Nobody quite remembers who started it. What everyone agrees on is the rule that made it stick: the trophy – a chipped plastic cup from a pound shop – is never allowed to leave the building, and the winner has to defend it the following season.
Why it never dies
Most office pools fizzle after one tournament. This one survives because it never really ends: when the football stops, the league rolls into whatever's next, from the Olympics to Eurovision, and the same forty people pile back in. The banter compounds. The grudges are load-bearing.
If you've got a group that half-keeps a chat alive between events, this is the blueprint: one running scoreboard, one daft trophy, and absolutely no mercy.