I'll kick this off with this unbelievable but true story, about the player who scored a hat-trick in the same game against three different goalies. In West Ham's 8-1 home win against Newcastle United in April 1986, Alvin Martin scored three goals against three different goalkeepers—making him the only player to score his hat-trick in such a fashion. The defender netted his first goal against Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Thomas, who was then replaced by Chris Hedworth due to injury. Martin scored against the substitute keeper, who was then replaced by Peter Beardsley toward the end of the match, whom he promptly scored against to complete his unusual but remarkable feat.
The Isles of Scilly Football League, is officially the smallest football league in the world. The league features just two teams—Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers—who play each other every week in the league to determine who will be the champion for that season. Played from mid-November to late-March, the two teams play each other 17 times over the course of a season, with the champion coming from a typical first-past-the-post system. But the pair still receive plenty of knockout action as well, with The Wholesalers Cup and the Foredeck Cup—which are both played over two legs—as well as a Charity Shield that customarily kicks off the action-packed season ahead. The only time that the two teams don't play each other in the league is when they meet in the Cup, which again, is only played between themselves.
Two people once broke into Rotherham’s stadium before digging up and stealing the penalty spots at either end as a Christmas prank. The pair used small shovels to quickly dig up the spot marks before making a hasty exit. The pair pleaded guilty and were charged with robbery by the authorities.
Lazio midfielder Luciano Re Cecconi’s sense of humour was his downfall. In 1978, he walked into a Rome jewellery shop and shouted ‘Stop! This is a robbery.’ The shop owner shot Cecconi, who died trying to explain the joke.
During the Taliban rule of Afghanistan throughout the 1990s, executions took place before matches at Kabul’s main stadium. Men and women were often tortured, shot, had their throats cut or limbs amputated before teams took to the field for league matches
Postponed matches in the English Premier League and FA Cup aren't that unusual, but consider for a moment just how many times the match between Lincoln City and Coventry City was postponed because of a bad winter in the season of 1962/63. Due to play each other on January 5,1963, the fixture between Lincoln and Coventry was called off inclement weather and scheduled for a few days time. Then it was called off again. And again. And again. The fixture was called off a total of 15 times before a match was finally played—chalking up 66 days between the start of the "round" and the end of the "round." Coventry eventually won the tie 5-1 on March 6th
