World’s smallest football league features 2 teams who play each other 17 times

It's a battle that's been raging for decades and, as in any sport, there can be only one winner.

But when it comes to the world's smallest football league – which is based on the Isles of Scilly – there are only two teams in existence to slug it out for the top title.

Based on the island of St Mary's, it's just the Woolpack Wanderers and the Garrison Gunners who face off against each other, traditionally 17 times a season. Last year only saw eight clashes because of the coronavirus pandemic.

They also fight it out in both a charity shield and two cup competitions to claim ultimate bragging rights across the archipelago they call home, which is located 28 miles off the coast of Cornwall.

Established in the mid-1980s, the Isles of Scilly Football League has only boasted two competitive teams for more than half a century.

But, despite each squad being the other's arch nemesis, the matches somehow manage to stay good-natured, reports Cornwall Live.

"The games are always competitive and everyone always gives their all," said Will Leathbridge, a Wanderers striker.

"It is a unique league, but that's the nature of the Isles of Scilly.

"There can be a bit of needle at times but everyone knows everyone and we have all been friends for many years, so what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch."

And, while the Isles of Scilly Football League may be unique in that respect, they're far from being the only odd entry in the realms of footballing heritage.

Take, for example, the occasion in 1993 when FS Loans League team Congleton held a minute's silence before a match to mourn the death of the club's oldest fan only for the guy in question to turn up in the stands and witness his own memorial.

Or how about that fact that, in the Madagascan football league, a match ended with 149-0 score line without the winning side having scored a single goal.

AS Adema had been playing Stade Olympique de L'Emyrne when the latter's players decided to continually whack the ball in their own net, a protest against a controversial penalty decision in a previous fixture which had scuppered any chance they'd had of winning the championship.

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