship is not only an iconic symbol of sportsmanship and the game of football, but the purpose of creation lies in fundraising for the Bobby Moore Fund. The fourth edition of the Charity Shield will be sold with all of the money raised going to the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, in doing so, replicating the original inspiration of the Charity Shield in 1908, which sought to give something back. Over the past few months the Shield has been on a journey across the UK, appearing at some of sports most inconic events, such as The Community Shield Final. On the final leg of its journey, it is being housed at the National Football Museum in Manchester for all sports fans to enjoy until the day of the auction on 10th October. Founded in 1908 as a successor to the Sheriff of London Charity Shield, the F.A. Charity Shield began as contest between the respective champions of the Football League and the Southern League. The first encounter was between Manchester United and Queen’s Park Rangers. The format changed and eventually became a match between the reigning League Champions and F.A. Cup winners, although not exclusively if for example a team had won ‘the double.  In February 2002, the competition and trophy was renamed the FA Community Shield. The then-FA marketing director Paul Barber noted this was in order to reward the work of those contributing to the game, who go unnoticed: "The most important thing is that the many good causes that have benefited from the shield in the past will continue to benefit from the Community Shield in the future." The FA also intended to prevent any interference made by the Charity Commission into where money raised by the game should go.  Because the central silver roundel of the Shield was inscribed with the name of the competition “Football Association Charity Shield”, a new trophy had to be commissioned for the Community Shield and the existing trophy had to be retired. The retired trophy actually had a brief life as it had only been built and used for the Charity Shields of 1999, 2000 and 2001, and had been a replacement for the earlier edition which was retired because the silver was in a perilous state through repeated cleaning by proud recipients over the decades. This version remains the property of the Football Association. The winners of the replacement edition were Arsenal in 1999, then in 2000 by Chelsea in the last Charity Shield played at the old Wembley Stadium. In 2001, and at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Liverpool were the last team to lift the “Charity Shield”, with Arsenal the first winners of the “Community Shield in 2002”.  The central roundel from the Shield retired in February 2002 was removed and generously donated by the Football Association for the rebuild by Thomas Lyte and is the centerpiece of this magnificent object being offered here for auction to benefit the Bobby Moore Fund, Cancer Research UK.  Greg Dyke, chairman of The FA said: “The FA was pleased to donate the centrepiece of the 2002 FA Charity Shield to Thomas Lyte to support the Bobby Moore Fund. Bobby was a Charity Shield shared-winner with West Ham in 1964 and it is an entirely fitting tribute to him that the Thomas Lyte trophy is to be auctioned to raise money for the charity set up in his name. The auction will be an important event in the calendar of activities taking place this year, to recognise the achievements of Bobby Moore and the 1966 team in winning the World Cup 50 years ago.”