“Which team’s ground is the furthest from their town or city centre?” asked Kevin Francis.
Here’s a question that requires some qualification. For example, AFC Wimbledon, ostensibly a London team, play at Kingsmeadow, some 13 miles from Charing Cross. Focusing on teams that truly represent a city, there are plenty of British examples, starting with Kevin’s own suggestion – Brighton & Hove Albion. The Premier League new boys’ Amex Stadium is more than four miles from the centre of Brighton and around seven from Hove.
It’s also an inexact science judging the exact centre of a town, but when a team is based in another town entirely, that helps. As Nick Parkhouse points out, “Bolton’s Macron Stadium is five miles from the town centre” and is much closer to the centre of Horwich. The same goes for Grimsby’s Blundell Park, technically in nearby Cleethorpes – although it’s just 2.5 miles to Grimsby’s centre.
Back to the London suburbs, where Will Evans suggests Barnet. “The club’s new ground, The Hive, is in the borough of Harrow, just under seven miles away from High Barnet high street”. Alex Whiting, meanwhile, can’t help himself: “I would suggest that Arsenal’s ground, a full 11 miles from their home in Woolwich, must be a contender!”
To Europe, where Daniel Bickermann points to Bundesliga upstarts Hoffenheim, who needed new digs when their 6,000-capacity stadium failed to meet league standards. “They had to play their home games in Mannheim, some 28 miles away,” writes Daniel. “Their new stadium in Sinsheim is much closer (around four miles), but still a separate town to tiny Hoffenheim”.
Further afield, Peter Guber suggests Balaton FC, who were relocated 150 miles across Hungary from their namesake lake to Miskolc. Even further afield, Adam suggests Western Sydney Wanderers, a suburban side based 15 miles from the city centre. As Alun Urquhart and Chris Corrigan point out, you can trust the USA to do things biggest. “Dallas FC play in Frisco, Texas – 27.7 miles from Dallas City Hall”.
Finally, James Clarke cunningly nominates Uruguay’s Liverpool FC. Supposedly named after the English city, rather than its football club, it plays home games at Montevideo’s Estadio Belvedere, “a solid 6,880 miles from Merseyside”.
Can your team beat that? Email knowledge@theguardian.com.
Shorts and socks
“Who is the shortest player to become an international star?” asks Peter Van.
This is difficult to answer definitively, as there is usually slight variation in a player’s height depending on which source you use. There’s another issue, too. “I am not 100% sure of how you define ‘international star’,” notes Pedro Ribeiro, “but I think it applies to Rui Barros: he played for major European powers such as FC Porto, Juventus, Monaco and Marseille and was capped 36 times for Portugal. The Portuguese football player’s union says he is 1.59m. Not sure if he is ‘the shortest ever’ star, but a star he was, and not a very tall one.”
That equates to 5ft 2in and puts Barros firmly under the microscope. In the spirit of the current political climate, however, we’re going to partially ignore the question that was asked and answer a different one, focusing instead on all international players. The peerless historian Cris Freddi has emailed an unofficial list, which features the aforementioned Rui Barros. Other 5ft 2in players include England’s Jackie Crawford, Peru’s Manuel Grimaldo and even a goalkeeper – Mexico’s Antonio Mota, who was part of their World Cup squads in 1962 and 1970 and conceded eight at Wembley in 1961.
But if you want to find the world’s shortest international footballer, Laos is probably the place to go. Sourasay Keosouvandeng is 5ft 1½in (the same height as the former Qatar player Jafal Rashed) and Soukaphone Vongchiengkham stands at 5ft 1in. We aren’t aware of any shorter international players yet.
As for more famous players, the Celtic legend Bobby Collins was 5ft 3in, the same as Colombia striker Antony de Avila, who was nicknamed The Smurf. José Dominguez, once of Spurs, is 5ft 3½in, as are the Mexican Zinha and the Ivory Coast’s Bakary Koné.
Two games, two days
“What’s the shortest time that has elapsed between home and away league fixtures being played between two professional teams during a season?” asks Tim Postins.
As many of you have pointed out, return league fixtures around Christmas used to be a regular occurrence. To give just one example, in the famous festive goalfest of 1963, there were 10 top-flight games on Boxing Day, with the return games played 48 hours later. Burnley beat Manchester United 6-1 at Turf Moor, then lost the second match 5-1.
To trim the gap slightly, Richard Baum suggests Chelsea and Portsmouth in 1957. “They played each other at Stamford Bridge on 25th December, and at Fratton Park on Boxing Day. Sounds like a cracking way to spend Christmas.”
Another quickfire double comes courtesy of Simon McGrother: “Oldham thrashed Tranmere 4-1 on Christmas Day, 1935. Presumably the Latics loaded up on eggnog to celebrate, because the next day, Tranmere won the reverse fixture at Prenton Park by 13 goals to four.”
While festive fixtures were generally arranged with travelling fans in mind, Matthew Rudd points out the insane scheduling of Hull City v Millwall in 1965. “Hull won 1-0 at Boothferry Park on 27 December. Afterwards, the players and staff of both clubs boarded the same train to London to play at the Den the next day.”
Away from the festive period, as Simon Shannon pointed out in our Knowledge LIVE! special last year, “back in 1986, Watford played Arsenal home and away on 31 March and 1 April and beat them twice.”
Richard Scrimshaw picks out the same fixtures, with a little more detail: “due to Cup ties and weather disruption the Boxing Day game at Vicarage Road could not be played until the evening of April 1st, kicking off at 7.45pm, with Watford winning 3-0. Watford had won a 3pm kick-off at Highbury the previous day. The gap between full-time in the first match and kick-off in the second was just under 27 hours.”
Knowledge archive
“Who was the first player to miss a penalty in a shoot-out in a football match in Britain?” asked Albert Lippett, back when the world was a better place in 2002.
“Cast your mind back to the summer of 1970, if you will, Albert. Elvis was enjoying a six-week stay at No.1 with the Wonder of You, Carlos Alberto was basking in the glory of lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy for Brazil, and a beaming Ted Heath had just become British Prime Minister. Meanwhile, on August 1, a full-strength Manchester United team found themselves in Hull, playing in the semi-final of the Watney Mann Invitation Cup.
What (or Wat?) you might you ask? And we’re inclined to do the same. Bizarrely, it was a Cup tournament restricted to the two highest scoring teams from each Division - excluding those recently promoted, relegated or in Europe. United made it by scoring 66 goals as they finished 8th in the First Division, while Hull qualified by topping the Second Division scoring charts with 72 goals in 42 games.
More bizarrely still, the FA had decided to allow - for the first time - penalty shoot-outs to be used if the matches were tied.
Guess what happened next? That’s right - both Hull and United made it through their quarter-finals (against Reading and Peterborough respectively) and, when their match finished 1-1 after extra time, the scene was set for the world’s first penalty shoot-out.
George Best took the first penalty, scoring low to the keeper’s right. The next five penalties were also dispatched with ease. And then Denis Law stepped up and saw his penalty saved by Ian McKechnie, thus becoming the first player ever to miss in a shoot-out.
Not that it mattered too much. Hull missed their next two penalties and United sneaked through to the final. You know the rest: that year the shoot-out was adopted by Uefa and Fifa, and before long England and missed penalties were going together as nicely as butter on hot toast.
One final thing: the official Airdrie website - and Knowledge reader Sandy Sneddon - both reckon the first penalty shoot-out occurred in the 1970 Texaco Cup (another infathomable Cup tournament match between Airdrie and Nottingham Forest. However that game didn’t take place until the September 14, 1970. By which time, Smokey Robinson had replaced Elvis at the top of the charts.
Can you help?
“League Two champions Portsmouth were top for just 32 minutes all season. Has any league winner been top for a shorter period?” asks Mark Funnell.
“When Barnet played Wycombe at home last month, their team featured two sets of brothers on the pitch at the same time – Jack and Harry Taylor started the match alongside John Akinde, with his brother Sam coming on in the 85th minute.” says Will Evans. “Can any other side match that?”
“After just 12 matches, Irish league leaders Cork City have built up a gap of 14 points between themselves and second placed Bray Wanderers, having won all 12 of their games. Surely a record so early in the season?” asks Kenneth O’Meara.
“Pisa have been relegated from Serie B despite conceding the fewest goals in the division – 33 in 40 matches. Has this ever happened before?” asks Dirk Maas.
“Sunderland, Blackburn and Aston Villa (last season) were all relegated with Dafabet on their kit. Has any other shirt sponsor proved so unlucky?” wonders Tom Skinner.
“Mirandes started their season in Spain’s Segunda Division with nine unbeaten games,” says Michael Yokhin. “They are now rock bottom, and on the way to relegation. Has the last undefeated team in a league ever finished bottom before?”
“My team, Liverpool, will finish in the top half of the league for the 27th consecutive season without winning the title” says Mike in Lancashire. “I’m wondering how this compares to other such runs around the world.”
“This season Exeter City have qualified for the football league play-offs for the first time at the 26th time of asking,” notes Chris Wiffin. “Have any clubs waited longer to appear in the play-offs or played more seasons without ever qualfying?”
- Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
