A replica of the trophy is kept in the FIFA Museum
January 10 in Riyadh The Spanish Super Cup has started – Real Madrid and Atlético gave a great match. A week later, the Italian Super Cup will be played there. Meanwhile, on one of the five inhabited islands of the Scilly Archipelago in the Celtic Sea, two teams – Isles of Scilly XI and Dynamo Chiefs – are preparing for a match for the smallest trophy in world football – Lyonesse Cup.
Dynamo Chiefs is a team based in the 22,000-person town of Penzance in Cornwall. Isles of Scilly XI is the team that officially represents the smallest football league (there is evidence in the Guinness Book of Records), with only two teams playing: Garrison Gunners (playing in yellow) and Woolpac Wanderers (playing in red). Matches of the Lyonesse Cup have been held since 2013, and the size of the trophy is only 6 millimeters in height, which is 122 times smaller than the height of the cup awarded for winning the Champions League. A replica of the Lyonesse Cup is on display at the FIFA Museum in Zurich.
The first Lyonesse Cup final was held in 2013 on the day of the FA Cup final. The islands team won (3:1). But, probably, in such matches, the score really is not the main thing.
Initially, the Lyonesse Cup was conceived as a tournament of six teams, but gradually “slipped” into a confrontation between Dynamo Chiefs and the islands team. The trophy match was not played for some time (from 2015 to 2022), but the game returned last year.
As for the Scilly Football League, it is a member of the FA, but as it is not part of the country’s football pyramid, its two clubs cannot take part in the Cup.
Interestingly, the Lyonnesse Inter-Island Cup was originally played, a tournament in which teams from five islands took part. By the 1950s, only two members remained, Rangers and Rovers. In 1984, both clubs changed their names to Garrison Gunners and Woolpack Wanderers. In 2008, the league’s promotion, which was provided by Adidas, included Beckham, Gerrard and Vieira.
But in reality, everything is serious in the League. The Garrison Gunners and Woolpack Wanderers play between 14 and 20 head-to-head matches per season. Games usually take place on Sundays. There are also two Cups played at Scilly, consisting of two matches. The football season starts with a match for the Charity Shield, and the boxing day features Veterans versus Youth matches.
Team compositions change at the beginning of each season. The division into teams takes place in a local pub. First, they choose the captains, and then they choose the players for their teams. Matches are held according to the autumn-spring system, from October to March-April. From time to time, the Isles of Scilly team plays with the Newlyn Non Atlético team, which represents the second ten leagues of the English football system.
But at the same time, the League also has serious problems. Since the islands only have primary school education, teenagers at the age of 15-16 leave to study on the mainland. Plus, high real estate prices are also not conducive to population growth. As a result, as of 2023, one 70-year-old footballer still takes part in official games from time to time. In addition, there are situations when the Garrison Gunners and Woolpack Wanderers have to play with less than full squads – there simply aren’t enough people. But all these facts definitely don’t stop anyone.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
