Plus: Overnight successes; Wesley Sneijder v Pele; and has a goalkeeper ever been sent off in a penalty shoot-out. Send your questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk

"With clubs falling over themselves to ban the vuvuzela, I was wondering what other seemingly innocent items have clubs found it necessary to ban over the years," writes Paul Briscoe.

If there's one thing that football grounds are good at it's banning things. Take Wembley, for example. Along with "any article that might be used as a weapon", spectators are not allowed to take into the ground: unlicensed musical instruments, including trumpets, drums and "other devices capable of causing a disturbance or nuisance"; Flag poles greater than 1m in length; Flares; Bottles, glass vessels, cans and flasks; Frisbees and "similar items"; Dangerous or hazardous items; Illegal substances; Explosives or ammunition; fireworks; Knives, blades or other weapons; Firearms; Scooters, skateboards or other skates; Laser devices; Smoke canisters; Signs or items with corporate or inappropriate branding; Unauthorised fliers; Spray paint or large industrial style marker pens; Prams and push chairs; Transmitting devices; Professional cameras and recording devices; Large suitcases, lap tops, and back packs; Illegal merchandise items; Water bottles; Illegal charity collection utensils; Motor bike helmets; Umbrellas; Darts; Hampers and Cold Boxes; Air horns; Alcohol; and animals (except service dogs and guide dogs).

But Wembley is far from alone. And the vuvuzela is not the first noise-maker to face a football ban – wooden rattles were banned in the 1970s due to their handy heft for hooligans. Other bans have been slightly odder. In the 1987-88 season Maine Road became populated with a bumper crop of blow-up bananas, named, in honour of striker Imre Varadi, "Imre Banana". Arguably, the finest hour of the City inflatable craze came in September 1988 when the team visited Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea. Away supporters were banned due to trouble in a previous play-off fixture, but some City fans made their way into the ground regardless. "As City scarves and banners would have been a bit of a giveaway," wrote Mike Rowbottom in the Guardian, "a less obvious rallying device was devised. A 7ft inflatable Frankenstein. So simple."

The craze continued. By February Bristol City arrived for a Littlewoods Cup semi-final with 200 sets of blow up fangs in honour of their manager Joe Jordan. At Wimbledon's Plough Lane, 1,500 Grimsby fans turned up waving haddocks. Blackpool started selling two and a half feet high plastic Blackpool Towers.

Something had to give, and it did at Highbury, where local police deemed that the oversized novelty fruits could, by obstructing spectators' views, incite violence.

"Football has become a leading victim of the British mania for banning things," wrote David Lacey. "The latest absurdity came at Highbury on Tuesday night when police video cameras solemnly scanned the terraces for illicit giant bananas." The Gunners, though, soon relented and the inflatable craze was allowed to die a natural death.

Not only inanimate objects have fallen foul of footballs rulemakers. In May 2006 Vladimir Kisilev was in Moscow to show one of his prize-winning pigs at a farm show and afterwards was keen to head over to the Luzhniki Stadium to watch Spartak Moscow v Zenit St Petersburg. Having nowhere to leave his porcine pal, Kisilev attempted to take it with him, but was stopped by police. "I wanted to see the game, but had nowhere to leave the pig," said Kisilev. "I almost managed to get it into the ground in a big bag, but it started grunting and the police noticed."

Irene Kerrigan at least managed to get her pet into the ground. In January 2009 Hertford Heath faced Hatfield Town in a crunch Hertfordshire Senior Centenary Trophy quarter-final tie. Around 150 hardy souls watched a goal-less first half before proceedings took a bizarre twist early in the second half, with play being disrupted by the 63-year-old Mrs Kerrigan's pet Senegal parrot Me-Tu, who, having been a regular at Hertford Heath home fixtures, was demonstrating his new-found ability to mimic the referee's whistle.

"I've never known anything like it in all my football career," said the referee Gary Bailey. "I got a hell of a shock. It was a big game and there were quite a lot of people there. This woman was standing right by the touchline and suddenly unveiled a big cage with this big green parrot in it. I didn't mind at first. But then every time I blew my whistle the bird made exactly the same sound. It was bizarre. The crowd were all laughing. In the end, there was only one thing for it." Mrs Kerrigan and Me-Tu were asked to leave.

FAST-TRACK SUCCESS

"Just two years after their creation Irish side Sporting Fingal F.C. won the FAI Cup," writes Michael Hallinan. "They are now about to play against Maritimo in the second qualifying round of the Europa League. Has there ever been a team to achieve success so quickly?"

Rags to riches overnight? Only in America. Well, not only in America, but the United States is a good place to start "Chicago Fire, coached by the current US national team coach Bob Bradley, won the Major League Soccer title in their very first year of existence," writes Corey Thompson. "One mitigating factor was that this was in 1998, only the third year of the league's existence, so they weren't knocking off 80-year old clubs in order to hoist the championship trophy. This qualified them for the Concacaf Champions Cup the following year, where they were eliminated in the semi-final on penalties."

The Seattle Sounders won the US Open Cup, the equivalent to the FA Cup, in their first season in 2009, while DC United, writes Kári Tulinius, won the Concacaf Champions Cup in 1998, three years after their formation.

Away from MLS, Uzbek side Bunyodkor Tashkent have been rather successful in their five years of existence. "Bunyodkor were founded in 2005 and have since won the Uzbek league twice (2008, 2009) and been runner-up once (2007)," writes Pieter Jordaan. "They also won the Uzbek Cup in 2008 and reached the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League in 2008 and the quarter-finals in 2007. It does, of course, help that they are bankrolled by a rather large company in Zeromax."

Mergers can also bring quick success to newly formed clubs. "FC Amsterdam were established from a merger of two struggling Amsterdam teams in 1972 and played to almost empty crowds in the massive Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam," writes Meir Moses. "They qualified for the 1974-75 Uefa Cup and made it to the quarter-final stage after having defeated the mighty Internazionale in the second round, then Fortuna Dusseldorf before succumbing to FC Koln."

And a similar tale can also be found in Denmark. "FC Copenhagen won the Danish top flight in their first season of existence, 1992-93," writes Mathias Stigsgaard. "They were a merger of KB (mainland Europe's oldest football club) and B1903 and as such had an automatic spot in the highest division, which they won by one point."

MOHAMED SHAWKY: MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN WESLEY SNEIJDER (BUT NOT QIUTE AS SUCCESSFUL AS PELE)

Last week we looked at the players who have won trebles with their clubs before going on to lift international titles with the countries. But, not for the first time, we missed out rather a big name.

"As legendary Paraguayan goalkeeper José Luis Chilavert kept on mentioning on the US channel Univision during the World Cup, Wesley Sneijder would have been the second person to win at least a treble with his club (including a continent's top trophy) and the World Cup in the same year," writes Tim Dockery. "The first (and only) person to do that was Pelé who in 1962 won the Campeonato Paulista (the Campeonato Barsileiro not yet being in existence), the Taça Brasil (a predecessor to the Copa do Brasil) and the Copa Libertadores with Santos and the World Cup with Brazil.

"However, even if Holland had won the World Cup, Pelé would still have bested Sneijder as, in addition to a domestic double and a continent's top club competition, Pelé and Santos also won the world's top club competition in 1962 by beating reigning European Champions Benefica for the Intercontinental Cup."

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

"Has a goalkeeper ever been sent off during a penalty shootout?" wondered Olumide Hassan back in 2007.

Hats off to Tommy Tucker for discovering that Botswana goalkeeper and captain Modiri Marumo was sent off during a Castle Cup shootout against Malawi in May 2003. Having been booked for time-wasting before Malawi scored their third spot-kick, Marumo "reacted to a pat on the shoulder from opposite number Philip Nyasulu by punching him in the face and got a red card". Malawi went on to win 4-1 and reach the semi-finals.

"I over-reacted in an exchange of words between myself and my counterpart," admitted Marumo. "This unbecoming behaviour has not only embarrassed me, but also the organisation that I work for, the Botswana Defence Force (BDF). I hope my apology would be recognised and I pledge my commitment in serving the nation."

For all the knowledge you can manage, and a lot more, head to the Knowledge archive.

Can you help?

"Most of Spain's World Cup winning squad have won a few things or more at club level, except for Álvaro Arbeloa," notes Matt Prior (not that one). "At 27, he now has a European Championship winner's medal and a World Cup winner's medal to his name, but no club trophies. Have any other players won so much with their country, yet so little with their clubs?"

"Who were the last Premier League team to start a season with exactly the same XI with which they finished the last?" ponders Jeremy Dagnall.

Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com