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Treble (association football)

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Treble is used in association football to refer to a team winning three trophies in a single season or calendar year. Honours usually considered to contribute to a treble are the top-tier domestic league competition, primary domestic cup competition and most prestigious continental cup competition, although this depends to some extent on the football competitions of a particular country.

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Trophy competitions which consist of a single match or a two-leg match (e.g. the FA Community Shield, Irish FA Charity Shield, Supercopa de España, Trophée des Champions, the Recopa Sudamericana, the UEFA Super Cup or the Intercontinental Cup) are generally not counted as part of a treble.

Two phrases sometimes used are a 'continental treble', which involves winning at least one continental trophy, and a 'domestic treble' - usually the domestic league and two secondary tournaments.

Annual and seasonal trebles

There are few cases of a club winning their country's top tier league and the primary cup competition (The Double), in addition to the major continental tournament, all within a single season. This was first achieved in 1967 by Celtic, winning the Scottish Football League (top tier national league), Scottish Cup (main national cup) and European Cup (main continental tournament).

In total, 18 clubs across six confederations have achieved the feat on 23 occasions since 1962, including six African clubs, seven European clubs, two Oceanian clubs, two North American clubs and one Asian club. This list does not accommodate secondary continental and domestic competitions, so does neither list Liverpool F.C. winning the domestic League Cup along with the top tier League and the European Cup in 1983–84 nor Al-Ahly winning the continental Cup Winners' Cup alongside the Egyptian domestic double in 1984–85.

It is very rare that players of a team that wins a treble also win a cup with their national team in the same year. Hans van Breukelen, Berry van Aerle, Ronald Koeman, Gerald Vanenburg and Wim Kieft combined a PSV 1987–88 treble with a Euro 1988 cup with the Netherlands. Essam El-Hadary, Ahmad El-Sayed, Mohamed Abdelwahab, Hassan Mostafa, Emad Moteab, Mohamed Shawky, Mohamed Barakat, Wael Gomaa and Mohamed Aboutreika combined a Al-Ahly treble with a 2006 Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt.

In Europe, Spanish club FC Barcelona is the only one to have won a treble twice.

  • b Celtic also won the Scottish League Cup and Glasgow Cup that season.
  • c Auckland City also won the OFC President's Cup that season.
  • e Cruz Azul also won the Campeón de Campeones that season.
  • g Al-Ahly also won the Egyptian Super Cup that season.
  • h Al-Ahly also won the Egyptian Super Cup and CAF Super Cup that season.
  • i Bayern Munich also won the DFL-Supercup that season.

    • National trebles

    This type of treble consists of a club winning three or four of their country's titles (top-tier league, cup, league cup), all during one season. Many countries do not have a third domestic (e.g. League Cup) competition, besides competitions consisting of a single match or a two-leg match (e.g. Supercups), so achieving a domestic treble is impossible (e.g. Germany and Italy as nowadays).

    Brazil has an unofficial "Triple Crown", a name given to a team that wins the national league, the national cup, and their state league.

    Note that trophy competitions which consist of a single match or a two-leg match (e.g. Supercups in general) are generally not counted as part of a treble.

  • a1 a2 - South China's 1988 and 1991 trebles were part of domestic quadruples. Those seasons they also won the Viceroy Cup.
  • b1 b2 - The League of Ireland Shield was the forerunner to the League of Ireland Cup.
  • c1 - Linfield's 1922 treble was part of a domestic septuple. That season they also won the City Cup, the Gold Cup, the Belfast Charity Cup and the Alhambra Cup.
  • c2 - Linfield's 1962 treble was part of a domestic septuple. That season they also won the City Cup, the Gold Cup, the Ulster Cup and the North-South Cup.
  • c3 - Linfield's 2006 treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the County Antrim Shield.
  • d - The matches played in the Danish League Cup were not counted as official games as the matches were only played with one regular half (45 minutes).
  • e - Sun Hei's treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Hong Kong League Cup.
  • f - Debreceni's treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Szuperkupa.
  • g - Buriram's 2013 treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Kor Royal Cup.
  • h - Valletta's 1997 treble was part of a domestic quintuple. That season they also won the MFA Super Cup and the Super 5 Lottery Tournament.
  • i - Valletta's 2001 treble was part of a domestic sextuple. That season they also won the MFA Super Cup, the Super 5 Lottery Tournament and the Malta Centenary Cup.
  • j - Suwon Samsung Bluewings's treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Korean Super Cup.
  • k - Kaizer Chiefs's 1984 treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Sales House Cup.
  • l - Orlando Pirate's 2011 treble was part of a domestic quintuple. That season they also won the Telkom Knockout and the Carling Black Label Cup.
  • m1 - PSG's treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Trophée des Champions.
  • m2 - PSG's treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Trophée des Champions.
  • n - Rangers's 1976 treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Glasgow Cup.
  • o - Buriram's 2015 treble was part of a domestic quintuple. That season they also won the Kor Royal Cup and the Mekong Club Championship.
  • p - Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya's 1997 treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Iraqi Super Cup.
  • q - Al-Zawra'a's 2000 treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Iraqi Super Cup.
  • r - Albirex Niigata Singapore's 2016 treble was part of a domestic quadruple. That season they also won the Singapore Community Shield.

    • European treble

    Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) defines a European Treble as the feat of winning, over the club's entire history, all three seasonal club confederation competitions – European Cup/UEFA Champions League, European/UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League.

    While the UEFA Cup Winner's Cup no longer exists, there are 28 teams that have won it in the past who could still add wins in the other two competitions to achieve this UEFA treble.

    The European Treble has only been achieved by four teams:

    Note: per criteria for achieving European Treble, shows first win only for any club with multiple wins of same competition.

    References

    Treble (association football) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA