“I found myself on the Wikipedia page for French football champions on a recent curiosity binge and found that RCF Paris (now known as Racing Club de France football Colombes 92) had won Ligue 1 in 1935-36, and now find themselves in the fifth tier of the French football pyramid,” writes Will. “Excluding clubs that have since dissolved, are there any national champions elsewhere who have managed to plummet even further down the leagues?”

“Sweden has a couple of examples that beat Racing Club,” points out Joe Murphy. “Sweden has a confused history of deciding the national champion. From 1896-1925 the champion was decided by a cup competition but a national league (Allsvenskan) was formed in 1924. These clashed with each other and the leading teams participated in the league over the cup in 1924 and 1925. (Incidentally, there were no official national champions between 1926 and 1930, even though the league took place. Only from 1931 onwards were the league winners considered as Swedish champions – excepting the 1980s when they had an American-style play-off system after the league). In 1924, Fassbergs IF defeated IK Sirius to become Swedish champions for the only time. Each of the last four seasons has ended in relegation for Fassbergs and they will play the 2017 season in Division 6 in Gothenburg – which is the eighth tier. Only the top two tiers in Sweden are on a national level and there are currently nine separate Division 6s in Gothenburg alone. On a national level, there are 68 leagues in tier eight and another 102 leagues above tier eight. That’s some plummet they’ve had. Their opponents, IK Sirius, won Superettan in 2016 and will play in the top league, Allsvenskan, in 2017. In 1925, Brynas IF defeated BK Derby and both teams now play in tier six.”

“The answers may vary by the definition of ‘national champion’ but I think some former champions in German football qualify,” writes Julian Unkel. “While no Bundesliga champion has managed to drop lower than the fourth league, earlier champions have gone far below that. Let’s start with VfR Mannheim, German champions of 1949 and thus a first winner of the ‘salad bowl trophy’ that is still awarded, who as of today play in Verbandsliga Baden, the sixth division. Then there is Germany’s oldest still active football club, BFC Germania 1888, who may be considered to be the first (unofficial) German football champions, winning the first championship of the Bund Deutscher Fußballspieler (BDF, German football player’s association) in 1890 (or 1891, depending on your source). The BDF was the first German football association but only included clubs from Berlin, so one might challenge the ‘national’ in ‘national champion’. Today, BFC Germania play in the Kreisliga B of Berlin, the 10th division (counting tiers in Germany gets a bit more complicated in the lower leagues as divisions six and below are not managed centrally but by 21 state organisations of the DFB according to their own rules, and the league system has been restructured several times).



“The ‘winner’, however, might be Karlsruher FV, German champions in 1910, when the championship was already organised by the DFB. Today, after financial troubles disqualified them from playing between 2004 and 2007, they are playing in Kreisklasse C, the lowest division in their home region of North Baden (which, if I haven’t miscounted, should be 10th division). In their second season in Kreisklasse C, they have managed to win only one match, which possibly makes them the only former national champions to finish last in the lowest division of its league system (a feat they have since been able to repeat).”



Inconsistent results

Here’s Tom Johnson: “John Ashdown reported a couple of weeks ago in the Guardian that: ‘Mick McCarthy’s ludicrously inconsistent Ipswich side … have not recorded successive results of any kind since two draws in the middle of August (their record since: WLWDLDLDWLDWLWLDLWLWL).’ In their three results since they have drawn, won, and lost, taking their total number of consecutively different results to 24. This is indeed ludicrously inconsistent – but what is the longest such record of inconsistent results? Does it even stretch over more than one season? I think we may need a computer for this one.”

“Can I draw your attention to Partick Thistle’s record in the 2014-15 season?” suggests Norman Biggar. “Including cup games, Thistle’s record from the start of the season ran as WDLWLWLWLWLDLDWLWLDWDLWLWDL, for a total of 27 competitive games without a consecutive result. Furthermore, Thistle’s final three games of the previous season, 2013-14, had resulted in DWL. This pushed their run of non-consecutive results to a most impressive 30.”

Partick Thistle’s Stuart Bannigan in action against St Mirren during their run of random results in September 2014. Photograph: Jeff Holmes/PA

99s without a Flake

“While he was at Southampton, Graziano Pellè played in the No19 shirt but I remember reading that in Italy he played with No99,” writes Sally Carmona. “That happens to be my favourite number, so I was left thinking: which other great players have worn No99 on their backs? Who is the greatest 99 of all time?”

Jake Jowitt was one of several readers to point us in the direction of … “Ronaldo wore 99 at Milan – that’ll take some beating. Also worth a shout is Vítor Baía from Porto, while Cristiano Lucarelli’s reasoning for donning the 99 is a little more sentimental – a tribute to the Brigate Autonome Livornesi, who were founded in 1999 as a left-wing Italian group. I wonder if footballers will start wearing 15 to commemorate Jeremy Corbyn’s rise to leader of the opposition?”

Jack Ellis also mentions Ronaldo wearing the double-nines, “as did Antonio Cassano while at Sampdoria and then at Milan – in homage to Ronaldo. Players wearing 99 is a lot more common in Italy because of the lack of ruling over shirt numbers. Milan wonder-kid Gianluigi Donnarumma wears 99, as it’s his year of birth – which makes me feel a bit sick. Other 99s include Djibril Cissé (at Al-Gharafa), Mathias Pogba (brother of Paul) and, ahem, Eric Djemba-Djemba.”

Vítor Baía and his No99 in 2004. Photograph: Guilherme Venancio/AP

Where the streets have footballer names (2)

Last week we delved into the world of roads named after footballers in unlikely places. But there’s more …

“I wanted to provide an insight into how some of our streets can be named,” emails Andy Blair from North Carolina. “In the United States, when new areas are developed that did not previously have roads, our zoning and land development departments will allow the landowners/developers submit their development plans and make suggestions for street names. Here, it is not uncommon for every neighbourhood road that runs by the local golf course to be called ‘Country Club Drive’ because it runs by the country club. In rural areas you will see access roads to family farms all named after their children (Sarah Jones Lane, John Stancil Road, etc). The land developer must have been a football fan and used the development to express their love.”



And here’s Alex Irvine on the road name that kicked off this subject: “I used to work at the five-a-side centre on Sir Bobby Moore Way and can confirm that the official name of the slip road on to the A406 was originally Pinkham Way (the same as the opposite slip road coming off). When the football centre was built, it is my understanding that the owners simply put up a street sign and started using what now seems to have become the road’s official name. Useless information I know but I think it’s important to point out that the road was named after such an iconic figure because of a corporate decision rather than one designed to honour the memory of England’s only World Cup-winning captain.”

Finally, a beauty of a tale from Hamish McDouall, Mayor of Whanganui District in New Zealand. “Our city opened a new cul-de-sac in May 2016,” he begins. “The surrounding streets are named after English counties but when the option came up before council it was decided to honour Leicester City’s remarkable championship victory – cue Leicester Place, Springvale, Whanganui, New Zealand. PS: there are no Leicester supporters on council, though there is a Baggies fan – me.”

Knowledge archive

“Preston’s Jermaine Beckford returned to action on Boxing Day against Leeds following his red card for fighting a team-mate,” wrote Graeme Park last week. “Upon his return as a substitute, he managed just three minutes on the pitch before kicking an opponent and earning another red card. Is there an example of a shorter amount of playing time between red cards?”

“The Knowledge already covered this in 2009, with a hands-down winner,” rightly recalls David Christie.

“I fancy I won’t be the only Dandy Don giving you an answer to this question,” writes John Sinclair, the only Dandy Don to give us an answer to this question, “but in 1998 Aberdeen’s English midfielder Nigel Pepper, signed for £200,000 from Bradford, was sent off 17 seconds into a substitute appearance, which was his first display since serving a suspension following a red card six minutes into an earlier substitute appearance.”

Can you help?

“Obviously there are plenty of games that are postponed multiple times but have any fixtures been abandoned on multiple occasions,” asks Richard Baum.

“I was reading an article about the Coupe de France on the fine Football Pink website,” writes Kári Tulinius. “The author mentions the astounding stat that a grand total of 18,194 teams from European France as well as overseas departments and territories are registered for the French Cup. Depending on how many players are registered by each club (let’s say 18 to 23 per team), somewhere between 330,000 and 420,000 athletes are all trying to win the Charles Simon Trophy. In terms of athletes competing for the same prize, is the Coupe de France the largest football (and sporting) contest in the world?”

“Rafa Benítez is in a good position to win the Championship with Newcastle this season,” notes Chai. “If they win, will he be the first non-British/Irish manager to win the Championship/Second Division title? Have managers of other nationalities won a lower-league title yet?”

“I recall that Everton lost to Newcastle (with a much weakened side, I must add) 1-0 in the 1998 FA Cup third round,” recalls Daniel Miller. “It struck me at the time that this was the first time my side had failed to score at least one goal per season in the FA Cup in my lifetime (born February 1961) – and in so doing falling at the 37th hurdle. I wonder if any other team, at any level, could boast such a continuous level of scoring in the FA Cup?”



“On Saturday, as Dusan Tadic took the armband for Southampton in their FA Cup fourth-round tie against Arsenal, he became the sixth player to captain Saints in a competitive fixture this season (the others – José Fonte, Virgil van Dijk, Steven Davis, Maya Yoshida, Shane Long),” explains Tom Bennett. “This made me wonder what is the record for the most number of captains used in a season? And do Saints have the potential to break this record (with almost half the season left)?”



@TheKnowledge_GU Arsenal have already had 4 different hat trick scorers this season (Ozil, Alexis, Lucas, Walcott). Is this a record? — Samir Gelb (@SamirGelb) January 29, 2017