West Ham United Trivia
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60 free West Ham United trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
West Ham United began as the works team of the last shipbuilder on the Thames, wear the colours of a kit allegedly won in a foot race, and supplied the captain and both scorers of England's 1966 World Cup final win. This quiz covers the whole story: Arnold Hills and Thames Ironworks, the rivet hammers on the badge, the Aston Villa kit and William Belton's sprint, the move to Upton Park, the White Horse final of 1923, Syd King and Charlie Paynter, the first War Cup, Ted Fenton and Malcolm Allison's Academy, Ron Greenwood's Cup and Cup Winners' Cup, Moore, Hurst and Peters, John Lyall's two Cups and the Boys of 86, Bonds and Redknapp, the Tevez affair, the Icelandic collapse, Allardyce's play-off win, the last night at the Boleyn, the Olympic Stadium saga, Moyes and Fiorentina in Prague, and the 2026 relegation. Early questions suit anyone who has heard 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles'; later ones are for Irons who know their Chicken Run from their Bobby Moore Lower: which soap advert inspired the anthem, what shape the 2016 badge is, who the 'catch-boy' was in a riveting gang, and how many players Harry Redknapp used in seven years. Good for a supporters' club night or an East End pub quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the club and the Boleyn Ground, and each question shows its source.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which French star refused to play for West Ham in January 2017 to force a move back to Marseille?
Dimitri Payet
Dimitri Payet. He had signed a contract to 2021 less than a year earlier, and although the club vowed not to sell, he was on his way within three weeks for £25 million.
Q 02Which Victorian warship, built by Thames Ironworks, gives its hull shape to West Ham's 2016 crest?
HMS Warrior
HMS Warrior. Britain's first iron-hulled armoured warship changed naval design so quickly that she was outdated within a decade of her 1860 launch, yet she survives as a museum ship in Portsmouth.
Q 03Who became West Ham United's first manager, staying in charge until 1932?
Syd King
Syd King. Still a full-back when he took the job in 1902, he ran the team for thirty years until the board suspended him for being 'drunk and insubordinate' at a meeting.
Q 04By one account, how did West Ham's forerunners acquire Aston Villa's claret and blue kit?
Won in a bet on a foot race
Won in a bet on a foot race. As the story goes, a sprinter who coached the Ironworks outran four Villa players at a Birmingham fair in 1899, and the losers settled up with a set of their club's shirts.
Q 05West Ham's first match at Upton Park in September 1904 was a 3-0 win over which fierce rivals?
Millwall
Millwall. The two clubs were still neighbours north of the Thames then: the visitors played on the Isle of Dogs and did not cross the river until 1910.
Q 06Which club's reserve side did West Ham beat behind closed doors at Upton Park in the 1980 'ghost match'?
Real Madrid
Real Madrid. Their reserve team Castilla had qualified for Europe as Spanish cup runners-up to the senior side, and after crowd trouble at the first leg West Ham won the return 5-1 before an official crowd of 262.
Q 07Which West Ham defender scored a hat-trick past three different Newcastle goalkeepers in an 8-1 win in 1986?
Alvin Martin
Alvin Martin. The centre-half scored past the first-choice keeper, then stand-in Chris Hedworth after an injury, and finally England forward Peter Beardsley, Newcastle's third goalkeeper of the match.
Q 08Which club won the 1923 'White Horse final' at Wembley 2-0?
Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers. They beat West Ham 2-0 once mounted police had pushed an overflowing crowd off the Wembley pitch, and the 'white' horse of the famous photographs was really a grey.
Q 09West Ham beat Blackburn Rovers 1-0 at Wembley to win the first edition of which competition?
The Football League War Cup
The Football League War Cup. It stood in for the suspended FA Cup, and Sam Small's goal settled the June 1940 final in front of more than 42,000 fans who turned out despite fears of an air raid.
Q 10Malcolm Allison's 1950s meetings that grew into the 'Academy of Football' were held at which venue?
Cassettari's Café on Barking Road
Cassettari's Café on Barking Road. The players pushed salt and pepper pots around the tables to map out formations, in afternoon sessions that manager Ted Fenton encouraged.
Q 11Which manager, appointed in 1961, led West Ham to the 1964 FA Cup and the 1965 Cup Winners' Cup?
Ron Greenwood
Ron Greenwood. He moved 'upstairs' as general manager in 1974 and left three years later to take the England job after Don Revie resigned.
Q 12Which West Ham player scored England's other goal in the 1966 World Cup final, alongside Geoff Hurst's hat-trick?
Martin Peters
Martin Peters. He put England 2-1 up before West Germany forced extra time, so West Ham players scored all four goals in the 4-2 win, with club-mate Bobby Moore as captain.
Q 13Bobby Moore lost the 1975 FA Cup final to West Ham while playing for which club?
Fulham
Q 21Which £1 million West Ham signing of 1995 is remembered mainly for being sent off for a foul on Gary Neville?
Marco Boogers
Marco Boogers. Harry Redknapp said he had bought the Dutchman on the strength of a video, and within months a newspaper story had him hiding out in a caravan in the Netherlands.
Q 22West Ham's fifth place in 1999 was followed by winning which European trophy against Metz?
The Intertoto Cup
The Intertoto Cup. Beating Metz took West Ham into the UEFA Cup, their first European campaign since 1980-81, which ended against Steaua Bucharest in the second round.
Q 23Which West Ham manager collapsed after a win in April 2003, weeks before his side went down with 42 points?
Glenn Roeder
Fulham. Moore had left West Ham 14 months earlier, and both goals in the 2-0 win came from Alan Taylor, a 21-year-old signed from Fourth Division Rochdale for £40,000.
Q 14West Ham lost a European final in 1976, 4-2, to which Belgian club?
Anderlecht
Anderlecht. The final was played in Brussels, their home city, and François Van der Elst, who scored twice in the 4-2 win, later signed for West Ham.
Q 15West Ham won the 1980 FA Cup while playing in which division?
The Second Division
The Second Division. As of 2025 no club from outside the top flight has won the FA Cup since, and the only goal against the holders was a rare header from West Ham's England playmaker.
Q 16The West Ham side that finished third in the top flight in 1985-86 became known as what?
The Boys of 86
The Boys of 86. Third place should have meant a UEFA Cup place, but English clubs were banned from Europe after the Heysel disaster, and as of 2025 it remains the club's highest league finish.
Q 17Which West Ham manager won the FA Cup in 1975 and 1980 but was sacked after relegation in 1989?
John Lyall
John Lyall. He joined as a ground-staff boy, retired at 23 with a knee injury and worked in the club's wages office before coaching; he was only West Ham's fifth manager in 87 years.
Q 18Which West Ham manager resigned in 1990, after seven months, amid betting allegations from his time at Swindon?
Lou Macari
Lou Macari. His replacement, long-serving former captain Billy Bonds, won promotion back to the top flight in his first full season, 1990-91.
Q 19Which West Ham signing from Oxford United in 1994 grew homesick and left for Swindon without playing a competitive game?
Joey Beauchamp
Joey Beauchamp. The winger disliked the commute from Oxford and was sold within two months, in a deal that sent defender Adrian Whitbread to West Ham.
Q 20Which West Ham academy graduate played under his uncle, manager Harry Redknapp, and his father, the assistant manager?
Frank Lampard
Frank Lampard. After both men left in 2001 he moved to Chelsea for £11 million and went on to become that club's all-time leading goalscorer.
Glenn Roeder. He had a brain tumour that was later removed, and a caretaker went unbeaten in the last three games, yet 42 points, then a record for a relegated side in a 38-game season, was not enough.
Q 24Alan Pardew's West Ham won the 2005 play-off final 1-0 against Preston with a goal from whom?
Bobby Zamora
Bobby Zamora. His goal in Cardiff sent West Ham up a year after they had lost the same final to Crystal Palace, manager Alan Pardew's former club.
Q 25Whose long-range equaliser in stoppage time denied West Ham the 2006 FA Cup before Liverpool won on penalties?
Steven Gerrard
Steven Gerrard. West Ham led 2-0 and then 3-2 in Cardiff before the Liverpool captain's second goal of the game made it 3-3, and they lost the shoot-out 3-1.
Q 26West Ham were fined £5.5 million in 2007 over signing Carlos Tevez and which other Argentine?
Javier Mascherano
Javier Mascherano. Avoiding a points deduction proved decisive: Tevez's winner on the final day kept West Ham up, and relegated Sheffield United later won an arbitration ruling against the club.
Q 27The consortium that bought West Ham in November 2006 came from which country?
Iceland
Iceland. Eggert Magnússon fronted the £85 million takeover for banker Björgólfur Guðmundsson, whose fortune collapsed with the country's banks, and by January 2010 new owners had bought in.
Q 28Who became West Ham's first non-British manager in September 2008?
Gianfranco Zola
Gianfranco Zola. The former Chelsea forward's stylish side finished ninth in his first season, but he was dismissed in May 2010 after West Ham ended one place above the relegation zone.
Q 29West Ham's 2011 relegation was sealed when they blew a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 at which club?
Wigan Athletic
Wigan Athletic. Demba Ba's two goals had West Ham ahead at half-time, but Charles N'Zogbia's added-time winner sent them down, and manager Avram Grant was sacked after the game.
Q 30Who scored West Ham's late winner against Blackpool in the 2012 Championship play-off final?
Ricardo Vaz Tê
Ricardo Vaz Tê. He made it 2-1 at Wembley after Blackpool had cancelled out Carlton Cole's opener, taking West Ham back to the Premier League after one season away.