As the eyes of the world focuses on London for the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, we explore a statistical reflection of English football across her reign.
From several different winners of top-flight competitions across both the men and women’s game to five Golden Boot winners in major international tournaments, there is a lot of success in the nation’s game across Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year reign to celebrate.
As tribute, we have therefore taken a statistical look at many stats across various English football competitions – including national teams – from across Her Majesty’s reign.
First Division/Premier League
- Across the Queen’s 70 year reign, 16 different clubs have been crowned champion of English Football’s top-flight across the Old First Division between 1952-92, plus Premier League from 1992 to present.
- No other team has won more league titles throughout Queen Elizabeth’s reign than Man Utd, with the Red Devils having clinched 18 titles – of which 13 honours came in the Premier League alone.
- Seven clubs have won just one league title during the Queen’s reign – Burnley, Tottenham, Ipswich, Nottingham Forest & Aston Villa in Old First Division, Blackburn and Leicester in Premier League.
- No player has scored more goals across the First Division/Premier League than Sir Jimmy Greaves, who netted 357 goals in 516 appearances across spells at Tottenham, Chelsea and West Ham in the Old First Division alone between 1957-72.
- England produced more Premier League Golden Boot winners across the Queen’s reign than any other nation – with nine players winning the annual honour – of which Alan Shearer achieved in three straight seasons between 1994-97.
- Leicester, Norwich and Sunderland have won promotion from second tier to top-flight on more occasions under the Queen’s tenure than any other club, having each been promoted five times.
Women’s Premier League/Super League
- The first professional Women’s Football League began in 1991-92 season under title of Women’s Premier League (WPL), until Women’s Super League (WSL) replaced it as the top-flight in 2011.
- Arsenal have won more league titles in England’s top-flight of women’s football across WPL and WSL competitions – 15, of which 12 of their league titles came in WPL and 3 in WSL.
- Only eight different teams have won the Women’s top-flight competition across WPL & WSL throughout Her Majesty’s reign: Doncaster Belles (2), Arsenal (15), Croydon (3) – now Charlton -, Everton (1), Fulham (1), Liverpool (2), Man City (1) & Chelsea (6*).
- In the WSL era, seven English players have won the Golden Boot (Rachel Williams, Natasha Dowie, Karen Carney, Beth Mead, Eniola Aluko, Fran Kirby and Ellen White).
*Chelsea won five domestic season WSL titles plus 2017 Spring Series – where teams played each other once rather than traditional two league matches.
Men/Women’s FA Cup
- Across men and women’s FA Cup competitions throughout the Queen’s reign, no team has been more successful than Arsenal, who have earned 25 titles in total – 11 Men’s FA Cup titles and 14 Women’s FA Cup titles.
- Only four clubs have done men and women’s FA Cup double in same season – Southampton (1975-76), Arsenal (1992-93, 97-98 & 2013-14), Chelsea (2017-18) and Man City (2018-19).
- Since FA Cup Finals were settled on the day from 1998-99 season onwards across both men and women’s competitions, only 10 Finals went to extra-time in total with just four settled by penalty shootouts.
- No Welsh team has won the FA Cup during the Queen’s reign.
- Only seven clubs have won the Men or Women’s FA Cup in consecutive seasons throughout the Queen’s tenure as Sovereign (Southampton Women F.C. (3), Fulham (2), Tottenham (2), Arsenal (2), Chelsea (2), Doncaster Belles (1) and Man City (1).
- No team across the Queen’s reign has won the FA Cup in more consecutive seasons than Arsenal Women, who achieved the feat across four consecutive years between 2006-09 during which they twice beat Leeds and Charlton plus Sunderland once each in Final during that run.
Men’s League Cup
- The League Cup was founded in 1960, just eight years after Elizabeth became Queen in 1952.
- No team has won more League Cup titles than Liverpool who have claimed nine titles, of which three of their honours were won via penalty shootouts.
- Swansea City are the only Welsh team to have won the League Cup during the Queen’s reign, having defeated Bradford City 5-0 at Wembley Stadium in 2011-12 Final.
Women’s League Cup
- Women’s League Cup began in 2011 and Arsenal has been involved in eight of 11 finals.
- No team has won the Women’s League Cup on more occasions than Arsenal, who have won the competition five times – 2011, 12, 13, 15 & 17-18.
- The Final has been played at 10 different neutral venues with only Wycombe Wanderers’ Adams Park hosting the Final twice – in 2014 & 18 respectively.
Community Shield
- No club has won more FA Community Shield titles under Queen Elizabeth’s reign than Man Utd, who won 19 overall titles (15 outright and four shared).
- 38 Community Shields held across the Queen’s reign were won by reigning top-flight champions compared to 24 won by the FA Cup holders.
- 19 FA Community Shields since the Queen was proclaimed in 1952 have been held at neutral guest venues outside of Wembley Stadium (original/new) and Millenium Stadium (2000-06).
England
- Both England Men and Women National Team have won one major title during the Queen’s reign (Men – 1966 FIFA World Cup, Women – 2022 UEFA Euro).
- Both title were won against Germany after extra-time in the Final at Wembley Stadium as tournament hosts of the above respective tournaments.
- No player has scored more goals in a single season for club and country throughout the Queen’s reign than Beth Mead, who netted 26 goals in total (12 for Arsenal & 14 for England) in 2021-22 season.
- Only four English managers have guided a senior England team to a major final – Sir Alf Ramsay (1966 World Cup, Martin Reagan – 1984 UEFA Women’s Euro, Hope Powell – 2009 UEFA Women’s Euro and Gareth Southgate – 2020 UEFA Men’s Euro).
- Sir Alf Ramsay is the only English manager to have guided any England senior team to a major title – as he led the Three Lions to 1966 FIFA World Cup glory on home soil, whilst the Lionesses won 2022 UEFA Women’s Euro under Netherlands’ Sarina Wiegman.
- Five England players across Men and Women’s Senior Teams have won Golden Boot in major competitions – Gary Lineker, Harry Kane & Beth Mead (6 goals), Alan Shearer & Jodie Taylor (5 goals).
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