“Is that the real one?”
It’s a question our Visitor Experience team are asked multiple times a day. Our Premier League trophy sits alongside the Women’s Super League equivalent in our Pitch Gallery, offering visitors the chance to get selfies and photographs with our silverware.
When the Premier League was formed in 1992, luxury jewellers Garrard & Co were commissioned to design and create the winners’ trophy. The iconic design is mostly made of sterling silver and silver gilt, adorned with a golden crown and emblematic lions above each handle.
Seven clubs have lifted the 10kg trophy since. Manchester United have done so 13 times, while neighbouring Manchester City have won it on eight occasions, all since 2012. Chelsea, Arsenal and Liveprool have won the league five times, four times and twice respectively, while Blackburn Rovers (1994-95) and Leicester City (2015-16) enjoyed remarkable one-off campaigns to lift the silverware.
But is our Premier League trophy genuine? The answer is no…and yes.
Our trophy is an official replica, recreated to exact specifications. However, it could theoretically be used in exceptional circumstances: namely, if two (or more) teams are in contention to win the league on the final day.
How often could this happen? Probably a little more than you might think. Across 34 Premier League seasons, the trophy’s final destination was determined on the final day an astonishing ten times.
Despite losing to Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers still lifted the title at Anfield as Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United side failed to capitalise, held to a score draw at Upton Park.
United themselves would go on to win three of their titles on the final day, including the first leg of the famous Treble in 1999. Neighbouring Manchester City have enjoyed even more drama, featuring in no fewer than five final-day title fights – and winning every single one of them.
The most famous of those titles was secured at the Etihad in 2012, two stoppage-time goals from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero breaking United hearts, while also clinching the first of City’s eight Premier League titles.
Wherever the trophy is headed this year, you can see our replica up close and personal, every day in the Pitch Gallery.