Association Football Trivia Thread
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Which country, a country which has previously qualified for the UEFA European Championships, has the longest dry spell of subsequently failing to qualify for the UEFA European Championships?
e.g. England had a dry spell of 1 during 2004-2012 by failing to qualify for Euro 2008. San Marino, Malta or Wales do not have a dry spell because they have never qualified for the finals.
e.g. England had a dry spell of 1 during 2004-2012 by failing to qualify for Euro 2008. San Marino, Malta or Wales do not have a dry spell because they have never qualified for the finals.
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I'd go back further. One of the powerhouses of the game in the 1950s and 1960s when the Euros started was Hungary - and I don't recall them doing anything of note since '66. Early Euro finals were just four teams though, but they may have qualified for one of them. They certainly haven't qualified since 1992 though, which is a dry spell of at least 6 (92, 96, 00, 04, 08, 12) - if they indeed ever qualified...
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Republic of Ireland do indeed have the second longest dry spell with five consecutive non-appearances. The answer? Well, who else would get it...
Hungary last qualified for the Euros in 1972, finishing 4th from 4, and have failed an unenviable ten consecutive times since then; 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012.
A shame that once such a talented footballing nation has fallen so badly. Although sitting 3rd at the moment in Group F, they could make 2016 via the play-offs and end this barren run.
You're up.
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Well, since I was running national team stats for World Cups anyway...
Since the FIFA World Rankings were originally introduced in 1992, who are:
The lowest ranked team to qualify for a World Cup Finals at the time the finals were played?
The current lowest ranked team to ever qualify for a World Cup Finals?
Since the FIFA World Rankings were originally introduced in 1992, who are:
The lowest ranked team to qualify for a World Cup Finals at the time the finals were played?
The current lowest ranked team to ever qualify for a World Cup Finals?
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Yes and no, in that order.
Indonesia - as Dutch East Indies - are 165th currently and are by some way the lowest ranked team to play at a finals in, as you say, 1938. India, in 156th (I know), qualified in 1950 but never played, while the next lowest ranked is Kuwait in 126th. Cuba is a lofty 119th.
Indonesia played 1 match. They lost it 6-0.
Trinidad & Tobago were a positively stellar 47th before WC2006 kicked off and weren't even the lowest ranked team in that tournament, ahead of Ghana (48), Angola (57) and Togo (61).
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As it was known at the time, yes! The Golden Goal was introduced in 1993 in order to spice up extra time by introducing a 'sudden death' scenario. The first time it was ever used to settle the final of a cup competition was the 1995 Autowindscreens Shield (Football League Trophy); Paul Tait settled the game in Birmingham City's favour by scoring past Carlisle United for a 1-0 victory.
Other competitions settled by a Golden Goal were Euro 1996 (Germany beat Czech Republic 2-1), Euro 2000 (France beat Italy 2-1) and the 2001 UEFA Cup (Liverpool beat Alaves 5-4). An interesting game to look into is 1994's Barbados vs Grenada where, due to competition rules stating golden goals counted double in goal difference, Barbados, needing a two goal win, deliberately scored an own goal from a 2-1 winning position to force extra time.
The Golden Goal rule was officially removed from the laws of the game in 2004 after it was analysed that teams were reluctant to actually go for the winning goal; preferring to not concede rather than score.
Your turn, S_Bridge.
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Wednesday's trophy cabinet isn't exactly heaving...
Ah, now then...
The sport known as Association Football predates the Football Association that takes its name from it. Association Football was merely a ball sport similar to other forms of football, only with ball handling restricted ("the fair catch") or banned altogether.
The Sheffield Rules - like Cambridge Rules before them - were just a common ruleset for Association Football and, like the subsequent Football Association Rules, permitted ball-handling. The FA and the Guinness Book of Records class the oldest Association Football competitions in the world as the Youdan Cup and the Cromwell Cup - and both were played under Sheffield Rules...
So it was a game of Association Football - just as the first ever Association Football match between Sheffield and Hallam at Bramall Lane in 1860 was - but it was one played under the Sheffield Rules for the sport.
[/Sheffielder]
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@Famine That the game was played under Sheffield rules is enough for me to see it as a game of Sheffield football rather than the common game of Association football we know today. Both the Youdan Cup and the Cromwell Cup still retained the rouge rule of Sheffield Rules whereby the goals were 4 yards wide but a shot which would have gone in on a 12 yard goal was counted as a 'rouge' and used to settle draws, with the exception of the Cromwell Cup final which had no goals and no rouges. The Youdan Cup was actually won by Hallam on rouges and not goals; the score was 0 (2) - 0 (0).
I would not deny that the Cromwell Cup was the absolute first football competition to be settled by a sudden death goal but not a game played to association rules we know today. In my egotistical but tongue-in-cheek position as both the asker of the question and creator of this thread, I dictate that it's still @S_Bridge's turn for getting the correct answer to the original question but you have also been awarded a bonus point for some excellent information mining.
I would not deny that the Cromwell Cup was the absolute first football competition to be settled by a sudden death goal but not a game played to association rules we know today. In my egotistical but tongue-in-cheek position as both the asker of the question and creator of this thread, I dictate that it's still @S_Bridge's turn for getting the correct answer to the original question but you have also been awarded a bonus point for some excellent information mining.
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Quite - though as you say, rouges weren't used in the Cromwell Cup final. I believe it was the decision of the captains to carry on playing until one side scored a goal to win it.
I don't think we had the Fair Catch then, but it might have still been a thing.
The FA Cup wasn't played under 'modern' association rules for the first six years either
They didn't have a goalkeeper in the first matches of the first competition - and it wasn't until the unification of the Football Association code with the Sheffield Rules in 1877, with corner kicks, throw ins and free kicks, that modern association football really began.So there
Anyway, Sheffield Rules is BEST rules. And I can't resist bringing Wednesday in as an answer.
That's phenomenally unfortunate timing.
