aimbst

Football Quiz — 50 Questions with Answers

5 rounds · 50 questions

Round 1 of 5 · Question 1 of 50

Premier League

In which season was the Premier League first played?

Show all 50 questions with answers and explanations

Every question, answer and explanation

Premier League

  1. In which season was the Premier League first played?

    Answer 1992–93

    Twenty-two First Division clubs broke away to form it, largely so they could sell television rights separately. The league was cut to twenty clubs from 1995–96.

  2. Which club has won the most Premier League titles?

    Answer Manchester United

    Most of those titles came in a single long spell under one manager. Liverpool hold the record for English top-flight titles overall, counting the years before the Premier League.

  3. Which side went unbeaten through the 2003–04 season, earning the name 'The Invincibles'?

    Answer Arsenal

    Thirty-eight matches, twenty-six wins and twelve draws. No side has managed a full unbeaten league season since.

  4. Anfield is the home ground of which club?

    Answer Liverpool

    The ground has been in use since 1884, and for the first eight of those years it was Everton who played there.

  5. Which 5000/1 outsiders won the title in 2015–16?

    Answer Leicester City

    The season before, they had only just avoided relegation. Bookmakers rated the title at 5000/1 before a ball was kicked.

  6. Who is the Premier League's all-time record goalscorer?

    Answer Alan Shearer

    His total was set across spells at two clubs, and he has held the record since the league's early years without it being seriously threatened for a long stretch.

  7. Which club reached 100 points in the 2017–18 season?

    Answer Manchester City

    They lost twice all season and are still the only side to pass a hundred points in the competition.

  8. The Etihad Stadium is home to which club?

    Answer Manchester City

    The club moved there in 2003 from Maine Road. The ground was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and then converted for football.

  9. The Golden Boot is awarded each season to whom?

    Answer The top scorer

    It goes to the highest scorer across the league season, and has been shared in years when two or more players finish level.

  10. The North London derby is contested by Tottenham and which club?

    Answer Arsenal

    The two grounds sit about four miles apart in north London, which is part of why the fixture carries the edge it does.

England

  1. At which stadium did England win the 1966 World Cup final?

    Answer Wembley

    It remains England's only World Cup win, and the last major men's tournament final played at the old stadium before it was rebuilt.

  2. Who scored a hat-trick in the 1966 final?

    Answer Geoff Hurst

    He is still the only player to score three in a men's World Cup final. The third came in the closing seconds of extra time.

  3. Who became England's all-time top scorer in 2023?

    Answer Harry Kane

    He passed a record that had stood since the 1970s, and did it while playing as an out-and-out centre forward rather than from midfield.

  4. England's Italia '90 semi-final was lost on penalties to which team?

    Answer West Germany

    The shoot-out went to sudden death after both sides had scored their first four. West Germany went on to win the final.

  5. Which trophy did the Lionesses win in 2022?

    Answer The European Championship

    They beat Germany in the final at Wembley in front of a record crowd for a European Championship match, men's or women's.

  6. What is the England men's team's famous nickname?

    Answer The Three Lions

    The three lions come from the royal arms of England and have been on the shirt badge since the first international in 1872.

  7. How far did England go at the 2018 World Cup?

    Answer Semi-final

    They lost the semi-final in extra time, having won a World Cup penalty shoot-out for the first time earlier in the tournament.

  8. Which captain lifted the World Cup for England in 1966?

    Answer Bobby Moore

    He captained the side throughout the tournament and was named its outstanding defender. He was twenty-five at the time.

  9. What did the old Wembley famously have instead of the arch?

    Answer The Twin Towers

    They stood from 1923 until the stadium was demolished in 2003, and were the image most people pictured when the ground was mentioned.

  10. David Beckham's red card at France '98 came against which side?

    Answer Argentina

    England went out on penalties in that match having played most of it with ten men.

Clubs & Grounds

  1. Old Trafford is known by what nickname?

    Answer The Theatre of Dreams

    The phrase came from a former player describing the ground, and the club adopted it. It is the largest club stadium in England.

  2. Celtic and Rangers are rivals in which city?

    Answer Glasgow

    The two clubs are known together as the Old Firm, and the fixture is among the oldest continuous rivalries in the game.

  3. Villa Park is the home of which club?

    Answer Aston Villa

    The club has played there since 1897, and the ground has also hosted FA Cup semi-finals and England internationals.

  4. Which club is nicknamed 'The Toffees'?

    Answer Everton

    The name is generally traced to a sweet shop that stood near the club's early ground.

  5. Cardiff City and Swansea City are clubs from which nation?

    Answer Wales

    Both play in the English league system despite being Welsh clubs, an arrangement that dates back over a century.

  6. What is the world's oldest national cup competition?

    Answer The FA Cup

    It began in 1871–72 with fifteen entrants. Clubs from far down the pyramid still enter, which is where the giant-killing stories come from.

  7. Which club is nicknamed 'The Hammers'?

    Answer West Ham United

    The club began as Thames Ironworks, a shipbuilding works team, and the crossed hammers on the badge come from that.

  8. Stamford Bridge is the home ground of which club?

    Answer Chelsea

    The ground opened in 1877 for an athletics club, and the football club was founded in 1905 specifically to play there.

  9. Elland Road is home to which club?

    Answer Leeds United

    The club has played there since 1919, and the ground held far larger crowds in the decades before all-seater rules.

  10. St James' Park is the home of which club?

    Answer Newcastle United

    The ground sits close to the city centre, which is unusual for a stadium of that size in England.

World Football

  1. Which nation has won the most men's World Cups?

    Answer Brazil

    The five titles came in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. Germany and Italy are next with four each.

  2. Spain beat which country in the 2026 World Cup final?

    Answer Argentina

    Ferran Torres settled it early in the second half of extra time, with Argentina a man down after a late sending-off.

  3. 'El Clásico' is contested by Real Madrid and which club?

    Answer Barcelona

    Both clubs are still owned by their members, not by an owner or an investment group. A 1990 law pushed Spanish clubs into company ownership but exempted the few then solvent.

  4. Who won the 2010 World Cup in South Africa?

    Answer Spain

    They came through a group stage defeat to Switzerland and then won every knockout match by a single goal.

  5. 'Total Football' is associated with which national side of the 1970s?

    Answer Netherlands

    Players swapped positions constantly rather than holding fixed roles. The side reached the 1974 final playing that way.

  6. Who is the all-time top scorer in men's international football?

    Answer Cristiano Ronaldo

    The tally was built over two decades of international football, and he passed the previous record while still playing regularly.

  7. The Maracanã stadium is found in which country?

    Answer Brazil

    It was built for the 1950 World Cup and is remembered for the deciding match Brazil lost there to Uruguay.

  8. Zinedine Zidane won the 1998 World Cup with which country?

    Answer France

    He scored twice in the final, both with his head from corners.

  9. Bayern Munich dominate which league?

    Answer The Bundesliga

    They have won it far more often than any other club, including a long run of consecutive titles.

  10. Juventus play their home matches in which city?

    Answer Turin

    The club shares the city with Torino, and the two contest the Derby della Mole.

Laws & History

  1. What does VAR stand for?

    Answer Video Assistant Referee

    It covers four situations only — goals, penalty decisions, straight red cards and mistaken identity. It does not review everything.

  2. In which year was the Football Association founded?

    Answer 1863

    It was formed at a London pub, and the meeting produced the first written laws of the game.

  3. How many substitutions are teams permitted in most top-flight matches today?

    Answer Five

    The allowance rose from three, and the five must usually be made within three stoppages so the game is not broken up repeatedly.

  4. Scoring three goals in one match is called what?

    Answer A hat-trick

    The word comes from cricket, where a bowler taking three wickets in three balls was traditionally given a hat.

  5. A 'clean sheet' means what for a team?

    Answer No goals conceded

    It is counted for the team rather than the goalkeeper alone, which is why defenders are credited with them too.

  6. The first official international match, in 1872, was England against whom?

    Answer Scotland

    It finished goalless in Glasgow in front of a crowd of about four thousand.

  7. The abolished 'golden goal' rule decided matches how?

    Answer First goal in extra time won

    It ran from the 1990s until 2004. The rule was dropped partly because teams defended rather than attacked once extra time began.

  8. Playing the ball through an opponent's legs is called a what?

    Answer Nutmeg

    Referees do not treat it as a foul in itself, though what follows sometimes is.

  9. Referees use vanishing spray to mark what?

    Answer The free-kick wall distance

    The line disappears after about a minute, which is enough to stop the wall creeping forward before the kick is taken.

  10. What is the line along each long side of the pitch called?

    Answer The touchline

    The lines at the ends are the goal lines. A ball is only out when the whole of it has crossed the whole of the line.

About the Football Quiz

Football knowledge in this country is partly geographical. Supporters carry a mental map of the place drawn in grounds rather than towns — which city holds two clubs and how badly they get on, which ground got a nickname that stuck, which small place has a stadium far too big for it. That map is not the same thing as knowing the game’s history, and this quiz keeps asking for both.

Fifty questions in five rounds of ten: the top flight in the form it has taken since 1992, the national side, clubs and grounds, the world game, and the laws and the history behind them, which reach back to the codification of the rules in 1863. Four options each, with the answer shown the moment you choose.

Three of the five rounds are domestic and two are not, which is roughly the balance a supporter’s attention actually keeps. The clubs and grounds round is the one people either walk or fall over — it rewards having been places rather than having watched them, and there is no reading that substitutes for it. The laws round is the great leveller: sixty years in the stands teaches you what the referee gave, which is not always what the law says.

How it works
  1. Pick from four answers. Nothing is timed, so take the moment you need to work back through a squad list.
  2. The verdict lands straight away, and a wrong answer leaves the right one up for a few seconds so it goes in. Tap anywhere to move it along.
  3. A card announces each round as it arrives, so you can see the domestic rounds giving way to the world game.
  4. The back arrow revisits an earlier question, though answered ones are locked — once you have seen an answer you cannot go back and change your mind about it.
  5. At the end there is a mark out of fifty and five round scores, and the whole set with answers is listed below the quiz.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the top-flight round start in 1992?

Because the competition took its present shape then, and virtually every record a commentator quotes is counted from that season. The football played before it has not been left out — it sits in the laws and history round, along with the founding of the game’s governing body in 1863 and the fixtures that were being played before most current grounds existed.

How much of this is the domestic game?

Three rounds out of five, plus a fair amount of the history. That is on purpose. A football quiz written for this audience that opens in South America is somebody else’s quiz translated, and one that never leaves these shores is smaller than the sport. The American edition of this set swaps the league and England rounds for the world tournament and its legends, and opens the clubs round out to several countries.

Is the women’s game in here?

One question out of fifty — the trophy the Lionesses won in 2022, in the England round. That is a gap rather than a decision we would defend. The fifty were chosen for how widely recognised the answers are, and a century of football coverage has decided that for us. It is the obvious place to expand.

Are the laws current?

Yes, as far as the laws ever are. They get amended most seasons, and the two most commonly misremembered — the number of substitutions permitted in top-flight matches and the way video review works — have both changed within the last few years. The answers reflect the current position and the questions avoid anything still being trialled.

What is a good score out of fifty?

Thirty-five for somebody who follows football closely. The questions are pitched so that somebody who watches the big matches and the tournaments lands in the mid-twenties. Where the two differ is almost never the national side — everyone knows 1966 — but the grounds round and the laws round, which reward going to matches and reading about the game rather than watching them on a screen.

Is it free, and do I need an account?

Free, with no account and no email. The fifty questions and the answer list below arrive with the page and the marking runs on your device — handy for the situation we had in mind, which is two people checking who was right at half time.

How long does it take?

Seven or eight minutes for the fifty if you keep moving. The rounds are the top flight, England, clubs and grounds, world football, then the laws and history — five different ways of following the game, which is why supporters who watch the same amount can end up far apart.