📈 FC Thun have become the first newly promoted club to become Swiss champions since Grasshoppers back in 1952 - but it has happened before in Europe many times since then.

So who were the last clubs across the continent to achieve the feat? And which countries specialise in promoted champions? Let's find out!

THREAD 🧵 1/10 - FC Thun: 2026 🇨🇭

FC Thun are the first promoted club to become Swiss champions since Grasshoppers in 1952, and the first first-time champion since Sion in 1991.

It has been a true fairytale story for Thun under Mauro Lustrinelli, who played for the club in the UEFA Champions League two decades ago and has now taken the team to even greater heights as coach!

🍀 Northern Ireland might not be a footballing powerhouse within Europe, but its Premiership and Championship are packed with interesting clubs.

From border crossings and burgers to ocean liners and miniscule villages, here are seven Northern Irish football clubs you should know about.

THREAD 🧵 1/7 - Linfield

Based on the number of league titles won, Belfast-based Linfield are the most domestically successfully club in world football, having become champions of Northern Ireland 57 times.

Their closest challengers in that regard are Celtic & Rangers, who both have 55 Scottish titles.

🇨🇭 With 26 cantons that are home to four official languages, Switzerland is a melting pot at the heart of Europe that boasts a fantastic football scene.

From river cruises to decade-long fan disappearances and assaults on referees, here are eight clubs in the Swiss pyramid you should know about.

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1/8 - FC Basel

You will surely know FC Basel, but did you know that a fan of the club by the name of Rolf Bantle disappeared for more than a decade after a 2004 Champions League qualifier v. Inter in Milan?!

Lost after going to the toilet and with no phone to contact his travel group, Bantle spent the next 11 years living on the street - before resurfacing in 2015!

🇳🇴 Bodø/Glimt have made lots of headlines for their UEFA Champions League run, but Norway is home to a plethora of other fascinating football clubs.

From celebrity sperm requests to spectators on tractors and midnight matches, here are eight Norwegian clubs you should know about.

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1/8 - Bryne

Erling Haaland’s boyhood club takes their agricultural roots seriously. 'Man of the Match' prizes have included a live lamb and four trays of eggs.

But the thing that we love the most is that spectators can bring their tractors and watch the game from a unique vantage point.

🇮🇹🏝️ Italy boasts a long list of storied island football clubs, including a former national champion, a fashion icon and a team located by a volcano.

From Venice in the north to Sicily in the south, let's meet the seven island clubs in the top three tiers of Italian football in the 2025/26 season.

THREAD 🧵 1/7 - Cagliari (Sardinia)

The only island club currently in Serie A and the only island club to have previously become champions of Italy back in the 1969/70 season.

Based on the south coast of Sardinia, they have had plans for a new stadium approved. Expected to cost €230 million, it will hold 30,000 and have a swimming pool on the roof!

🇷🇴 There are not many countries in Europe that can rival Romania when it comes to producing absolutely mental lower-league football stories.

From Dracula kits and convict crowds to adult content creation and deaf mute impostors, here are eight clubs you should know about.

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1/8 - Concordia Chiajna

Second-tier Concordia Chiajna have lost their sporting director Gabriel Tamaș, who departed the role to take part in reality TV show Survivor!

Tamaș had already taken a break in spring to go on 'Asia Express' - the Romanian version of 'Race Across The World' - which he ended up winning.

🇽🇰 Kosovo have been one of the surprise packages in 2026 World Cup qualifying and can still make the tournament if they can navigate the play-offs.

From hotel sneak-ins to unofficial world titles, here are eight things you should know about FIFA's joint-newest national team.

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1/8 - FIFA's joint-newest member 🆕

There are 211 countries in FIFA - but Kosovo was the most recent to join, meaning there is no newer officially recognised national team on the planet.

It is a title shared by Gibraltar, who were also accepted into the global football family at the same FIFA Congress on 13 May 2016.

🏆 Six nations are in Mexico to contest the interconfederation play-offs and compete for the last two non-European berths at the 2026 World Cup.

Who are they? And what do you need to know about them? Join us on a quick journey to the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

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New Caledonia 🇳🇨

The ultimate underdogs in the play-offs, New Caledonia are looking to become a rare example of an overseas territory at a World Cup finals.

Most of the players ply their trade in the local domestic league or in the French lower leagues, with other players in Saudi Arabia, Israel & Tahiti.

🇦🇸 American Samoa’s men’s national team will play first-ever game outside of Oceania today against the U.S. Virgin Islands in the FIFA Series in Puerto Rico.

From world-record defeats to video game revenge and Hollywood redemptions, this is the story of the American Samoa national football team.

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1/8 - The 31-0 defeat

American Samoa famously fell to the world record heaviest defeat in international football when they lost 31-0 to Australia in a 2002 World Cup qualifier.

The islanders were already rank outsiders - but their cause was made more difficult by a late ruling that the players needed a US passport to play, leaving American Samoa to scramble together a team of teenagers plus goalkeeper Nicky Salapu.

🇪🇸 LaLiga 2 is an absolute paradise for geography, history & trivia lovers this season, with arguably Europe's most unique league line-up.

From exclaves and islands to former national champions and reserve teams, let's meet some of the clubs that make up the Spanish second tier.

THREAD 🧵
1/7 - UD Las Palmas - The island club 🏝️

The southernmost club to have ever played in a top-flight UEFA league, they are currently competing for promotion back to La Liga.

The last time they were in the top tier, half the squad missed their flight to the Sevilla game after wandering off to get coffee at the airport.

🇷🇴 FCSB owner Gigi Becali, a shepherd who became a property tycoon in post-Communist Romania, is one of football's craziest characters.

From paintings of himself as Jesus at the Last Supper to kidnap plots and prison time, here are seven standout stories about Becali.

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Controversial views 💥

Gigi Becali is known for expressing ultra-conservative public views, including homophobic, misogynistic and nationalist statements.

According to The Guardian, he even banned FCSB's in-house DJ from playing Queen songs due to Freddie Mercury's sexual orientation.

🇰🇵 In North Korea, even football is shrouded in secrecy. DPRK Premier League fixtures are announced outside the stadium the day before. And fans can't watch full matches on TV.

Here are 10 fun facts about the beautiful game in the world's most mysterious country.

🧵 THREAD
Amateur on paper only 💰

There is a pyramid with three tiers – for both men & women. The season runs from Dec. to Sept. and is broken up into three stages.

According to FIFA, it is amateur. But as salaried employees of the organisations they represent, it's amateur on paper only.

🇸🇪 WHAT A FAIRYTALE! SWEDISH UNDERDOGS MJÄLLBY, WHO COME FROM A FISHING VILLAGE OF 1,485 PEOPLE, HAVE WON THE ALLSVENSKAN!

How have they achieved this feat? What records have they broken along the way? Here are 10 things you need to know about Sweden’s new champions!

THREAD 🧵
1) Fishing village 🎣

Mjällby come from the village of Hällevik, which has 1,485 inhabitants, on Sweden’s south coast.

It is the smallest place represented in the Allsvenskan - and among the most remote too. By car, Hällevik is 6-7 hours from Stockholm & 3-4 from Gothenburg.

🇻🇦 The late Pope Francis famously supported San Lorenzo in Argentina, but did you know he also had a thriving football scene much closer to home?

Here are 10 fun facts about the beautiful game in the Vatican, the world's smallest sovereign state.

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1) Stadium 🏟️

First things first, football isn't actually played IN the Vatican. As the world's smallest independent state (0.44km2), there isn't space.

All matches take place at the nearby Campo Pio XI in Rome, which offers stunning views of the iconic St. Peter's Basilica.

🇳🇴 Bodø/Glimt have reached the UEFA Europa League semi-finals, where they will face Tottenham Hotspur.

Here are 8 fun facts you should know about the Norwegian champions.

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1) Weather ❄️

The northern location means it can be a challenging place to play football, with freezing temperatures & heavy snowfall.

Bodø/Glimt's players trained on ice with spikes up until 1991 & the pitch at the Aspmyra Stadion was equipped with artificial turf in 2006.

🇲🇹🏝️ Located in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily & North Africa, the micro-state of Malta has a fascinating football culture.

From fake funeral parades to club presidents who want to play, here are 10 things you need to know about the beautiful game on the island.

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1) 25-time champions Valletta FC, Malta's third-most successful club, were relegated at the weekend, but we suspect they won't be missed.

Their fans celebrate their titles by holding a funeral parade and carrying caskets bearing the names of the other teams through the streets.

🏆 We all know the recent World Cups - but what about the earlier editions of the greatest sporting event on the planet?

We have chosen a person you have probably never heard of from each of the first 10 tournaments - from 1930 to 1974 - & told their unlikely story.

THREAD 🧵 🇺🇾 1930

Romanian Alfred Eisenbeisser Feraru fell ill on the two-week boat home to Europe & stayed in Genoa to recuperate.

His distraught mother believed the rumour he had died & organised a wake. Feraru returned home on the morning of the ceremony, causing his mother to faint.

✈️ The 96 clubs in the European group phase travelled 862,402.2km - more than the distance to the moon & back - to play their games this season.

Who went the furthest? Which teams never made a journey of over 1,000km? And who had to travel to both home AND away games?

THREAD 🧵 First off, how did we calculate this?

We used distancecalculator.net to work out the distances between the home cities of the two teams in every fixture.

If a club could not play in their home city, we also included travel to the city where they played their home games.

🇷🇺 Among the early frontrunners in the Russian second tier is a club based in an exclave around 400 kilometres from the rest of the country.

Who are FC Baltika? How have they been impacted by sanctions? And whom do they face in one of the world's biggest away days?

THREAD 🧵 Baltika are based in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders the Baltic Sea and is sandwiched between 🇵🇱 & 🇱🇹.

An exclave is defined by as "a portion of a country geographically separated from the main part by surrounding foreign territory". dictionary.com

📉 148 clubs have qualified for the Champions League group phase since 1992/93. But 16 of them no longer play in the top division domestically.

Who are these fallen giants? What mark did they make in the competition? And what happened to them?

THREAD 🧵 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Blackburn

Rovers came bottom of a group including Spartak Moscow, Rosenborg & Legia Warsaw in their sole UCL season in 1995/96.

A campaign that will be remembered for Graeme Le Saux breaking his hand in a fight with team-mate David Batty in the away fixture in Russia.

🇬🇱 After 2 years of pandemic-enforced cancellations, the Greenlandic Football Championship - the shortest season in world football - returns this week.

How does it work? Where? And who takes part? We take a look with the help of some people with first-hand experience.

THREAD 🧵 Located in the North Atlantic between 🇨🇦 & 🇮🇸, Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark.

With a surface area of 2.166m km (of which around 80% is covered by ice) but a population of only 56,000, it's the world's most sparsely populated territory.