Category: Football

The simple answer is no, Leeds United has never won the Premier League, at least not yet. Of course, in 2020/21 the ‘Mighty Whites’ returned to the Premier League after a 16-year absence, but in their previous 12-year spell in the highest echelon of English football finished no higher than third place. They achieved that position in 1999/2000, under former assistant, and caretaker, manager David O’Leary, who was eventually appointed as permanent replacement for previous manager George Graham.

Of course, the Premier League did not start until 1992/93, when the 22 clubs in the First Division, as the top flight was previously known, broke away from the Football Association and the Football League. At that time, Leeds United was effectively defending champion of English football, having beaten Manchester United to the First Division title by four points in 1991/92. In fact, that title, under Howard Wilkinson, was Leeds’ third, following previous wins in 1968/69 and 1973/74, both under Don Revie. Indeed, following promotion from the Second Division in 1963/64, Don Revie’s Leeds finished no worse than fourth in the First Division for the next decade; Revie left Leeds in July, 1974 to succeed Sir Alf Ramsey as the manager of the England national team.

Formerly the First Division of the Football League, the Premier League was established in 1992 and, in the interim, eight different teams have been involved in matches that produced ten, or more, goals. Interestingly, the first of them, chronologically, was also the highest-scoring Premier League game of all time.

The fixture in question took place between Portsmouth and Reading at Fratton Park, Portsmouth on September 29, 2007, and produced eleven goals, with an injury time own-goal from English international centre-back Sol Campbell taking the final score to 7-4 in favour of the home team. Just two minutes earlier, also in injury time, central midfielder Suleyman ‘Sulley’ Muntari – signed by Portsmouth, for a club record fee, earlier that season – had scored a penalty to effectively put the result beyond doubt. Zimbabwean international striker Benjamin Mwaruwari, popularly known as ‘Benjani’, had earlier completed a seventieth-minute hat-trick. Despite his side conceding seven goals, Reading manager Steve Coppell said later afterwards that the match ‘must have been great for the impartial observer.’

Elsewhere in Premier League history, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Arsenal have all been involved in two ten-goal thrillers apiece. Tottenham beat subsequently relegated Reading 6-4 on December 29, 2007, and Wigan 9-1 on November 22, 2009, Manchester United beat Arsenal 8-2 on August 28, 2011, and drew 5-5 with West Bromwich Albion on May 19, 2013, while Arsenal also beat Newcastle 7-3 on December 29, 2012.

Association football is, far and away, the most popular spectator sport on the planet, with nearly half the population of the world taking an interest. Indeed, football dominates most of Europe, South America, Africa and Asia, and it is no real surprise that some of the largest football stadiums in the world are to be found on those continents.

In Africa, for example, the First National Bank (FNB) Stadium, also known as Soccer City, in Nasrec, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, is the third largest football stadium in the world. Originally built in 1987, the FNB Stadium was upgraded in preparation for the FIFA World Cup in 2010 – it was, in fact, the venue for the World Cup Final between Netherlands and Spain – and nowadays has a seating capacity of 94,736.

In Europe, the Camp Nou, which has been the home of Barcelona Football Club since 1957, is the largest football stadium on the continent and the second largest in the world. Built over a period of three years between 1954 and 1957, at a cost of 288,000,000 Ptas – approximately £3,500,000, allowing for inflation – Camp Nou has a seating capacity of 99,354 and the largest football stadium in Europe.

Perhaps surprisingly, the distinction of having the largest football stadium in the world belongs to Asia and, specifically, to North Korea, traditionally one of the least accessible countries in the world. The Rungrado May Stadium in the capital city, Pyongyang, was built in 1989 and has floor space in excess of 50 acres, not to mention capacity for 114,000 spectators.

In March, 2019, Huddersfield Town were relegated from the Premier League after 32 matches of a 38-match season, making them just the third team, after Derby County and Ipswich Town, to be heading into the second-tier with half a dozen games remaining. However, even if the Terriers lose both of their remaining fixtures in the 2018/19 season, their total of 14 points will not be the lowest in Premier League history.

The unenviable record for the lowest number of points in a Premier League season is held by Derby County who, in 2007/08, amassed just 11. Newly, and unexpectedly, promoted, Derby County won just one game all season and, by the time they parted company with manager Billy Davies, by ‘mutual consent’, in November, 2007, had accumulated just 6 points from 14 matches and were bottom of the league. Davies’ replacement, Paul Jewell, failed to inspire a revival and, by the end of the season, Derby County had set a whole series of unwelcome Premier League records, including for fewest goals scored (20) and most goals conceded (89) – resulting in an eye-watering goal difference of -69 – and for most losses (29).