About This Quiz
The best football in the world is played in the larger European countries, and nowhere is this more accurate than in the United Kingdom. Top teams such as Manchester United and Arsenal enjoy international fan bases and are brands worth billions of pounds. The game is particularly impressive there as this is the mother country for football, the place in which it was invented centuries ago and professionalized in the late Victorian period.
Most of the major clubs are over a hundred years old, and this means they were founded at a time when instead of a modern logo, a team would have a badge that looked more like a family crest. These days, most teams sport a stylized version of their crest that is easier to draw, but they still have the essential image on their stadium, uniform and elsewhere. The images typically look a little like something you might see on a knight's shield, with lions rampant and crossed swords being popular choices.
It's one thing to spot the team strip from a mile away — but how well do you know the badge? It's time to find out with this fiendishly difficult quiz that gives you only a fragment of the logo. Let's get started!
Wolverhampton Wanders are known as the Wolves and have been around since 1877. They have four FA Cups and won the league three times. They had a great run in the 1950s and 1960s, but they did benefit from then-rival Manchester United losing some of its best players in a plane crash.
Swansea City play in Liberty Stadium and are a smaller team. Their best Premiership result is finishing eighth in the league, and they once took third place in the Championship. They have also won the Welsh Cup eleven times.
Crystal Palace is a team named for a structure that no longer exists. The palace was a beautiful (or monstrous, depending on your preference) glass edifice constructed in London in 1851. The team hails from the same neighbourhood and was founded in 1905.
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Sheffield United has a rather sweet distinction to its name, which is that they have never changed their home ground. They play at Bramall Lane and have since being founded in 1889. They have four FA Cups to their name, but the youngest of these dates to 1925, so it is a little less shiny than it might be!
Burnley F.C. won a single FA Cup and has been a Premier League or 1st Division winner twice. They are currently in the Premier League, as of the last few years, having moved back and forth between the top two divisions a few times. This is an old club, dating back to 1882.
Wigan Athletic is a relative newbie on our list, as it only dates back to 1932. They were in the lower divisions in the late 1900s but made it into the Premiere League for eight years in this century. They play at the DW Stadium.
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This team has solid Industrial Age roots, being founded by members of the Thames Ironworks. They played in the first FA Cup but lost to Bolton Wanderers. The hammers on their badge hark back to their heritage as a team of working men.
True fans of the sport know that Liverpool is actually the biggest deal in football when measured in straight-up victories. They have a shocking five European Cups, three UEFA Cups, seven FA Cups and eight League Cups. On the flip side, the horrific Hillsborough disaster occurred at a Liverpool game.
Blackburn Rovers F.C. got its start in 1875. They have six FA Cups and have been a formidable footballing force at times. Former England captain Alan Shearer once played there. They won the League Cup in 2002, defeating Tottenham Hotspur.
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Hull City has played out of the K.C. Stadium since 2002. Known as the Tigers, the team began life in 1904. They have only played one Premiership season, in 2008-2009.
Leicester City has always been a high-ranked team in the sense of only spending one year beyond the Premiership and Championship. They pulled off an incredible feat for one of the less elite teams in the Premiership in 2016 by winning the entire league!
Luton Town was founded in 1885 and has been plagued by financial troubles throughout its history. These days, however, it plays in the Championship. It won the League Cup in 1988, and the team is known as the Hatters.
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This club used to be in a financial pickle until Sir John Madejski bought it and built it a new stadium. They made it into the Premiership twice since then, though they have been in the Championship most of the time. In 2007, they came eighth in the Premiership.
Fulham is a London team owned by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan. In the 1990s, it was owned for a while by Mohamed al Fayed, the owner of Harrods and father of Princess Diana's paramour, Dodi al Fayed. The team was lucky to be purchased by al Fayed, who prevented it from falling into bankruptcy.
This massive London behemoth is one of the richest clubs in the world, in keeping with its beginnings when it was founded in 1905 by Gus Mears, a richer sort of type than many of the other teams' founders. In 2003, Chelsea began the fad for wealthy foreign owners, when Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich bought it.
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Known as the Canaries Yellows, this team dates to 1902. They once placed third in the Premiership, but have not always been in the top league. These days they're a Premiership team, but were in the bottom half of the table in the latest season.
One of the most valuable brands in the world, Manchester United was founded in 1878. It plays at Old Trafford, and has won the Champions League an incredible three times. They also have twelve FA Cup victories and five League Cup victories!
Known to the fans as Q.P.R., this team was made up of two earlier teams, St. Judes and the Christchurch Rangers. It has been using its current name since 1887. The team has enjoyed four different colors, and have played on eighteen different "home" pitches.
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Good old Man City used to be in the shadow of their rival in the same town, but they were purchased by a billionaire, Sheikh Mansour, who poured in enough money to make them a big deal in the last decade or so. They also renamed their stadium the Etihad Stadium, to recognize their new owner's friends.
Dating to 1908, Huddersfield Town used to be a top team, but they were relegated in the seventies. Any fan hoping it would be shortlived would be disappointed, as it took until 2017 to get back up. Huddersfield has one FA Cup to its name.
The full name of this team is Brighton & Hove Albion FC, and they date back to 1901. They joined the Football League in 1920 and moved around the various divisions and won the Championship in 2017, making them a Premier League team these days.
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Once known as Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic FC, this team is nicknamed the Cerries. They have been relegated and promoted all over the lower tiers, and have won the Championship. Currently, they are on the way up again!
Usually just called Forest, this team hails from 1865. They are the only former European champion club who are not in the top league in their home country anymore. Forest once helped a nascent team called Arsenal by giving them old kits, an act of generosity they doubtless now regret.
Leeds United has one FA Cup and one League Cup to its name. It started in 1919, though it had an older predecessor. One of the most famous Leeds players is Frenchman Eric Cantona, though their most prolific player was Jack Charlton, with over 600 games at the club!
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Liverpool's most deadly rival, Everton has been around since 1878 and has been a top-flight team for all but four years since! They have five FA Cups, nine First Division and Premiership League victories, and one UEFA Cup. Still, the game they really care about is anytime they can stick it to Liverpool!
This London team is the property of American multimillionaire John Berylson, who has poured money into it to make it ready for its future as (he hopes) a Premier League team. The team has played in five different locations in its lifetime, and started its life in a canning factory in 1885.
Based in Hertfordshire and previously called Watford Rovers, Watford was founded in 1896 but took almost ninety years to get into the First Division. They are a two-time FA Cup runner-up.
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Playing in Lancashire, Preston North End has a really weird tradition that they enact whenever they get relegated. They buy a coffin and bury it, a process that involves a "funeral". If they achieve promotion to a higher division, they exhume the coffin. This tradition dates to 1948, and they still use it today.
Founded by cricketers who attended Holy Trinity Church, this team began in 1875 as the Small Heath Alliance. They are the first English club to make it into a top-notch European final, where they were defeated by F.C. Barcelona, way back in 1960.
Dating back to 1905, Charlton Athletic has been a part of the League since 1921. They have been in the Premier League at times, including a good run in the early years of this century, which marks a step up from earlier years where they were in the Third Division.
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2006 UEFA Cup finalists, Middlesbrough is an older team, starting in 1876. They joined the Football League in 1899, making them one of the earlier members, and like some other teams, were started by seasonally bored cricketers!
Newcastle United is the only major team in their town, meaning that their main rival, Sunderland, is in another city. They have been around since 1892 and spent more than eight decades in the top leagues. They have six FA Cups, and some household name players like David Ginola, Les Ferdinand, and Alan Shearer played there.
Barnsley doesn't have a lot of trophies, with a single FA Cup. They do have a lot of nicknames, however, including the Colliers in a nod to their city's roots as a center for coal mining. Being founded in 1887, they are one of the older clubs.
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This team was founded in 1885 and had mixed fortunes until 2010 when Markus Liebherr purchased the team and invested a fortune into it. Southampton have a weirdly small trophy cabinet, with just one FA Cup in it. These days, they are doing pretty well!
Aston Villa hold the wonderful distinction of being the founders of the Football League, which was the highest level a team could play in before the Premier League came along. They hail from the world of cricket, being set up originally by cricketers who got bored in the winter and needed another sport to play.
Tottenham Hotspur has been around since 1882 and won the FA Cup for the first time in 1901, the first of an amazing eight wins. They have a UEFA Cup and two Premiership victories. Prominent players read like a who's who of football, including Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker and Robbie Keane.
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In 2010, Vincent Tan purchased Cardiff City, and has been doing his best to upgrade the team since then. This Welsh team plays in the English league, which is a little weird, but probably a good idea from a financial point of view. They have one FA Cup victory to their name.
The Gunners are one of the most successful teams in football history. They are the only team that has never been relegated out of the Premier League. They are also the first team to win the League and the FA Cup in the same year, and the first to broadcast a game on the radio.
This is a really old club, starting out in 1863 when the Stoke Ramblers came about. It is a founder member of the Football League, back in 1888. They made it to the FA Cup final in 2011, an amazing achievement for a smaller team. Their best years were in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Bradford City is a slightly younger team, that has previously defeated Newcastle United to win the FA Cup, albeit not in a century. They had some very good yers around 1910 but since then have been a smaller team. They are based in the northern industrial city that shares their name.