The Corner Kick

Once upon a time, players stood in the 18 yard box and waited for the ball to be crossed before moving. Somewhere along the line, it was decided that an advantage could be achieved by jostling, pushing, pulling and obstructing opponents. The calm has been replaced by the chaotic.  

Is there an easy fix? Some suggest harsh penalties for offenders but I don't think that is the answer. Determining when a defender has gone too far in trying to put an attacking player off is difficult, because it can be slyly done. What about an attacker standing right in front of the goalie? At what point has he got too close. Again, open to interpretation. 

One possibility is having all players outside the 18 yard box until the kick is taken. Once the ball is kicked, say four from each team are allowed to run into the box and contest for the ball. Only when the ball is cleared out of the box is the minimum player restriction lifted. 

It sounds simple and would make it easier for officials to police a smaller number of players. There could still be rules around players pushing or obstructing unfairly, but that probably wouldn't be a major issue. 

AFCON 1968-2025

The 30th tournament (that I count and show in the second chart) has concluded. The biennial event is changing. After the 2027 tournament, it will be held in 2028 and thereafter every four years. 

The 2025 results are immediately below. Senegal won its second tournament, in the process denying Morocco its second. The final had some bizarre moments. 

Points are allocated for each participating country. The weighting of points favours success but any participation gets some recognition. 

Nigeria leads the way, not in the number of titles but through overall points, which total 193. That's an average of 9.7 points for each tournament it has been involved in. Now for some detail.

More than one title: Egypt, Cameroon (5). Ivory Coast, Nigeria (3). Algeria, DR Congo, Ghana, Senegal (2). Those with one title number 7. 14 Different winners in all.

Origin: It started in 1957 but switched to a biannual format in 1968 and that was the first year eight nations took part. That is where this data starts. 

Regions: At the base of the chart, the countries listed are put into regions. In reality, there is no perfect way of doing it but that didn't stop me from trying. West Africa is the most successful region, from Northern Africa and Central Africa. 

Croatia Clubs Ranked - 1960/61 to 2024/25

Croatia was part of the Yugoslav league until 1990/91, when the country was broken up into several different ones. Points are therefore shared among what are now other nations up until that time. In 1992 and since then, Croatian clubs have been part of their own competition.

In the SuperSport HNL, the top four are rewarded with 6, 3, 2 and 1. The Football Cup 4 and 2 points for the finalists only. Up to 8 points are awarded for European success. Now for a competition breakdown.

The league is dominated by Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split, with HNK Rijeka having recent success too. Since 1992, those three sides have won all titles bar one. Dinamo won 18 out of 19 from 2005/06 to 2023/24. The current title holder is Rijeka.

The cup follows the same pattern with the top three sharing the trophy. Due to the knock out format, long runs of wins are rare with Dinamo putting three together from 2006/07.

In Europe, the only success has been in the Europa League. Dinamo were runner up in 1963 and winners in 1967. Hajduk Split made a semi final in 1984.

All put together, the clubs are below. The grand total is shown for each club, divided into regions with a ranking number (Rk), which gives their place compared to all the other clubs. Some of them have now ceased to exist and others have changed names but I've used the latest ones.

I've divided the clubs up into four regions. Zagreb has about 28% of the total population and took 46.5% of the total points. South 30%, West 13% with the other two are the same with 5.2% each. Crowd trouble is a problem, with the rivalry between the two top clubs intense.