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50 free British Football trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Football in Britain is older than anywhere else, and its history is full of stories the Premier League era tends to skip: a seaside club promoted automatically for the first time, a Highland side whose cup win became a newspaper headline for the ages, and a goalkeeper still winning caps on his 41st birthday. These 50 questions roam across all four home nations. You will meet the men who founded the Football League and drafted the first laws, the clubs behind the oddest nicknames, the grounds that staged floodlit firsts, and the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish champions, records and managers who rarely make the highlight reels. It suits pub quiz hosts, club historians and anyone who wants a proper test beyond the top flight. Every answer comes with a short explanation and a source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Devon club was the first team ever to play Brazil's national side, on a 1914 tour of South America?
Exeter City
Exeter City were Brazil's first-ever opponents, which is why the Devon club is today a partner club of Rio giants Fluminense. The 1914 tour was meant to spread the game across South America.
Q 02Which Highland city's club inspired the 2000 headline 'Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious'?
Inverness
Inverness Caledonian Thistle, then a second-tier side, knocked Celtic out of the national cup, and The Sun's headline now hangs framed in the club's foyer. They repeated the trick in 2003, beating Celtic 1-0 at home in the quarter-final.
Q 03Which Angus club's 36–0 win over Bon Accord in 1885 is still the world record score in senior football?
Arbroath
Arbroath's 36–0 should have been bigger still: the referee disallowed a further five to seven goals. The rout came in a cup tie on 12 September 1885.
Q 04Which club takes its name from the weekday on which its founding cricketers had a half-day off work?
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday grew out of The Wednesday Cricket Club and were known simply as 'The Wednesday' until 1929. The cricket club itself is believed to date from 1820.
Q 05Which Lancashire club won the first Football League title unbeaten and the FA Cup without conceding a goal?
Preston North End
Preston North End's 1888–89 'Invincibles' remain the only English team to go through both league and FA Cup unbeaten in one season. Their Deepdale home has been in use since 1875.
Q 06Whose solo goal against the Netherlands at the 1978 World Cup is celebrated in a scene from the film Trainspotting?
Archie Gemmill
Archie Gemmill's slalom past the Dutch defence is rated among the greatest World Cup goals ever, yet Scotland still went home after the 3–2 win. The character Renton name-checks it in the film.
Q 07Which club beat Real Madrid 2–1 after extra time in Gothenburg to win the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup?
Aberdeen
Aberdeen, managed by a young Alex Ferguson, won the last of their league titles in 1985, and as of 2026 no club outside the Old Firm has been champion since. They were only the third club from Scotland to lift a European trophy.
Q 08Tannadice Park and Dens Park, the closest senior football grounds in the UK at 200 yards apart, are in which city?
Dundee
Dundee United's Tannadice was laid out on a natural slope just 200 yards from Dundee FC's Dens Park, which opened in 1899. Fans can walk between the two in a couple of minutes.
Q 09Which club's 'Pilgrims' nickname and Mayflower crest recall the ship that sailed from its home port in 1620?
Plymouth Argyle
Plymouth Argyle are named for the Pilgrim Fathers, who left Plymouth for the New World in 1620 aboard the Mayflower. The club began life in 1886 as plain Argyle Football Club.
Q 10Which cricket ground of 1855, now home to the Blades, staged the world's first floodlit football match in 1878?
Bramall Lane
Bramall Lane is the oldest major stadium in the world still hosting professional football, and that 1878 floodlit game drew a crowd of over 20,000. Yorkshire played county cricket there until 1973.
Q 11Which Bedfordshire club went from the fifth-tier Conference in 2014 to the Premier League in 2023?
Luton Town
Luton Town won the Conference Premier in 2013–14 and then the 2023 Championship play-off final, nine years apart. The Hatters have played at Kenilworth Road since 1905.
Q 12Which club, chaired by Elton John, rose from the Fourth Division to top-flight runners-up in 1983 under Graham Taylor?
Watford
Watford's climb under Graham Taylor took them from the Fourth Division in 1977 to a UEFA Cup campaign and an FA Cup final. Elton John, a lifelong fan, had become chairman in 1976.
Q 13Windsor Park, the national stadium in Belfast, has been the home ground of which club since 1905?
Linfield
Q 21Who in December 2023 became the first woman to referee a Premier League match?
Rebecca Welch
Rebecca Welch had already been the first woman to referee an EFL match, Harrogate against Port Vale in 2021. She also officiated at the 2023 Women's World Cup.
Q 22The British Home Championship, the world's oldest international tournament, was played for the last time in which year?
1984
1984's final edition was won by Northern Ireland, who kept the trophy for good but for years had nowhere suitable to display it. England and Scotland had announced in 1983 that they would not enter again.
Q 23Which Birmingham club director wrote the 1888 letter proposing that leading clubs play fixed home-and-away fixtures?
William McGregor
Linfield's 57 league titles, as of 2026, are more than any other club in the world has won in its own national championship. Their 44 national cup wins are the second-most anywhere.
Q 14Which competition, first contested in 1873–74, has the oldest national trophy in world football?
The Scottish Cup
The Scottish Cup is the second-oldest competition in football after the FA Cup, yet its original trophy is the oldest still in use. Eight clubs founded the Scottish FA in March 1873 and launched the cup that same year.
Q 15Which club won the inaugural League Cup in 1961, beating Rotherham United 3–2 over two legs?
Aston Villa
Aston Villa lifted the first League Cup after a two-legged final, a format used until the showpiece moved to the national stadium in 1967. Several big clubs had snubbed the new competition.
Q 16Which fifth-tier competition, called the Football Conference from 1986 to 2015, promotes two clubs a year into the EFL?
The National League
The National League began in 1979 as the Alliance Premier League, and Barnet are the only founder member never to have dropped below the top five levels. Two EFL clubs come down to replace the promoted pair.
Q 17Which club is nicknamed the Cobblers in tribute to the local shoemaking industry?
Northampton Town
Northampton Town play in claret and white and swapped their County Ground home for Sixfields in 1994. Fans also go by the name 'Shoe Army'.
Q 18Which Suffolk club, managed by Alf Ramsey, won the league title in 1962 in its first season in the top flight?
Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town's 1961–62 champions then beat Floriana 14–1 on aggregate in the European Cup before going out to AC Milan. Ramsey left the following year to take charge of England.
Q 19Which nation beat Wales 2–0 in the Euro 2016 semi-finals, ending their first tournament in 58 years?
Portugal
Portugal's goals came from Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani early in the second half, and they went on to win the tournament. Wales had climbed 109 places in the world rankings to get there.
Q 20Which 1992 law change stopped goalkeepers handling deliberate passes from teammates after a dull 1990 World Cup?
The back-pass rule
The back-pass rule was trialled at the 1991 Under-17 World Championship and first used in earnest at the 1992 Olympics. Euro 92 was the last major tournament played without it.
William McGregor wanted to call his creation the 'Association Football Union', but that sounded too close to the Rugby Football Union. Twelve clubs from the Midlands and north played the first season.
Q 24After liquidation in 2012, Rangers restarted in which level of Scotland's league system?
The fourth tier
The fourth tier was then called the Third Division, and Rangers' first match there drew 49,000 for a 5–1 win over East Stirlingshire. Most of the first-team squad had refused to transfer to the new company.
Q 25Which club, Scotland's oldest, stayed fully amateur for 152 years until its members voted to turn professional in 2019?
Queen's Park
Queen's Park's Latin motto 'Ludere Causa Ludendi', to play for the sake of playing, summed up an amateur ethos kept since 1867. They are the tenth-oldest football club in the world.
Q 26Which manager, who led Celtic to nine successive titles, died at the end of Scotland's 1985 qualifier in Cardiff?
Jock Stein
Jock Stein's Celtic equalled a then world record of nine straight league championships, a run shared with MTK Budapest and CSKA Sofia. He was managing Scotland at Ninian Park when he collapsed.
Q 27Which Edinburgh club ended a wait stretching back to 1902 for the national cup by beating Rangers 3–2 in the 2016 final?
Hibernian
Hibernian were founded in 1875 by Edinburgh's Irish community, and the name is Latin for Ireland. Irvine Welsh wrote the 2016 final into his novel Dead Men's Trousers.
Q 28Which club near the English border reached Scotland's 2006 cup final and top flight, then went out of business in 2008?
Gretna
Gretna's three successive promotions from 2005 to 2007 took them from the Third Division to the top flight, bankrolled by Brooks Mileson, who then fell ill and withdrew his money. They lost the 2006 final to Hearts on penalties.
Q 29What nickname was given to the Scotland side that beat England 5–1 in the 1928 British Home Championship?
The Wembley Wizards
The Wembley Wizards' 5–1 win came in the 1928 British Home Championship, the annual contest between the four UK nations. Eight of the side were 'Anglos' playing for Football League clubs.
Q 30Wales's FA, the world's third-oldest, was founded at the Wynnstay Arms Hotel in which year?
1876
1876 saw the Football Association of Wales formed initially just to arrange that March's first Wales–Scotland match, which Scotland won 4–0 in Glasgow. The other options are when the FAs of England, Scotland and Ireland began.