Morrisons, Donald Trump & a Boozy Rod Stewart: 8 of the Strangest Cup Draws of All Time

In case you weren't already aware, the first round draw of the 2019/20 Carabao Cup has been completed. In a Morrisons supermarket. In Colindale.

Yes, that's right. A Morrisons. In Collindale.

As bizarre as that may seem, it's not the first time we've had to bare witness to a, shall we say, less than conventional cup draw.

Here's a look at some of the most bizarre cup draws of all time.

2019 First Round Carabao Cup Draw

We'll start with the previously mentioned Morrisons escapade, because we are going to have to try and explain why Ray Parlour and John Barnes were asked to draw out 70 names in front of some presumably bemused shoppers.

Carabao have been criticised for their extroverted approach to cup draws in the past - hosting it practically everywhere bar the country it's being played in will do that, lads - so they decided to bring things back down to earth this time around. 

The explanation came from John Luck, CMO of Intercarabao UK, who managed to turn his explanation into a less than convincing marketing ploy: "We sell lots of our great tasting low sugar energy drinks in supermarkets, so we thought why not let football fans watch the draw whilst stocking up on Carabao?" 

I'll pass thanks John, but I appreciate the effort.

1982 World Cup Draw Descends Into Utter Chaos

How on earth this went so badly wrong is anyone's guess, but Sepp Blatter was heavily involved so let's just blame it on him.

The draw for the 1982 World Cup was unadulterated chaos right from the get-go. The names of all the participating nations were held inside miniature footballs, which were contained within a collection of bizarre-looking steel cages which kept repeatedly jamming whenever they were supposed to produce a ball at the correct juncture.

That was bad enough in itself, but the draw became a complete farce when Scotland were drawn into the wrong group. The poor child who picked Scotland out was then accosted by the presiding FIFA officials and ordered to return the ball the cages, no doubt triggering an acute phobia of miniature footballs for the rest of his life.

To cap things off, one of the balls then split inside the cage, revealing the name of the nation inside. You might hate the drawn-out process of recent World Cup draws, but at least they don't balls it up like this anymore.

The First Ever Carabao Cup Draw

Oh look, it's our friends over at Carabao again! 

The Thai-based energy drinks company didn't need to spice up the cup draw process, but that didn't stop them from bravely going where no sponsor had ever gone before. They decided to host the draw in Bangkok, broadcasting it live in a Facebook broadcast.

The live stream got underway with no sound Then it crashed straight after the first club was draw out of the hat. Then Charlton were drawn twice. Everyone wanted to cry, but no one knew whether those tears were out of frustration or laughter.

It was a wonderful case study of how to effective sabotage your own brand in the space of about 10 minutes. In saying that, Carabao are still knocking around, so maybe it was their plan all along...

Rod Stewart...Well No One Knows What Rod Stewart Was Doing

Why Rod Stewart was invited to help conduct the fifth round Scottish Cup draw is still a mystery, but good grief, what an impact he made.

It's the single greatest cup draw appearance of all time. 

The Celtic-supporter was, to put it mildly, absolutely trollied, and he made no attempt to hide it either. Each time he was asked to draw a home team, he did so with remarkably flamboyant flare, before literally shouting out the name of the team he had selected.

He was having such a good time that he even tried to pull out another name from the hat when the draw had been completed, much to the amusement of Ray Stubbs alongside him, who looked increasingly worried that Stewart was going to pull down his trousers or something.

Stewart capped off his incredible display by appearing to grab SFA president Alan McRae under the table (I'm not speculating where) and then sticking his thumbs up to signal a job well done. Top stuff Rod.

Robin Williams at USA 1994

Bigger doesn't always mean better, but just you try telling that to the Americans. USA 1994 was a decent tournament and, in many respects, USA were the perfect hosts as they certainly know how to put on a show.

But is it really necessary to have a big song and dance at a World Cup draw? Well, maybe, as long as it means we can laugh at Sepp Blatter's expense.

The late Robin Williams, who stole the show in Las Vegas, consistently referred to the then-FIFA general secretary as 'Mr. Bladder' - a joke which Blatter, to his credit, was happy to go along with. He's been called worse.

Williams continued to upstage 'Bladder' by pulling balls out while wearing a single white surgical glove and referring to the chart on the wall behind him as the 'biggest game of Keno [a numbers game] of all time'.

Tony Adams FA Cup Draw Appearance

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/GettyImages

Apparently, Rod Stewart wasn't the only guest to have turned up for a cup draw whilst being completely off his rocker.

According to an extract from Ray Parlour's autobiography, Tony Adams once turned up to a cup draw, a few hours after leaving a pub he'd been boozing in all day.

Parlour summed up Adam's unconvincing attempt at hiding his state, writing: "You could see Terry thinking: take a ball, Tony. He pulled the ball out and said ‘Thirty-one’.

"The problem was, thirty-one wasn’t in the draw. He was told to have a closer look at the ball – it was thirteen."

That Time Roy Hodgson Pulled a Funny Face

Not much happened at the 2015 FA Cup quarter-final draw, other than Roy Hodgson pulling a meme-worthy face. It was very funny. That's about it.

Donald Trump Makes a Bizarre Appearance

Donald Trump appeared on an episode of Saint and Greavsie in 1991 to help out with the League Cup fifth round draw. As batsh*t crazy as that sounds, it really happened.

Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves had travelled to New York to film the qualifying draw for the 1994 World Cup and, while stateside, needed to find a place to film the draw for what was then known as the Rumbelows Cup. They decided on the iconic Trump Tower and the rest all quickly unfolded.

The pair somehow managed to convince the man himself to get involved and, to Trump's credit, he actually appeared...somewhat normal? Hard to believe, I know.

He did, however, laugh his head off when Greaves made a joke about Doug Ellis, despite the fact that he would have had absolutely no idea who Ellis even was, and claimed that Leeds vs Manchester United was the "sort of game he'd like to go to".

He even produced the most Trump-like utterance imaginable when asked if had ever played football, saying: "I used to play...It’s a great game. I love soccer. I played actually in high school.”