SUMMARY
- Soccer is the most popular sport in the world.
- Two world records in this list for the highest scorelines in a soccer match.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. It is played in every country in the world, however, soccer is a low-scoring game. Unlike other sports like the NBA or cricket, the scoreline of a game in soccer hardly goes about four goals.
This is one of the reasons why every time the scoreline of a soccer game reaches double figures, it generates interest among the fans and experts of the game. There are a handful of instances where a side has scored in double figures. This list looks at the top five such instances when the scoreline went past the norms of soccer.
These matches include two world records for the highest scorelines in a soccer match in their era. Two other matches in this list took place at the same time and led to a ban on all the four teams involved. There is also a match in this list that had a triple-digit scoreline, which demonstrated a protest from one of the teams.
Arbroath 36-0 Bon Accord
138 years ago, Arbroath recorded one of the most remarkable scorelines in the history of Scotland soccer. Arbroath thumped 36 goals past Aberdeen side Bon Accord in a Scottish Cup tie in 1885. John Petrie scored 13 goals in the match, while other team members added 23 more.
12th September 1885
Arbroath 36 – 0 Bon Accord pic.twitter.com/fX3Nq7AWwA
— Stuart (@tsardony) September 12, 2016
Reports point out that the scoreline could have been far higher if the referee of the game, Dave Stormont, gave some 50–50 calls in favor of Arbroath. Years later, Stormont also admitted that Lichties could have added six to seven more goals if he hadn’t chalked them off for dicey offside calls.
Vanuatu 46-0 Micronesia
The dual qualifiers of the 2015 Pacific Games and the 2016 Olympics saw one of the most remarkable scorelines in Pacific soccer. Vanuatu scored 46 goals against Micronesia on the final match day of the group stage. The result was needed for Vanuatu as they had to make up a goal difference of 39 to qualify for the next stage.
This man is Jean Kaltack, and he has the distinction of scoring 16 goals in one football match when Vanuatu beat the Federated State of Micronesia Under-23 team 46-0 at the 2015 Pacific Games. The Micronesians played 3 games in this competition, conceding 114 goals & scoring 0. pic.twitter.com/taJCK6N7xJ
— Worst Foot Forward (@WorstFoot) February 15, 2018
They did what was asked of them and even added seven more for surety. Jean Kaltack, stole the show by scoring 16 goals in the match. The Micronesia side campaign was also one for the ages, as they ended with a goal difference of negative 114 goals.
Police Machine FC 67-0 Bubayaro FC and Plateau United Feeders 79-0 Akurba
There is a good reason to put these two fixtures together due to the fact they took place at the same time. Nigerian soccer was shaken when, back in 2013, four amateur teams were involved in a match-fixing scandal. Police Machine and Plateau United went into their game week tied on goals and points.
Both teams need to finish above each other as both matches were play-off games for promotion. Police Machine FC scored 67 past Bubayaro FC while Plateau United Founders scored 79 past Akurba. The games raised the alarm bells in the country as many called for an investigation into the matter.
Feeders scored 72 goals in the second half, while Police Machine scored 61 goals in the second half. The record showed that one player scored four times in one minute for Police Machine. These statistics raised the eyebrows of the officials of the National League.
Back in 2013, one of the most outrageous match-fixing scandals happened in the Nigerian second division Plateau United Feeders defeated Akurba FC 79-0 while Police Machine defeated Bubayaro FC 67-0.
Plateau United Feeders and Police Machine were in competition over who would gain pic.twitter.com/LmDX8YBjMx— Oluomo mko (@OluomoMko) August 11, 2022
BBC reported that fans who attended the two matches reported questionable refereeing decisions. There was an extraordinary amount of added time, and surprisingly club officials rather than ball boys were returning balls into play immediately after goals had been scored.
A Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Committee investigated the results and concluded that both teams were indeed involved in match-fixing. Both teams were banned for 10 years, and all the referees involved in the game were given life bans. These matches took place in the Nigeria Nationwide League, which is the lowest tier of Nigeria’s domestic league.
These teams might have gone unnoticed if the scoreline was in the range of 20 to 30 goals, which is digestible considering they were in the lowest league in the country. However, a scoreline in the range of 60s and 70s naturally drew harsh criticism from the national federation.
AS Adema 149-0 Stade Olympique de l’Emyrne
While the other scorelines were in double digits. There was one fixture that went into triple digits and cemented itself as the most outrageous scoreline of all time. This match took place in Madagascar and attracted another ban for the team that won the contest.
On This Day in Football: AS Adema 149–0 SO I’Emyrne, Peñarol lift fifth Libertadores https://t.co/Q2MtRlnpLb pic.twitter.com/js1TSsRdV4
— Zrypto (@_zrypto) October 31, 2017
The match took place in 2002 between two teams in Toamasina, Madagascar. The scoreline holds the world record for the highest scoreline in a soccer match. SO l’Emyrne intentionally lost this game as part of the protest against the national association. They weren’t happy with several refereeing decisions in a previous four-team playoff tournament.
This scoreline dethrones the scoreline of Arbroath 36-0 Bon Accord to register himself in The Guinness Book of Records. The other matches were not eligible for the record books since Vanuatu’s match involved the under-23 teams while the Nigerian matches weren’t played in the first tier of the national league.
The match was the THB Champions League playoff to determine the national championship. The controversial scoreline prompted Madagascar’s soccer authorities to ban the coach of SOE and four of the team’s players. The team scored 149 own goals in the protest, but it backfired on the team with the ban.
The coach organized this protest from the stands. He was suspended for three years for management and was banned from visiting stadiums in the country for the same period. The whole debacle extended to other players who weren’t banned. They were warned by the federation for future actions if they repeated any similar incident in the future.