“This season’s Champions League final will be contested by two teams who have gone a combined 87 years without a domestic league trophy,” notes Paul Hawkins. “What’s the longest ever gap between a team winning a domestic and a European title?”

Ásgeir Ingólfsson has very helpfully crunched the numbers and scoured the internet to bring us what we think is the definite answer on this one. “In the European Cup/Champions League, Liverpool won it in 2005, 15 years after their last domestic championship – a record either they themselves (29 years and counting) or Tottenham (58 years and counting) will smash in Madrid. Although we did come really close to a team who had never won a league title claiming it with Leverkusen in the 2002 final.

“But if we include all the other competitions (the defunct Cup Winners’ Cup and the Europa League, plus its predecessors) the longest gap is Sevilla – winning their sole Spanish championship in 1946 but raking up Uefa Cups/Europa League trophies recently, their latest in 2016, a full 70 years after their league triumph.

“Then of course, for some teams there is no gap, so an eternity then – because they’ve never won their domestic championship. Real Zaragoza won the Fairs Cup in 1964 and the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1995, West Ham claimed the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965, Leverkusen won the 1988 Uefa Cup and the mighty Parma won the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1993 and added the 1995 and 1999 versions of the Uefa Cup. For all those teams their first domestic championship remains elusive.

“In addition, Leeds United won their first Fairs Cup a year before their first championship, Sampdoria did the same with the Cup Winners’ Cup preceding their sole Serie A title by a year.”

And Marcus Müller writes: “Schalke 04 had 25 trophy-less years between their German Cup in 1972 and the Uefa Cup in 1997, while Ipswich Town have not won a trophy since the 1981 Uefa Cup.”



Long-serving kit manufactures

“What’s the longest that a major club has continuously worn kits made by the same manufacturer?” asks Rashaad Jorden.

There have been some long associations down the years, such as Everton and Umbro, Liverpool and Adidas and Saint-Étienne and Le Coq Sportif but no club can compete with Bayern Munich’s lucrative and loving relationship with Adidas. Here’s Kristjan Karron on a partnership that has gone on for 45 years and counting: “Bayern Munich have had Adidas as their kit sponsor since 1974, making Adidas the only kit manufacturer that Bayern has ever had. In fact, between 1975 and 1980, Bayern even had Adidas written across their chests as their only ‘sponsor’. Adidas also owns 8.33% of the club, so they’re entrenched pretty hard for the future as well.”

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge sporting a 1976 Bayern Munich kit with those famous three stripes. Photograph: Ullstein Bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Football on big screen (4)

Malcolm Warburton writes: “A Kind of Loving (1962) includes a scene where Alan Bates and James Bolam are watching a match. This was filmed at a Bolton Wanderers v Sheffield United fixture.” Liam Philip Manley has one from Spain. “In Pedro Almodóvar’s Live Flesh (1997), Javier Bardem and his rival stop talking to watch and cheer on an Atlético Madrid match … I can’t remember which player it is that they jointly praise, though.”

“In Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher (1999), there is a sequence in which we hear the results being read out on the radio, including the score Stirling Albion 20-0 Selkirk,” writes Justin Horton. “ This is a (presumably deliberate) anachronism, since, as Oliver Farry points out in the New Statesman, the Stirling v Selkirk tie, in the Scottish Cup first round, took place on 6 December 1984, whereas the film is set in the previous decade.”

“Here is a link to an article where Pat Nevin mentions his goal in Mike Myers’ film ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer’,” writes David Williams – and Simon Toye says he’s “dying to know which game is being played in the scene here from BBC’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I can guess that one of the teams is Ipswich (Paul Mariner) but what match is it? Who are their opponents?”

Alan Bates, right, appeared on the Railway Embankment End at Burnden Park during A Kind of Loving. Photograph: Ronald Grant

Knowledge archive

“Which club has won international titles in the most different sports, and which one has the most international titles overall?” asked Ottar Gadeholt in May 2008.

The continent is teeming with clubs that participate in all manner of

sporting disciplines. Lazio is the one that spreads itself the

widest with teams competing in more than 37 different sports ranging from

cricket to parachute jumping.

In 1987, the awards dinner at the Turkish sports club of Galatasaray must

have been quite a bash as they won titles in 15 different sports including

wheelchair basketball, rowing, sailing, judo and motorsports.

Roma, Porto, Olympiakos, the aforementioned Hamburg and Benfica are

other multi-tasking sporting titans but the biggest “Sport Billy” of the

lot are Barcelona who boast professional teams in football, basketball,

handball, futsal (indoor football with a ball that doesn’t bounce very

high) and roller-hockey. Amateur teams also represent Barça in hockey,

athletics, baseball, cycling, field hockey, figure skating and volleyball.

And, to answer Ottar’s question, we reckon Barcelona’s mantelpiece sags

under the largest weight of international gongs, with 76 professional titles

in total. If there’s a club that’s done better than that then, well, we

don’t know about it, but you may do …

Can you help?

Spurs lost 5 matches on the way to the champions league final. Liverpool lost 4. Any bigger cumulative losses in previous finals? — Paul Savage (@comedysavage) May 14, 2019

“In a recent game between Rangers and Kilmarnock both teams substituted their goalkeeper. Has this been done before?” asks Jeremy Nicholson.

“Has a team ever fielded a starting XI (or even an entire matchday squad) made up entirely of players with nouns for surnames?” asks Kielan Thompson. “Or, if that’s too easy, entirely of professions? Eg Rotherham have Darren POTTER, Jamie PROCTOR and a couple of others.”

Ian Edwards has 4 games, 4 goals for Wales. I know some players like Nielsen and Müller scored more than they played in but what is the highest number fo having the EXACT same number of international goals as games? — Liquid 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@GTPLiquid) May 14, 2019

“Reginal Goreux, a childhood friend who plays full-back for Standard de Liège in Belgium, received his first start against AA Gent a whopping 649 days after his last start in Standard’s XI, despite never being injured. Not just that: he was also captain on that day and went off in the second half due to injury. He received a big applause from the stadium as he went. Can anyone top that? Is this the longest period without playing for an uninjured player or captain?” asks Joran.

Manchester City got 98 points and Huddersfield only got 16.

Feels like a possible record points gap between top and bottom, but I'm sure you can provide larger gaps. — Mattskating (@Mattskating) May 14, 2019

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