After Arsenal, Chelsea and foreign domination, at last a BRITISH FA Cup Final!

Do you remember when the FA Cup used to be an occasion that showcased the best of English Football? You know, when players with almost exclusively British roots used to strut their stuff at Wembley on that glorious footballing outing each May?

If you're under 21, you probably don't - apart from that fleeting occasion when Millwall made it to the final against Manchester United in 2004. The big day seems to have become an incessant repetition of Big Four confrontations with homegrown players perpetually a tiny minority of the stars on show.

How refreshing, then, that this year's final on May 17 will feature MORE British and Irish players than overseas stars. All things being equal, I can see THIRTEEN homegrown players starting the Portsmouth v Cardiff match - and it's all down to the fact that for the second time in four years, we have a Championship team in the final.

In 2004, when Millwall predictably lost 3-0 to United, there were SIXTEEN homegrown players in the starting line-up - nine in the Lions team and seven in United's. Since those balmy days, the big boys seem to have been bolstered by even more overseas stars and these days it's difficult to think of a Premier League team with more Brits than overseas stars,

OK, one might argue that the more British players, the less successful the team tend to be. Hence the fact that overseas players are a distinct minority in the Championship - and the argument that the more foreign stars you have, the better your squad is likely to be. If that's so, how on earth did Cardiff get to the final while the Big Four all fell by the wayside?

I for one find it really refreshing that a team like the Bluebirds, who Field only three non-domestic players in their normal starting line-up, (namely Finnish goalkeeper Peter Enckelman and Dutchmen Glenn Loovens and Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink), will be strutting their stuff at Wembley with a predominantly homegrown squad.

The rest of manager Dave Jones's likely starting line-up will be a pleasant mix of English, Welsh and Irish (both from the North and Republic) - many of them with top-level experience in either England or Scotland.

Before people start labelling me racist, let me say I have absolutely no prejudice against non-Brits. I love to see overseas stars weaving their magic (if only our lads had such graceful skills), but at the end of the day we are talking about the ENGLISH League. So why on earth shouldn't its players be predominantly English - or at least British?

These days the Big Four's first-choice line-ups can't aggregate 11 British players between them; indeed, how many Premier League teams have more domestically-reared stars in their teams than foreigners?

The Arsenal chestnut is the oldest of the lot. To call them an English team is to my mind ridiculous when it's hard to remember Arsene Wenger fielding a Brit in his starting line-up all season. Chelsea used to be the biggest 'villains', but at least they now have John Terry, Frank Lampard and the two Coles starting on a pretty regular basis.

Rafa Benitez's first-choice non-rotational Liverpool line-up would probably only include Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, leaving Manchester United to keep the home flag flying with Owen Hargeaves, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick providing almost half a team of Brits.

How different it is in the Championship, where you'd struggle to find a team with more than a couple of overseas players and where non-British managers are a tiny minority. Personally, that's how I'd like it to be throughout the league. I'm all for quotas...and while I have no objection to foreign managers, they should never be allowed to name a starting lineup with more foreign players than Brits.

Maybe then Arsenal might start winning something...