Chelsea Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
54 free Chelsea trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Chelsea are the club that was founded for a stadium rather than the other way round: Gus Mears bought Stamford Bridge, Fulham turned him down, and a new club was born in a pub across the road. This quiz covers the whole story: the names that were nearly chosen, the Chelsea Pensioner crest, Ted Drake and the 1955 title, the European Cup they were talked out of, Tommy Docherty's blue shorts and white socks, Osgood and the 1970 replay, the Cup Winners' Cup in Athens, near-bankruptcy and Ken Bates's £1, Matthew Harding, Gullit and Vialli, Abramovich's takeover in a day, Mourinho's back-to-back titles, Munich 2012, the two Europa Leagues, Tuchel in Porto, the sanctions and the sale, BlueCo, the Conference League that completed the UEFA set, and the 2025 Club World Cup. Early questions suit anyone who has heard 'Blue is the Colour'; later ones are for Blues who know their Shed End from their Matthew Harding: which sport Stamford Bridge was built for, why celery was banned, what Mr Memory said in The 39 Steps, and how many home league games went unbeaten between 2004 and 2008. Good for a supporters' club night or a west London pub quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's article on the club, its records and its stadium, and each question shows its source.
30 of 54 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Gus Mears founded Chelsea in 1905 after which club turned down his offer to lease Stamford Bridge?
Fulham
Fulham already existed as a club, so the new team took the name of the neighbouring borough of Chelsea instead.
Q 02Which Chelsea striker is credited with helping bring peace to Ivory Coast during its civil war?
Didier Drogba
Didier Drogba proposed playing a 2007 Nations Cup qualifier in Bouaké, the rebels' capital, so both sides came together to watch.
Q 03In which pub, across the road from Stamford Bridge, were Chelsea founded in March 1905?
The Rising Sun
The Rising Sun meeting created a club that was accepted into the Football League before it had played a single match.
Q 04Before Chelsea existed, Stamford Bridge had been used for decades as an arena for what?
Athletics
Athletics meetings of the London Athletic Club filled it from 1877, and Chelsea were later formed from scratch just to fill the new stadium.
Q 05Which architect of Ibrox, Craven Cottage and Hampden Park also designed Stamford Bridge?
Archibald Leitch
Archibald Leitch had seen his name hurt in 1902, when part of a stand he designed at Ibrox collapsed and 25 people died.
Q 06Chelsea's first FA Cup final, in 1915, was lost to Sheffield United at which ground?
Old Trafford
Old Trafford staged it to spare wartime transport, and so many uniformed soldiers attended that it became known as the Khaki Cup Final.
Q 07Which former England striker became Chelsea manager in 1952 and won its first title in 1954-55?
Ted Drake
Ted Drake's first season ended in 19th place, as the one before had, so his champions grew out of a side that had been fighting relegation.
Q 08What happened to Chelsea's place in the first European Cup?
The Football League persuaded them to withdraw
The Football League persuaded them to withdraw, because its leaders saw the new tournament as a distraction from domestic football.
Q 09Which manager dressed Chelsea in blue shorts and white socks, a look first worn in the mid-1960s?
Tommy Docherty
Tommy Docherty's young side had been relegated in his first season in charge, but bounced straight back to the First Division.
Q 10Chelsea's 1970 FA Cup win came in a replayed final against which club?
Leeds United
Leeds United had largely dominated the drawn Wembley final, but David Webb headed Chelsea's extra-time winner in the replay.
Q 11Chelsea won its first European trophy, the 1971 Cup Winners' Cup, in a replayed final against which club?
Real Madrid
Real Madrid drew the first match 1–1, and because UEFA had not planned for a replay, the crowd two days later was less than half as big.
Q 12Chelsea's record competitive win, 13-0 in 1971, came against a club from which country?
Luxembourg
Luxembourg's Jeunesse Hautcharage lost 21–0 on aggregate, yet Chelsea went out in the next round to Sweden's Åtvidaberg on away goals.
Q 13In 1982 Ken Bates bought debt-ridden Chelsea for what sum?
£1
£1 bought the club but not its ground, whose separately held freehold was sold to property developers two years later, in 1984, so Chelsea faced losing their home.
Q 21Which manager took Chelsea to their first Champions League final in 2008, lost on penalties?
Avram Grant
Avram Grant was sacked days later, after eight months in charge in which Chelsea also finished runners-up in the Premier League.
Q 22Ancelotti's 2009–10 Chelsea were the first top-flight side since 1962–63 to do what?
Score 100 league goals in a season
They did score 100 league goals in a season, finishing on 103 after a final-day 8–0 win over Wigan that also sealed the title.
Q 23Chelsea's 2012 shoot-out win in Munich made them the first London club to do what?
Lift the Champions League trophy
Q 14What did Ken Bates plan to use at Stamford Bridge in the 1980s to stop pitch invasions, before the council blocked it?
An electric fence
An electric fence was actually built around the pitch, but permission to switch on the power was refused and it was taken down.
Q 15Which Chelsea director, killed in a 1996 helicopter crash, is the namesake of Stamford Bridge's North Stand?
Matthew Harding
Matthew Harding was flying home from a League Cup tie at Bolton, and his death came months before Chelsea won the FA Cup.
Q 16Which player-manager, appointed in 1996, won Chelsea their first major trophy since 1971?
Ruud Gullit
Ruud Gullit was sacked in February 1998 with Chelsea second in the league, and said he did not know why.
Q 17On 26 December 1999 Chelsea became the first British club to do what, against Southampton?
Field an entirely foreign starting line-up
Chelsea did field an entirely foreign starting line-up that day, and it ended their three-month wait for a Premier League away win.
Q 18Which Manchester United chief executive did Chelsea lure away in 2003, soon after Roman Abramovich's takeover?
Peter Kenyon
Peter Kenyon had said only months earlier, of Abramovich's billions, that 'having money is not necessarily a route to automatic success'.
Q 19Which midfielder in Chelsea's 2004–05 title side gave his name to a defensive midfield role?
Claude Makélélé
Claude Makélélé only became a defensive midfielder relatively late, having earlier played further forward and even at wing-back.
Q 20Which club ended Chelsea's record 86-game unbeaten home league run in October 2008?
Liverpool
Liverpool won 1–0 with a deflected goal, ending a run that had already broken Liverpool's own record of 63 unbeaten home games.
They could lift the Champions League trophy under Roberto Di Matteo, a caretaker who was sacked barely six months later.
Q 24Winning the 2013 Europa League made Chelsea the first club to do what?
Hold two major European titles simultaneously
They could hold two major European titles simultaneously thanks to Branislav Ivanović, banned from the 2012 final, who headed an injury-time winner.
Q 25Which manager won Chelsea's sixth league title in 2017 and was sacked in 2018 after finishing fifth?
Antonio Conte
Antonio Conte switched to a three-man defence after a 3–0 defeat at Arsenal early in that title-winning season, and Chelsea's form was transformed.
Q 26After winning the 2019 Europa League with Chelsea, Maurizio Sarri left to manage which club?
Juventus
Maurizio Sarri won Serie A in his only season at Juventus, yet was sacked in August 2020 after a Champions League exit to Lyon.
Q 27In which city did Chelsea beat Manchester City 1-0 in the 2021 Champions League final?
Porto
Porto stepped in only two weeks before, after the UK put Turkey, home of planned host Istanbul, on its Covid travel red list.
Q 28What did Roman Abramovich pledge to do with the proceeds of selling Chelsea in 2022?
Help Ukraine war victims
He pledged to help Ukraine war victims with the net proceeds, and said he would not ask for any of his loans to the club to be repaid.
Q 29Which Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner led the consortium that bought Chelsea from Roman Abramovich in 2022?
Todd Boehly
Todd Boehly's takeover ended weeks under a government licence that had stopped Chelsea from buying or selling players.
Q 30Which manager did Chelsea sack in April 2023, before finishing in the bottom half for the first time since 1995–96?
Graham Potter
Graham Potter had arrived from Brighton only that September, after the sacking of Thomas Tuchel early in the season.