Next Sunday, 26 May 2024, Leeds United will play at Wembley for the first time in 16 years, in the play-off final for the EFL Championship. The opponents will be Southampton. Whoever wins will be promoted to the Premier League, the top tier of English football, as you probably know.

As I have mentioned over 30 times already on this Blog, Leeds are the team that I have supported since childhood. Most of the Sport-themed pieces here relate to the club’s history and recent fortunes. I was at the last Leeds game at Wembley (25 May 2008), a miserable afternoon watching Doncaster win 1-0 for a place in the Championship. Leeds remained in League One, the third tier of English football, for a further two seasons.

For what it’s worth, I have not missed a Leeds appearance at Wembley for over 50 years, not since 5 May 1973. That was the date of the FA Cup Final against Sunderland, when Leeds also lost 1-0. I was watching at home on TV. It was a few months before I started senior school. I was, literally, still in short trousers.

There were only three more Wembley appearances during the 20th century and I was at all of them: two Charity Shield games against Liverpool (10 August 1974 and 8 August 1992) and the League Cup Final against Aston Villa (24 March 1996). That 2008 game against Doncaster was the only time Leeds have made it to Wembley since 1996.

Leeds did make it to another play-off final this century, at the end of the 2005-06 Championship season. At that time Wembley was being rebuilt so the match was played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff instead. The result of that game, against Watford, was the same as the League Cup final 10 years earlier, a 3-0 defeat.

With less than a week before this year’s play-off final it looks like I will not be there. I have not been to a home game in Leeds for many years and my contacts for Wembley tickets are almost non-existent. I will remain entirely reactive on this one. If someone offered me a ticket (or a place in a box, perhaps) I would happily accept it, but between now and Sunday I will not be making any enquiries.

I will certainly not be doing what a Southampton-supporting family friend did to try and see his team in the 2003 FA Cup Final. That game was played in Cardiff and he turned up without a ticket and £200 in cash to buy one. He bought one for £150 from someone who seemed to be a regular punter, not a tout. When he reached the turnstile he found that part of the ticket was missing and he was left outside the ground, no way in, and £150 worse off. My wife and I, coincidentally were inside the stadium, watching Arsenal beat Southampton 1-0. Our supply line for big match tickets was much better back then. There will no doubt be football fans wandering around the streets of Wembley on Sunday with wads of cash, ready to buy spare tickets. Good luck to them. I will be watching from the comfort of my sofa. Unless you know someone, of course …