Weird things about football that are true but don't sound it

Remember reading something years ago about why capital cities are less successful in football than provincial cities. Might have been in Soccernomics. Unfortunately I don't remember the explanation.

Fairly sure that's where I lifted it from. Going to change now that mega-money 'glamour' clubs (Chelsea/PSG etc) are attracting the oligarch types - leaving City out of the equation. Capital cities haven't done too well, and I could have added Berlin, but you have to leave Amsterdam and Madrid out of the equation to make it work.
 
Remember reading something years ago about why capital cities are less successful in football than provincial cities. Might have been in Soccernomics. Unfortunately I don't remember the explanation.

This is mostly a western European thing.

Kyiv, Athens, Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague, Zagreb and Moscow all dominate football historically in their respective countries.

Then there’s Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Asunción, La Paz, Caracas and Lima in South America.
 
This is mostly a western European thing.

Kyiv, Athens, Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague, Zagreb and Moscow all dominate football historically in their respective countries.

Then there’s Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Asunción, La Paz, Caracas and Lima in South America.
Danish football has also largely been dominated by first Brøndby IF (just outside Copenhagen) and then FC Copenhagen in more recent times.
 
Guiseppe Bergomi has played in four world cup tournaments for Italy.

Never played a single world cup qualification match though.
 
Gerrard never won a league title . Shearer only went to Newcastle to win trophies.
 
Liverpool had a number 9 that went the entire season failing to score a goal in any competition.
(That wasn't down to injury either, he was just shit)
 
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Steaua Bucharest won what is now the Champions League. Against Barca. On penalties. With Barca missing all penalties against a keeper called Duckadam.
 
Karim Benzema has scored more Champions League goals than Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Thierry Henry and Andriy Shevchenko.
 
  • There is a bigger age difference between Ronaldo and Messi than Jones and Bailly.
  • Lingard is older than Pogba and Lukaku
 
Liverpool had a number 9 that went the entire season failing to score a goal in any competition.
(That wasn't down to injury either, he was just shit)
Which shit striker? Origi, aspas, voronin, Carroll, Babel, Borini or Lambert? :p
 
Paul Pogba scored more league goals in Serie A in four seasons than Zinedine Zidane did in five seasons.
 
And Berlin. Nottingham have won more than the 5 largest cities in Europe.

Not to be a smart ass, but still: Moscow, Istanbul, St. Petersburg and Madrid are comfortably larger than Paris or Rome (and Berlin, mostly). So basically Madrid fecks up the statistics.
 
Which shit striker? Origi, aspas, voronin, Carroll, Babel, Borini or Lambert? :p
Ouch baby, very ouch!
It wasn't any of them :eek:. It was El Hadji Diouf. Horrible player but an even worse person (which is really difficult considering how shite he actually was)
 
Gabi was Atletico Madrid’s captain in both their Champions League finals, but never got a single cap for Spain.
 
Austrian club Rapid Wien has more german league titles than Bayer Leverkusen

Edit: or Schalke 04. Only mention those 2 as those are the "biggest" clubs in germany that haven't won the league
 
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Bob Paisley is Englands most successful manager winning 20 trophies in 9 yrs. Yes SAF won more trophies (38) but it took him 27 yrs to do it.
So Augero is the best striker ever in the premier league, because his games to goal ratio is better than Alan Shearer , but Shearer has scored more goals.
:wenger::wenger:
 
No Premier League manager has retained their job for a full season after winning the Premier League since Sir Alex Ferguson in 2011.
 
Zidane has only won one champions league in his whole career.

Micheal Owen has scored in a major cup final for Manutd.

Phil Neville has played more games for Everton than Manutd.

David Beckham only won one major honour in 5 years at Real Madrid.
 
Germany has faced Brazil only once in a world cup (2002 Final)

Germany never beat Italy in an offical match

Greece won the European Championships

1.FC Koeln was record champion in Bundesliga

80% of footballs are manufactured in Pakistan

The North Korean Rungrado May Day Stadium is the largest football stadium in the world (150k capacity)

Greenland can't join the FIFA because not enough grass grows for a football field
 
Spurs have conceded the second most goals in Premier League history

Everton have conceded the most, and lost the most games too
 
Bob Paisley is Englands most successful manager winning 20 trophies in 9 yrs. Yes SAF won more trophies (38) but it took him 27 yrs to do it.
So how is Bob Paisley more successful I'd Alex Ferguson won nearly DOUBLE what he won? :wenger::wenger::wenger::wenger::wenger:

You need a tagline to explain your mistake.
 
Every World Cup final since 1982 has had an Inter player featuring in it.
 
Germany has faced Brazil only once in a world cup (2002 Final)

Germany never beat Italy in an offical match

Greece won the European Championships

1.FC Koeln was record champion in Bundesliga

80% of footballs are manufactured in Pakistan

The North Korean Rungrado May Day Stadium is the largest football stadium in the world (150k capacity)

Greenland can't join the FIFA because not enough grass grows for a football field

Urm...
 
Germany has faced Brazil only once in a world cup (2002 Final)

Germany never beat Italy in an offical match

Greece won the European Championships

1.FC Koeln was record champion in Bundesliga

80% of footballs are manufactured in Pakistan

The North Korean Rungrado May Day Stadium is the largest football stadium in the world (150k capacity)

Greenland can't join the FIFA because not enough grass grows for a football field

Am I missing something? 7-1...
 

To be fair it’s not like it was a memorable game or anything.

The amazing stat about the 1-7 game is that it was Brazil’s first competitive loss at home since 1975. In a World Cup semi final. By six goals. And the scoreline flattered them.
 
Austrian club Rapid Wien has more german league titles than Bayer Leverkusen

Edit: or Schalke 04. Only mention those 2 as those are the "biggest" clubs in germany that haven't won the league

That one is not true in regards to Schalke. They won the german title 6 times between 34‘ and 42‘, plus one title in 58‘. They just never won the Bundesliga title because Bundesliga started in 1963-1964, but Rapid didn‘t either, they won their title in 41‘.
 
That one is not true in regards to Schalke. They won the german title 6 times between 34‘ and 42‘, plus one title in 58‘. They just never won the Bundesliga title because Bundesliga started in 1963-1964, but Rapid didn‘t either, they won their title in 41‘.
Oh, sorry. Wasn't looking that much into Schalke. Thanks for the info