“Huddersfield were promoted to the Premier League with a negative goal difference,” notes Dave Langley. “But has a team ever won the title despite conceding more than they scored?”

The first example that springs to mind is 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.

Which football champions were top of their league for the shortest time? | The Knowledge Read more

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 have 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.

Contract thrillers

“With this week’s news about Atlético Madrid signing a nine-year contract with Saúl Ñíguez, which is the longest contract ever signed in football?” ponders Vineet.

Those six-year contracts signed by your Dele Allis, Harry Kanes and Virgil van Dijks don’t cut the mustard anymore. Then there’s the fiercely ambitious eight-year contract rolled out to Alan Pardew and some of his backroom staff while Newcastle United manager in 2012. Those nine years make Saúl quite the frontrunner in terms of those who have put to pen to paper in more recent times. Atlético, though, have form in giving out big contracts, with Koke signing a new deal – a seven-year contract – until 2024 earlier this year.

The long-term deal was a tool used at Real Madrid to tie down Iker Casillas, Guti and Raúl in years gone by as well. Casillas agreed a nine-year contract that would keep him at the club for life in 2008 before joining Porto two years ago. Clauses in the players’ contracts meant that they would automatically activate another year if they completed 30 matches in the previous season. “On this day, which is Valentine’s Day, Iker, Raúl and Real can say they love each other, they need each other, and complement each other and will commit for life,” said then-president Ramón Calderón.

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Lionel Messi signed a seven-year deal of sorts in 2009 too, with the Barcelona forward agreeing fresh terms on a contract, fit with a hefty €250m release clause. He agreed another deal in 2013 and another in 2016, the Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu saying Messi “has all the years he wants” with the club. La Liga has been a hotbed for whopping deals in fact, because Real Betis gifted Denilson a mammoth 10-year, £2m-per-annum contract on the back of his world-record £21m move from São Paulo in 1998. He did not quite see out that contract, though, joining Bordeaux in 2005 before his career took a distinct turn for the worse.

Rewind even further, to 1979, and an old tale involving Bristol City – and the Ashton Gate Eight – is worth noting. Manager Alan Dicks is reported to have handed out illustrious 11-year contracts to as many as six of his star players, including defender Clive Whitehead, after witnessing Gary Collier join Coventry for peanuts owing to his contractual situation. Dicks left and the club plummeted through the divisions, losing thousands of pounds in the process. But after days of negotiations between the club, its players and the football authorities, eight players (Gerry Sweeney, Dave Rodgers, Peter Aitken, Geoff Merrick, Chris Garland, Trevor Tainton, Jimmy Mann and Julian Marshall) tore up their contracts and effectively saved the club.

Knowledge archive

“The game between River Plate and Boca Juniors was delayed by River fans holding aloft a giant inflatable pig wearing a Boca shirt,” wrote Kevin Downey in 2012. “Is this the first time a match has ever been delayed by an inflatable?”

The disruption caused by the gigantic porker was surely a football first (though feel free to insert your own Neil Ruddock/Mickey Quinn/Adriano joke here). With River 2-0 up at half-time in the Superclásico, the first meeting between River Plate and Boca in 17 months due to the former’s relegation in 2011, the home fans at El Monumental unleashed a helium-filled porcine in Boca Juniors colours into the Buenos Aires air. The plastic pig floated in front of the away fans in the upper tier (though they didn’t seem to mind too much) and the referee ordered it to be grounded before kicking off the second half. As far as we could ascertain it was the first time a kick-off has been delayed by a single inflatable.

But a gang of inflatables had caused trouble before. On 28 March 2004 Celtic visited Ibrox for an Old Firm derby and Hoops fans decided the game should be something a celebration, with Martin O’Neill’s side having secured passage to the Uefa Cup quarter-finals the previous Thursday with a draw against Barcelona at the Camp Nou. The celebrations involved the procurement of an ludicrous number of beach balls, which were then dispatched from the away end as the teams emerged into a breezy Glasgow afternoon. The clear-up effort delayed kick-off by several minutes.

Can you help?



“I know of clubs having fan shops and sometimes even playgrounds close to the stadium, but Union Berlin has its own petrol station, and it’s not even close to the ground,” notes Daniel Bickermann. “Any other clubs who own strange shops or businesses that seem unrelated to football?”

Which footballers' hat-tricks were their only goals for a club? | The Knowledge Read more

“I couldn’t recall any player in recent memory missing a game due to jury duty,” writes Dean Bailey. “I know you can delay it for a year but surely there must be British players who have missed games due to this?”

“Was Portugal’s defeat to Chile the first time that a team has lost a competitive penalty shoot-out without any player in the starting XI even having an attempt to score?” asks Rui Pereira.

“I noticed that in the National League North, Danny Rowe scored 47 goals, 19 ahead of Danny Newton,” notices Oliver Robinson. “That got me thinking: what’s the biggest gap between the top and second-top scorers in a league?”

“I wonder if any of your readers know where Bray Unknowns FC got their name?” asks Mischa Atkinson. “I would guess that it’s on a similar basis to the various Wanderers, Rangers, and Rovers (Bolton Wanderers, I understand, were so called because they had to leave their original ground), but the Unknowns name seems altogether stranger, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

