Italy, Argentina and a pompous moniker … it’s the 2022 Finalissima!

The biggest game of football tonight is, of course, the emotional World Cup qualifying playoff between Ukraine, currently under invasion by Russia, and Scotland, colonised since 1707. Good luck to one and all there. However in a masterclass of scheduling, another notable fixture is taking place this evening a few hundred miles south of Hampden Park. A Wembley showdown between European champions Italy and Copa America winners Argentina: the 2022 Finalissima!

[Fiver spends a couple of frantic minutes on Google]

The Finalissima – which is Italian for Grand Final, which is rugbyleaguespeak for Ersatz Super Bowl Lite Occasion – is a revival of the Artemio Franchi Cup which was [Fiver spends a bit more hectic time on Google] last played in 1993 between 1991 Copa America champions Argentina and Euro 92 surprise package Denmark. You, and by extension the Fiver, can be forgiven for not knowing too much about this trophy because (1) it wasn’t mentioned in Big Paper at the time, not a word; (2) there was only one previous staging, a highly random eight years earlier, France welcoming Uruguay to Paris in 1985, presumably without pepper spraying them; and (3) we occasionally forget that it’s not worth arranging things in a numbered list when you’ve only got two of them.

Anyway, now The Man has revived it, taken erstwhile Uefa president Franchi’s name off it, slapped on a new and suitably pompous moniker, and here we are, at long last, with edition number three. Tonight’s match will probably mean a little more to Italy, who ballsed up their World Cup qualification true and proper, again, and could do with something to cheer themselves up as a sullen and broken Roberto Mancini begins the Azzurri’s painful rebuild. Argentina wouldn’t