“Which team, crowned champions of Europe, has been relegated the fastest? And are there players who have gone from European glory to relegation with the same club (without playing for another club in between)?” wonder the guys at the Star & Dragon Pub, Carbondale.
There’s always an obvious, slightly damning answer to questions like these: teams that were relegated because they were wrong. “Marseille won the Champions League in 1993 and were subsequently relegated for their part in a match-fixing scandal in 1994,” writes Paul Brack. “Fabien Barthez was the only starter in the 1993 Champions League final to remain after relegation and played one season in Ligue 2 before joining Monaco in 1995. Jean-Philippe Duranda midfielder, came on as a substitute in the final and remained at the club until his retirement in 1997.”
Nine of the thirteen players who took the field in the 1993 final were still with the club when they were relegated. The rest – Rudi Völler, Basile Boli, Jocelyn Angloma, Éric Di Meco, Jean-Jacques Eydelie, Jean-Christophe Thomas and Didier Deschamps – all left in the summer of 1994.
The fastest decline without official intervention takes five years. “Nigel Spink, who acted as substitute goalkeeper and put in a man-of-the-match performance, helping Aston Villa beat Bayern Munich in the 1982 European Cup Final,” writes Nick Bagshaw. “It was his only first-team appearance of the season. How quickly things changed for the club. In 1986/87 he made 32 appearances in a terrible season for Villa when we were relegated. Allan Evans, Gary Shaw And Gary Williams also played in the ’82 final and was part of the side that went down (although the injury-plagued Shaw played only one league match in ’86-87).
All four played a role in Villa’s promotion at the first attempt, although only Spink and Evans appeared regularly.
Carl O’Reilly and Dirk Maas discovered the hatch together with the other European champions:
1) Manchester United – champion in 1968, relegated in 1974 (six seasons)
Of those who played in the final, Alex Stepney And Brian Kidd were relegated. Stepney stayed at United and Kidd moved to Arsenal. George Best played for United in 1973-74 but had left the club by the time they went under.
2) Juventus – champion in 1996, relegated in 2006 (10 seasons, Calciopoli scandal)
Alessandro Del Piero And Gianluca Pessotto both started in 1996 and were relegated 10 years later. Del Piero played in Serie B. Pessotto retired, became sporting director and then attempted suicide.
3) Nottingham forest – champion in 1980, relegated in 1993 (13 seasons)
4) Milan – champion in 1969, relegated in 1982 (13 seasons, Totonero scandal)
5) Hamburg – champion 1983, relegated in 2018 (35 seasons)
Doubling
“With Burnley and Sheffield United having just 13 points each, it is not impossible that their combined points total could not keep up with them. Has this ever happened?” Crispin Leyser wonders.
For this question, we’ll ignore the wrong questions because they skew the point totals and it’s just not that interesting. We want teams that suck! And the ever-reliable Chris Roe has unearthed a 21st century example. “In the 2002-03 Premier League season, a combined West Brom-Sunderland team would have achieved 45 points and been relegated on goal difference by Aston Villa.”
Low score, high expectations
“Gillingham currently find themselves in a play-off position in League Two despite scoring 32 goals in 34 games, the fewest of any team in the division. Has the lowest scoring team ever been promoted?” muses Chris Matterface.
Not only have they been promoted, but they’ve also won everything (AIK in Sweden, 1998, and Aduana Stars in Ghana, 2010). However, as far as England is concerned, Chris Roe has us in mind again: “The highest position achieved by the lowest scoring players in a division is sixth place, that of Lincoln City in League Two in 2002-03, when they were 46 scored goals.”
That’s a good average of one per game, with the Imps holding the record for the best goals conceded in the league (37). It took them to the play-off final against Bournemouth, where they scored twice – only ahead of the Cherries who hit five in Cardiff.
Corrections angle
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at goal-scoring full-backs. We were missing West Ham’s nervy right-back Ray Stewart, who scored 84 times for the club, 76 of which were penalties. That’s enough to put him on our list of full-backs with the most appearances for one club.
121 James Tavernier (Rangers, 2015-)
105 Nelinho (Cruzeiro, 1973-1982)
101 Manny Kaltz (Hamburg, 1971-1989)
88 Stuart Pearce (Nottingham Forest, 1985-1997)
84 Ray Stewart (West Ham United, 1979-1991)
Also last week we didn’t do our job properly and failed to recognize that Jayden Danns’ shirt number, 76, wasn’t even the highest in this year’s 2024 Carabao Cup final, let alone any domestic cup finals. Thanks to the 162 of you who pointed out that Conor Bradley had 84 on his back and Jarell Quansah had 78.
Losing old leaders
We had a variation on this question last season, when Arsenal came from 2-0 down to beat Bournemouth with a 97th-minute winner from Reiss Nelson. St Mirren’s victory equals the 96th minute gap between the first and last goals in that match, but Ben White equalized for Arsenal in the 70th minute – so Aberdeen were 94 minutes ahead of Bournemouth’s 70ish.
Another great example from this season comes from Spurs, who led from the third minute at Molineux before losing 2-1 in the 91st and 97th minutes. The 88th minute lead is still six less than what Neil Warnock had to endure in Paisley, despite the added stoppage time in the first half.
Knowledge archive
“What is the record crowd for a friendly match in Great Britain?” Kris Scrimgeour asked in 2009.
Nice and simple, this one. The record for an international friendly is 125,683 – set at Hampden Park for a match between Scotland and France, which the home side won 2-0 on April 27, 1949. That answer was given by Sean DeLoughry, and it was done. the record for a friendly match between two club teams: 104,493 for Rangers 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt, also at Hampden, in October 1961.
An honorable mention goes to Chelsea 3-3 Dynamo Moscow in 1945. Although the official attendance for that match was 85,000, many witnesses estimated the actual number at almost 100,000, and according to Damon Maddison: “The crowd poured out of the venue. onto the terraces and the dog track, while some even climbed onto the roof of the stands to watch.” The highest officially However, the gate for that tour was actually at Ibrox, where 92,000 saw Dynamo draw with Rangers.
Can you help?
“A friend told me about a cup match that Sheffield Wednesday lost to Wolves in the mid-1990s after being 3-0 up in a penalty shootout,” emails Kevin Bartlow. “Are there any examples of a team leading 4-0 in a shootout and losing?”
@TheKnowledge_GU Scottish league 2 bottom @ClydeFC defeat leaders @StenhousemuirFC 6-1 this weekend, this is the first time in Scottish league history that a team at the bottom of the league has beaten a team at the top by 5 goals (the best was 3). Did a bottom do the same or better?
— Sam Clark 🇺🇦 (@SamclarkSam) February 28, 2024
“In the current edition of the Slovenian top flight there are ten clubs and only two (Maribor and Celje) have never been relegated,” writes Jasa Lorencic. “Is this the least in a top flight or the smallest percentage of teams?”
Q: Starting with the 20 Premier League teams, how deep into the football pyramid do you have to go to find two teams that have never played each other?
Is there a smaller gap in the other major European leagues between teams that have never played against each other?
— Chittaranjan (@Chittaranjan) March 2, 2024
“Last week in the Women’s Nations League there were two matches where both matches ended with the same score (Belgium 5-1 Hungary, Sweden 5-0 Bosnia),” notes Jon Taylor. “What is the highest score that can be repeated over two legs in the same tie?”
Has a player ever not celebrated a goal against a specific club, in addition to the goals he has previously attended?
Excluding that you don’t celebrate because of the score either.— Derek Brosnan (@DerekBrosnan) March 5, 2024
“Have there been situations where a player refused to come out for the second half?” asks Peter Clarke. “If so, what retaliation has the club taken?”
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