The most drawn-out
day of Association Football was in Poland, on Saturday 30th November
1946. Due to the effects of war-time rubber rationing, only 5 balls were
available for the whole of the national league, comprised of 19 teams. To cope
with this, a one-off ruling was made that every time the ball went out of play
at one match a ball-boy was chauffeured, with the ball, to the nearest stadium,
so that that game would continue. After kicking off at 8am, the final whistle
of the last game was sounded at 10:53 that night. The shortest game of the day
had lasted 5 hours and 23 minutes, and one game had had a 42 minute half-time
break, waiting for the next ball.
©2013 James Mathurin
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Karol Casimir, captain of Pelikan Radom, a club which does not exist now, but was the first club to kick off on this day of football. they actually managed 15 minutes before the ball was removed to be taken to anoher match. Speaking later, Casimir said,"I was worried at first, as I knew other teams were waiting for our ball. One of my teammates, I won't name them, asked if we should kick the ball out deliberately, in order to allow other teams to start, but I told him that was not in the spirit of Pelikan, or the spirit of the game."Photograph by Von Aisaider. |
©2013 James Mathurin
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