“Idrissa Gueye’s red card for slapping Michael Keane at Old Trafford made me wonder – which other players have put hands on a teammate during a game?” asks Conor Humphries.
We covered this in a question back in 2004 – but 21 years is a long time in football, never mind intrasquad violence, so it’s due an upgrade. First, a brief summary of those we mentioned in the 2004 article.
Derek Hales and Mike Flanagan, Charlton v Maidstone, FA Cup, 1978-79
With Charlton chasing a winner against non-league Maidstone in the FA Cup third round, simmering tension between their strike pair of Hales (nickname: Killer) and Flanagan came to the boil. Hales felt Flanagan was passing to him reluctantly, if at all, “so I’ve had a word and hit him one!” Flanagan reciprocated and the pair were sent off.
Craig Levein and Graeme Hogg, Hearts v Raith Rovers, 1994-95
The Hearts defenders were sent off after coming to blows when Raith’s Gordon Dalziel almost scored in a pre-season friendly. Hogg threw the first punch, Levein the last. “Levein threw two haymakers which I can only describe as a superb effort that Mike Tyson would have been proud of,” said Dalziel. “I was killing myself laughing and jokingly gave Hogg the count of 10 as he was flat out. I didn’t realise the severity of the blows or the fact that Levein had actually broken Hogg’s nose.”
Graeme Le Saux and David Batty, Spartak Moscow v Blackburn, 1995-96
Blackburn’s miserable Champions League campaign plumbed the depths in Moscow when Batty and Le Saux argued after going for the same ball. Le Saux tried to punch Batty in the neck before Tim Sherwood intervened. No action was taken by the referee.
Jens Lehmann and Marcio Amoroso, Schalke v Dortmund, 2002-03
In his final season at Dortmund, the usually mild-mannered Lehmann reacted badly to a Schalke goal by trying to strangle his teammate Amoroso. In a hilarious development, the goal that so enraged Lehmann was disallowed for offside. But the violence still counted: Lehmann was sent off.
Now for the more recent incidents, plus one we forgot to mention last time.
Lovers of dark comedy will never forget Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer getting physical during Newcastle’s eight-man 3-0 home defeat by Aston Villa in April 2005.
In December 2008, Stoke’s Ricardo Fuller was sent off for hitting his captain Andy Griffin. Bowyer, Dyer, Fuller and Gueye are the only players in the Premier League era to receive a red card for violent conduct against a teammate.
There was an infamous exchange of views between Bruce Grobbelaar and Steve McManaman when Everton took the lead against Liverpool at Goodison Park in September 1993; neither player was booked but by today’s standards they might have walked. Aston Villa’s Anwar El Ghazi wasn’t sanctioned when he scraped his head down Tyrone Mings’ forehead in a match against West Ham in September 2019.
Two years later, Galatasaray’s Marcão started a new Süper Lig season in style by planting the head on his teammate Kerem Akturkoglu in the opening game against Giresunspor. For the avoidance of doubt, Marcão then tried to land several haymakers before being sent off.
The longest wait
“By the time the World Cup comes around Craig Gordon will be 43 and it will have been 22 years since he made his Scotland debut,” writes Mick McMenemie. “Is this the longest gap between international debut and going to a World Cup? And would he be the oldest player at their first World Cup?”
Should Gordon appear at World Cup 2026, that debut finals appearance would likely be 22 years and one month since his Scotland bow in a 4-1 win against Trinidad & Tobago at Easter Road in May 2004. “It’s been an awful long time coming, 20-odd years in this camp, trying to get there, some failures along the way, some bad nights out there, but I don’t think I’ll ever get one as good as that to be a part of,” he deliriously told BBC Scotland after their dramatic win over Denmark. “I nearly retired in the summer.”
One player can eclipse Gordon on both fronts, but there are some other names of note with regards the first part. Due to the first Women’s World Cup taking place in 1991, there are contenders regarding debutants before that, a big one among them being Pia Sundhage. She made her international debut for Sweden as a 15-year-old in 1975 and helped them to a third-place finish in China 16 years later. Clearing that, however, is
Atiba Hutchinson made his Canada debut in January 2003 against the United States. It would not be until November 2022 when he finally made the big show, in their 1-0 defeat against Belgium, a game in which he was the lone Canadian player who was alive the last time the country played in a men’s World Cup.
These names come up shy in comparison with Essam El-Hadary. The Egyptian made his international debut against South Korea in March 1996, but it took 22 years and three months for him to appear between the sticks at a World Cup, playing in Egypt’s third and final game against Saudi Arabia at the 2018 finals in Volgograd. It would prove to be a third defeat from three, but El-Hadary’s appearance was memorable: he saved a penalty to become the first African player to do so at a World Cup finals.
Thrashing the champions
“How does Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest sit on the list of heaviest home defeats suffered by the reigning Premier League champions?” wonders Peter Barker.
Forest’s handsome victory at Anfield was one of the most eye-widening results of the season, but the reigning Premier League champions have suffered heavier defeats. The biggest and most famous occurred at Old Trafford on 23 August 2011, when Manchester City ran riot in the last few minutes to beat Manchester United 6-1. Spurs beat Leicester by the same scoreline in May 2017, with Harry Kane scoring four of their goals.
Here’s the full list, Premier League era only.
1-6
Manchester United v Manchester City, 2011-12
Leicester City v Tottenham Hotspur, 2016-17
0-4
Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur, 2024-25
1-4
Leeds United v Nottingham Forest, 1992-93
Manchester United v Liverpool, 2008-09
Liverpool v Manchester City, 2020-21
In context, Forest’s win at Leeds in December 1992 was even more unlikely than Saturday’s result – it was the only league game Leeds lost at home in 1991-92 (when they were champions) or 1992-93. Forest had won only one of the previous 16 league matches and eventually finished bottom.
0-3
Blackburn v Everton, 1995-96
Manchester United v Chelsea, 2001-02
Chelsea v Sunderland, 2010-11
Manchester United v Liverpool, 2013-14
Manchester United v Manchester City, 2013-14
Chelsea v Manchester City, 2015-16
Leicester v Chelsea, 2016-17
Leicester v Manchester United, 2016-17
Chelsea v Bournemouth, 2017-18
Liverpool v Nottingham Forest, 2025-26
Knowledge archive
“Huddersfield were promoted to the Premier League with a negative goal difference,” noted Dave Langley in 2017. “But has a team ever won the title despite conceding more than they scored?”
The first example that sprang to mind was from Brazil. Coritiba were champions in 1985 with a negative goal difference, having scored 25 times in 29 games. This was in part due to the sort of typically complicated system that you need a PhD to understand.
There were four groups in the first phase, with each playing two mini-leagues. The teams that finished top of each league qualified for the next phase along with the two remaining teams with the best overall record. Coritiba were eighth out of 10 in the first round, losing six of their 10 games, but finished top in the second – so although they were seventh in the overall qualification table, they were one of four teams to go through to the next round.
After that they won their second-phase group, sneaked past Atlético Mineiro 1-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals and beat Bangu in a penalty shootout in the final. Their overall record that season read: P29 W12 D7 L10 F25 A27. The runners-up Bangu won 20 of their 31 games (their mini-leagues had 11 games each, which is why they played two more than Coritiba), were top of every table and ended with a goal difference of +32. But the book will always say Coritiba were champions.
The heroic people at RSSSF found a few other examples – including POSCO Atoms, who were South Korean champions in 1986 despite losing more games than they won and finishing with a goal difference of -2.
Can you help?
“Perusing Scotland’s World Cup Wiki page, I see that in 1950 they declined to go to the finals because they finished second in the Home Championship (which doubled as World Cup qualifying), having said they would only show up if they won it,” writes Roger Kirkby. “Is this the only time a country has refused to go to the World Cup because of where they finished in qualifying?”
“Has any player being substituted been shown a second yellow card for not leaving the pitch correctly?” wonders Ken Foster.
“With tiny Curaçao qualifying for the World Cup under Dick Advocaat, I’ve been left pondering … are there any other team/manager combos who, while qualifying for a place at the World Cup, also qualify for a place in the international cocktail cabinet?” ponders Raymond Hogg.
“Othmane Maamma’s first start of the season for Watford on Saturday meant each member of their front three had double As in their name: Maamme, Kjerrumgaard, Baah. Are there other interesting examples of these ‘triple doubles’, as I’ll call them, across attack or defence that readers know of?” asks Aidan Watts-Fawkes. “Let’s set the bar high and exclude any Icelandic or Scandinavian ‘sson’ trios, of which I imagine there are many.”
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