How much do the English cups weigh?

After discovering the weight of the Italian cups, from the Serie A to the Supercoppa, today we go to the English ones. Trophies that ooze history, conceived and handmade by historic British goldsmiths who over the centuries have also been responsible for creating and restoring the famous Crown Jewels. Indeed, each English trophy is meticulously handmade and requires more than 100 hours of work.

In England, unlike Italy, there are no less than four well-known competitions, with two League Cups, the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup. The two are not to be confused, the FA Cup having come into being earlier is considered the more prestigious, not least because of its history, and unlike the Carabao, which is named after a sponsor, it is open to all English teams, even non-professional ones, one of the reasons why it is so eagerly awaited year after year.

Thomas Lyte is the official trophy supplier of the FA Cup, weighing in at exactly 6.3 kg of silver and a perfect replica of the original 1911 cup trophy. But the FA Cup is not the only trophy to be crafted and hand-chiselled by Thomas Lyte, the ancient English jewellery house also makes the FA Community Shield, the famous shield very similar to the one reserved for Bundesliga winners. Weighing slightly less than the famous league cup, 4.2 kg, the trophy undergoes a painstaking process of casting, hand chiselling, hand engraving and polishing, involving more than 130 hours of craftsmanship. The current one is a perfect replica of the 1908 trophy, still held by the FA at Wembley. 

We now come to the most coveted, the cup that is awarded to the league winners who, after an endless succession of matches, have managed to finish one step above the remaining nineteen. The Premier League cup is undoubtedly one of the heaviest in circulation, far heavier than the Conference League and weighing in at 25.4 kg. One wonders how the players manage to lift it with such ease but it is certainly something they won't think about once they reach it. What accounts for so much weight is the base, which alone weighs around 13 kg and is made of malachite, a semi-precious stone found in Africa.  

The latest is the Carabao Cup, made in Georgian style and weighing relatively little, almost 3 kg. The original trophy was commissioned and paid for by then EFL president Joe Richards, who also had his name engraved on the award. Richards entrusted the design and production of the trophy to Mappin&Webb, one of the UK's leading jewellery and silverware retailers, who set to work to create a trophy quite different from the existing three-handled ones, taking inspiration from an ancient design from a loving cup.