THE WACKY WORLD OF WORLD FOOTBALL

  • At the Parma ground in Italy, there is a perimeter advertisement for "Smeg".
  • Sean McCarthy had an eventful debut for Bradford City in 1990. He missed a penalty, scored a goal and got sent off.
  • Stephan Stanis scored 16 goals for Racing Club de Lens in 1942 in one match.
  • The home of Athletico Madrid is known as the "Mattress Makers Ground" because of the red and white decoration in the Vincente Calderon Stadium.
  • In 1975, Glencraig United were including the name of the referee of their match in their pre-match dressing room chants. The references were none too complimentary, so the man in black booked all eleven players and the two substitutes before they had even left the dressing room.
  • A 16-year old, Tommy Spratt, scored 14 goals on his debut for Manchester United's fifth team in 1957-58, in a 25-0 win.
  • French club Lens are sponsored by "Shop".
  • MTK-VM of Hungary are nicknamed "The Goose Eaters".
  • On the same day that Arbroath set a goalscoring record by beating Bon Accord 36-0 in 1885, Dundee Harps beat Aberdeen Rovers by the score of 35-0.  Bon Accord were formed from Orion Cricket Club, who received an invitation to enter the Scottish Cup in error.  It should have gone to Orion FC of Aberdeen.  They had no pitch so moved the game to Arbroath, turned up without kit or boots and made up the name to hide their origins.  The score was 15-0 at half time, the referee disallowed six other perfectly good goals to keep the score down and the Arbroath goalkeeper was so untroubled during the match that he took shelter underneath an umbrella, as he did not touch the ball at all in the 90 minutes.  John Petrie, the Arbroath centre forward ended the match with 13 goals, a record for an individual in a first class match in the UK.  Just to round things up, 16 goals were scored in the final half hour of the match, with seven of them being struck off for offside !!
  • In the 1890's, England were forced to play Ireland and Wales on the same day on three different occasions. They won all six games too.
  • In 1934, S.Milton's debut for Halifax Town could not have been any worse. Stockport County stuck 13 goals past him. How unlucky.
  • Everton and Aldershot were involved in the Cod War against Iceland in 1973 - both teams had boats named after them.
  • Meadowbank Thistle's ground - the Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh was known as "The Concrete Lavvy Pan".
  • Thomas Grice of Ashton died in 1897, when, during play, he fell on his belt buckle which pierced his stomach.
  • Bert Llewellyn played only 11 minutes for Northampton Town before injury ended his career at the club.
  • Genk, of Belgium, have supporters who dress up as the Smurfs.
  • Stoppages and extra- time in a Libertadores Cup match between Santos of Brazil and Penarol of Uruguay in 1962 ended at 1 a.m. after three and a half hours.
  • Newcastle United appeared in no less than five FA Cup finals between 1905 and 1911. They were all played at Crystal Palace and they lost the lot.
  • Extra-time was used in the FA Cup final as long ago as 1875. In 1880, when the fourth round tie between Sheffield and Nottingham Forest finished with the scores level, Sheffield refused to play on and were disqualified from the competition.
  • A 1946 FA Cup tie between Stockport County and Doncaster Rovers was played until a result was achieved. It went on for so long fans went home for tea and came back to see the score at 4-4 and the game had to be stopped because of bad light after 203 minutes play.
  • Leicester City's 3rd Round FA Cup tie on 3rd January 1998 against Northampton Town was noted for the fact that not one foul was committed by the home side during the game.
  • There is a team in Poland called Aluminium Konin.
  • In a recent round of French Cup games, one team in each tie had "Lion Bar" as their shirt sponsors.
  • There is a team in Sweden called "Kings Head" !!
  • Laughter Chilembi, Gift Kampamba, Shy Kumwenda and January Zyambo are all members of the 2000 Zambian national squad.
  • There is an Argentinian Second Division team called Morons.
     
  • Some strange awards in the French Toulon U-20 tournament over the years ...

     In 1989 the 'most courteous player award' went to... England's David Batty!

    In 1991 the best 'keeper prize went to... England's David James !
     

  • Nigel Quashie had the unenviable reputation of being relegated with four teams in his first seasons with them -
    Queens Park Rangers 1996-1996 - relegated from Premiership
    Nottingham Forest 1998-1999 - relegated from Premiership
    Southampton 2004-2005 - relegated from Premiership
    West Bromwich Albion 2005-2006- relegated from Premiership
     
  • An Argentinian fan wanted a back tattoo of his team's badge, but ended up with a penis because the tattooist was a fan of his club's rivals
     

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