Interest in cup football appears to be on the wane. Certainly the Premiership and Champions League have banished the FA Cup to the wings.
Yet tomorrow's Worthington Cup final, the first English final to be played in the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, with Wembley closed, has the chance to remind people of the appeal of knockout competitions. While leagues can prolong the suspense, teams win on points. In cups one blow can make nonsense of logic.
Liverpool, third in the Premiership and conquerors of Roma in the Uefa Cup, will be expected to beat Birmingham City, pushing for a play-off place in the First Division, tomorrow afternoon. In terms of quality there is little comparison between the sides.
This competition, however, has a history of bringing out the beast in underdogs. Queens Park Rangers' memorable triumph of 1967, when as a Third Division team they came from behind to beat West Bromwich Albion, then in the First, at Wembley set the tone for Swindon beating Arsenal in the 1969 final.
Since then such unfancied names as Stoke City, Norwich City and Oxford United have won the trophy. Luton Town surprised Arsenal in the 1988 final and few expected Sheffield Wednesday to beat Manchester United in 1991. Only last season Tranmere Rovers reached the final, where they lost narrowly to Leicester City.
Gerard Houllier's Liverpool side, therefore, will be taking Trevor Francis's Birmingham team just as seriously as they approached Roma. Birmingham, remember, have already knocked out three Premiership opponents - Tottenham, Newcastle United and Ipswich - to get this far.
True, Premiership sides are taking an increasingly ambivalent approach towards the Worthington Cup but neither Liverpool nor Birmingham have won enough in recent years to regard tomorrow's final as a sideshow.
For Liverpool winning a trophy would provide tangible evidence of the transformation Houllier has achieved in restoring standards of passing, organisation and all-round team play which once were taken for granted at Anfield.
Winning a Champions League place remains Liverpool's priority and Houllier will continue to rotate his strikers but, whatever team he selects, Birmingham will have to cope with the power of Emile Heskey, the pace of Michael Owen or, as seems very likely, the goalscoring instincts of Robbie Fowler.
Liverpool have not won a trophy since 1995, when Steve McManaman scored twice as Bolton Wanderers were beaten 2-1 in the final of the Coca-Cola Cup. In the same season Birmingham won the Auto Windscreens Shield when they beat Carlisle United at Wembley with a goal in sudden-death overtime.
The fact that a crowd of more 76,000 watched that game is a measure of the support Birmingham can still command. Dele Adebola, Geoff Horsfield or Danny Sonner could each give Brum a rare taste of glory, although Liverpool should win by a goal or two.
3pm tomorrow / Referee D Elleray (Harrow) / TV Sky Sports 1 2pm, ITV highlights 5.35pm