Which stadiums are home to the most champions? | The Knowledge (original) (raw)

"For reasons that would take far too long to explain, I recently found myself looking at a list of past champions of the Bhutanese football league, the A-League," wrote Alasdair Brooks last week. "Since consistent records began in 1996, the A-League has been won by four teams: Druk Pol FC, Transport United, Druk Star FC, and Yeedzin FC. What makes this remarkable is that every single champion shares the same ground: Changlimithang Stadium in the capital Thimphu. In fact, in 2010, every single league game was played in the one stadium. Is there any other national league in the world that can boast a higher number of national champions sharing just the one ground?"

Yes we think there is, although from Bhutan we have to travel to some of football's more obscure outposts: Samoa, Cambodia and Afghanistan.

"The Samoa Football Federation plays almost all league fixtures, men's and women's on one ground in the capital of Apia," writes Bill Pennington. "The ground is made up of two pitches located next to each other. So, presumably every league champion in every division of both men's and women's leagues (around 10 clubs each with three to four teams in different divisions) has it as their 'home ground'."

"The complex was funded by Fifa in the early 2000s and officially goes by the name of the "Toleafoa Joseph H. (Sepp) Blatter Stadium". Toleafoa is a Samoan matai (chiefly) title bestowed upon his eminence by the local authorities, presumably for helping them build a stadium without sinking them into a huge pile of debt a la South Africa 2010. Personally, I used to refer to it as 'playing at the Blatter'. The pitches are simultaneously both the flattest and hardest I've ever played on."

Indeed the JS Blatter Football Complex was opened in July 2001, and, as the Samoan Football Federation's website points out, "all games are being played at the JS Blatter Football Complex at Tuanaimato". Since then seven teams — Gold Star, Strickland Brothers Lepea, Vaivase-tai, Gruz Azull, Sinamoga, Moaula United and the marvellously-named Tuanaimoto Breeze – have all won the title.

But Afghanistan can match that. "Since being constructed in the 1920s the national stadium of Afghanistan in Kabul, popularly known as 'Ghazi Stadium', has generally been used as the home ground for all teams playing football in Afghanistan's top league," writes Darren Atkinson. "The structure of the league is slightly strange in that there are two leagues [The Afghan National League and the Kabul Premier League] but the Kabul Premier League (established in 2006) is seen as the replacement to the previous set-up, a continuation from the previous league, and the current top league in Afghanistan. As such, and according to rsssf.com, there have been a total of seven different champions of the top Afghan league since 1946, all of whom played their home (and most of their away matches) at Ghazi Stadium, Kabul: Arianda, Karlappan, Maiwand CSC, Red Crescent Society, Ordu FC, Hakim Sanayi Kabul FC and Kabul Bank FC."

Both the Joseph Blatter Stadium and the Ghazi Stadium could (and we should probably emphasise the 'could') both be trumped by Cambodia's Olympic Stadium "I live in Phnom Penh, Cambodia," writes Andy Ahmed. "This year, all but one of the 10 teams competing in the Cambodian Premier League [Metfone C-League] play in the capital city's Olympic Stadium. I believe all the champions over more than 20 years have played there."

The 29 post-Khmer Rouge seasons recorded by the ever-excellent rsssf.com have seen 13 winners, although it's extremely difficult to tell which of those sides played in the Olympic Stadium. Anyone out there with an expert knowledge of 1980s Cambodian football? Get in touch.

Last week we looked (again) at the beers named after footballers, and, while the free samples have sadly been non-existent, a few tasty brews have slipped through the Knowledge's otherwise watertight net.

"There is a beer brewed in Sunderland called 'Sauce Of The Niall'," writes Jeff Phillips. "This is of course named after our former player, current chairman and all round legend Niall Quinn. Appropriately it's an Irish Stout and was originally made in 2007 to celebrate Sunderland's promotion to the Premier League. It's still being made and can be found in various pubs throughout the city."

And further down the footballing food chain: "Has anyone told you about this Jim Gannon beer?" wonders a man known only as 'Stupid Bloke'. "It's called The Ghost [Gannon's nickname at Edgeley Park due to his ability to ghost in for headers] and it's a beery beauty." Sadly, though the 3 Rivers brewery seems to have discontinued the line, though the Knowledge could certainly go for half an Old Disreputable.

CHAMPION BEATERS

"In 2003-04, my team, Northampton Town, beat the Football League's three eventual champions – Norwich in the League Cup, Plymouth in the FA Cup and Doncaster in Division Three," noted Daniel Brownsill last week. "Has anyone gone one better and beaten all four (or even more) league champions in the same season?"

Again the Knowledge heads to Germany for an answer (of sorts). "This is different from what Northampton Town did in 2003-04, but still remarkable," begins Jonathan Geiger. "In the 1996-97 campaign Arminia Bielefeld beat the eventual Champions League winners (Borussia Dortmund), the Bundesliga champions (Bayern Munich) and the German cup winner (VfB Stuttgart) all with the same score at home: 2-0."

SOCCER SCHOOLS

"In the light of the coalition's push for 'free schools', with accompanying sponsors, are there schools named after players, managers, or even clubs?" wondered D Cameron (not that one) last week.

Matthias Glafke writes in with this heartwarming little tale:

"I was sure I had read somewhere that a school was named after the skipper of the World Cup winning German team of 1954, Fritz Walter, who would have turned 90 on Sunday. I found there is indeed one, based in his home town of Kaiserslautern. They have a lovely wesbite, and their lunches look pretty decent as well.

The team's manager, Sepp Herberger, also has a school named after him, the primary school Sepp-Herberger-Grundschule Hohensachsen. Hohensachsen is a district of Weinheim, the town in which Herberger lived until his death in 1977."

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

"A few years back you helped me decipher the logo of Paris Saint-Germain," wrote Tom Haslam back in those sepia-tinged days of 2006. "Now I have another logo-based question, this time regarding Sampdoria. They seem to have a werewolf smoking a pipe as the logo – perhaps a reference to the wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome – but why the reference to Bob Marley air freshener?"

Well, we're always happy to help Tom, though sorry to inform you that your own interpretation is, on this occasion, some way wide of the mark. As a number of Samp supporters have rushed to tell us, the black shape in the middle of the Sampdoria logo is actually supposed to represent a sailor in profile – fitting for a team based in the port city of Genoa. He is known by the old Genoese name of Baciccia, which translates to Battista in Italian or Baptist in English. According to Andrea Taroni, "fans enjoy making cartoons of him usually based on Popeye the sailor in some way or other. Perhaps this is why Attilio 'Popeye' Lombardo was so popular when he was at the club."

The blue, white, red and black colours around him, meanwhile, stem from the club's origins as a merger of two local teams called Sampierdarenese and Andria Doria, who wore red and black, and white and blue respectively. The two clubs were joined in 1946 to play in the unified national league system, which first emerged in 1929.

For thousands more questions and answers, take a trip through the Knowledge archive.

Can you help?

"When I was a lad, I remember reading – probably in Shoot! – that the Arsenal captain always chose either long or short sleeved shirts before a game and that all the outfield players then wore the same. I have since told my son this vital factoid," writes Mark Meadowcroft. "However on Sunday it was clear that some of the players (including Cesc Fábregas and Jack Wilshere) wore the classic Liam Brady long sleeve while others (including Gaël Clichy) sported a short sleeve. When did the tradition end or was it always an urban myth?"

"I looked at the Bundesliga table recently, and noticed three of the teams have a '1' at the start of their name: 1.FC Kaiserslautern, 1.FC Koln and 1.FC Nurnberg," muses Frankie Lowe. "I can understand numbers in titles such as 1860 Munich and 1899 Hoffenheim, which clearly denote the year the club was formed, but unless the teams mentioned above are older than I thought then I am completely stumped. Can you help?"

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