8 hours ago
10
“Paris FC’s promotion means that Paris will have its first Ligue 1 derby since 1978-79. Is there any European city that has had a longer gap between top-flight derbies?” queries Steve Whittaker from Frankfurt (which hasn’t had a top-flight derby in the Bundesliga era).
We’ve touched on this before, many years ago, when we found a 44-year gap between the meeting of Hertha Berlin and FC Union and a 48-year wait for FSV v Eintracht in Steve’s home city. However both derbies reconvened in the second tier and don’t count here. So it is well worth us having a drill down into some top-flight derby deserts. The 46-year wait for Paris bragging rights to be earned is indeed a long one, particularly for a capital city.
Dirk Maas takes us to the Belgian capital, Brussels, where fans of Anderlecht and Union Saint-Gilloise had to wait from the 1972-73 season (when Union were relegated) until 2021-22. We don’t have the exact date of the the derby that took place in the early 1970s, but that adds up to at least 48 years.
“Zenit regularly played Dynamo Saint Petersburg in the Soviet top flight between 1938 and 1963, when Dynamo were relegated,” writes Peter Skilton. “It wouldn’t be until the 2017-18 season, when FK Tosno (from the Town of Tosno but playing at Zenit’s former home of the Petrovsky Stadium in the Saint Petersburg) were promoted, that they played another local derby in the top flight. Tosno only lasted one season before being relegated and leaving Zenit as once again the only club in the city.” We make that 54 years.
But Lino Di Lorenzo has been in touch to set the record straight on the original question and offer a few other examples. “My research suggests that Paris actually had its last league derby in 1989-90 (not 1979) when Racing Club de Paris were relegated from Ligue 1, so it will mean a 36-year gap. A long time, but not the longest (although probably the most surprising). The answer depends on whether you limit yourself to European capitals, or cities with populations of more than, say, one million.” Any European city is fine, Lino, so fire away:
-
Valencia had no derby between Valencia and Levante in La Liga between 10 January 1965 and 8 January 2005 (40 years).
-
Berlin had no Bundesliga derby between 1977 (Hertha Berlin v Tennis Borussia Berlin) until 2019 (Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin – 42 years). There were Berlin derbies in the old East German league, but teams from West Berlin would not have been able to participate in those.
-
Cologne has no league derby since 1974 (FC Köln v Fortuna Köln) but those two did meet in the 1982 DFB Pokal Cup, but that doesn’t count. So the gap is active at 51 years.
-
Finally, Naples has never had a Serie A derby at all. To get close to one, you need to venture back to the pre-Serie A days of 1921 when the Italian Championship involved a series of mini-leagues leading to a final round-robin. In the last round before it entered the final phase in 1921, three teams from Naples played each other in a mini league – Bagnolese, Internazionale Napoli, and Naples Foot-Ball Club. Bagnolese have since dissolved, and the other two merged in 1926 to form what is now Napoli. So that could be 105 years and counting.
Lino also points out that Ajax have not had a top-flight derby in quite some time. FC Amsterdam were relegated in 1978 and went out of business in 1982. So that’s 47 years and counting.
But Mykola Kozlenko has perhaps found two potential answers. The first is the biggest “pure” gap, which he thinks is 92 years, in Lausanne, between 1930-31 and 2023-24. “Only one team from Lausanne were regulars at the top level, namely Lausanne-Sports. However, unusual regulations in the 1930-31 season meant that several second-tier teams were promoted mid-season. Racing Lausanne were one of them, leading to a derby against Lausanne-Sports on 1 February 1931. In the 2023-24 season, two Lausanne teams were promoted to the Swiss Super League: Lausanne-Sport and Stade Lausanne-Ouchy (the latter last played at the top level in the inaugural 1897-98 season – a 126-year gap). The first of the two Lausanne derbies happened on 21 October 2023.”
The longest “ongoing” streak without a derby from active teams is 104 years, in Bradford, since 1920-21. “There used to be a Bradford derby at the top level. The last top-level game took place on 2 October 1920. With Bradford City in League One and Bradford (Park Avenue) playing in the eighth tier now, this derby is not exactly expected to happen again in the Premier League any time soon.”
Get in touch if you have any more to add to the list.
Players with names similar to their positions (2)
We have another good one to add to the list …
Here’s Tom Berrett to introduce him. “Spurs once signed a player called Rodrigo Defendi – a centre-back, no less.” Yes, he was signed as a 16-year-old in 2005 having been spotted by Frank Arnesen, but at such a tender age the Brazilian was never given a first-team start by Martin Jol. He did go on to have a decent career, though, winning the Coppa Italia with Roma, the Portuguese Cup with Vitória de Guimarães and the league title with Botafogo.
The Price is right
Last month we looked at players who had scored more goals for their country than their clubs. Sam McIlwaine has a cracking example from the present day: the young West Brom and Northern Ireland midfielder Isaac Price, whose career record is a thing of trivialicious beauty.
-
Clubs: two goals, 75 appearances (one every 37.5 games)
-
Country: nine goals, 22 appearances (one every 2.44 games)
And there’s another player to keep your eye on too.
Knowledge archive
“This weekend the state leagues in Brazil finally came to a close,” wrote Paulo Padilha in May 2012. “Bahia ended a 11-year trophy drought when they were crowned champions over local rivals Vitória and I couldn’t help but notice that the trophy they were lifting was in the shape of an elevator. In this case it was one of the landmarks of the city of Salvador. Are there other examples of trophies that don’t conform to the usual cup/vase/shield/pedestal-thingy shapes?”
Brazilian state federations seem the chief culprits here, as Paulo went on to explain: “Over the years the state championships have provided several trophies in the shape of buildings. The federation of Rio Grande do Norte presented another replica of a local landmark in addition to the regular trophy that changes hands from year to year, while the Santa Catarina and São Paulo federations have been known to hand out replicas of their own headquarters. The São Paulo federation even had a somewhat traditional trophy in the shape of the state’s gubernatorial palace, that was around for several years and required several people to carry it.”
A 2025 update: we now have the Club World Cup trophy to add to the list.
Can you help?
“England and Germany are in the Women’s Euro 2025 semi-finals (at the time of writing). If they meet in the final, it could mean Jess Carter of England playing for the trophy against her fiancée, Ann-Katrin Berger of Germany. Have two spouses or partners ever played against each other in a competitive match?” enquires Ciaran McCarthy (Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema missed each other by a matter of minutes earlier in Euro 2025).
“In the recent England v Sweden Euro 2025 penalty shootout, only five of the 14 penalties taken were scored – a success rate of 36%. Statistically, is this the worst penalty shootout in an international competition? What about club competitions?” asks Derek Robertson.
“If a player has been sent off in a knockout tie that goes to penalties, it’s possible that the shootout could continue long enough that the offending team’s first penalty taker will take a second spot-kick up against the opposition’s last penalty taker. Has this ever happened?” muses Chris Carter.
“Has any club ever won such a pair of disparate trophies, in terms of breadth and depth of opposition, as the Conference League and the swivelling saucer that Chelsea just won?” wonders Paul Crawford. “My only offer is Celtic in 1967 winning the European Cup and the Glasgow Cup?”
“Malmö and Copenhagen were drawn to face each other in Champions League qualifying, presuming they win their respective ties first,” writes Jack B. “They played each other in the 2019-20 Europa League too. These two cities are approximately 26 miles apart. Is this the closest European tie between two teams in different associations?”
