Football is a game of margins. Usually. You've got your tactical 1-0 grinds, your chaotic 3-3 draws, and the occasional 5-0 thumping that sends a manager packing. But then there are the scores that look like typos.
The ones that make you refresh the page.
Honestly, when you start looking at the top 20 football scores in history, you realize pretty quickly that something has to go spectacularly wrong for a scoreline to hit double digits. Or triple digits. It's rarely just about one team being "good." It’s about protests, passport scandals, or the fact that back in the 1800s, some teams were basically just groups of friends who owned a ball.
The 149-0 protest that broke the record books
You can't talk about top 20 football scores without starting in Madagascar. On October 31, 2002, AS Adema beat SO l'Emyrne 149-0.
Think about that math for a second.
That is more than 1.5 goals per minute. It’s physically impossible to score that many goals against a team that is actually trying to stop you. The secret? SO l'Emyrne weren't trying. They were furious about a refereeing decision in a previous game that had cost them the title.
So, they kicked off and immediately put the ball in their own net. Then they did it again. 149 times.
The fans reportedly stormed the ticket booths demanding refunds. The coach was suspended for three years. It’s the highest score ever recorded in a professional match, but it’s arguably the least "sporting" result on this list. It’s a statistical anomaly born out of pure, unadulterated spite.
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When David met a very, very big Goliath
The international record is a bit different. It wasn't a protest; it was just a massive mismatch. In April 2001, Australia beat American Samoa 31-0.
Poor American Samoa.
They were ranked 203rd in the world. Passport issues meant almost their entire senior squad couldn't play. They ended up fielding a team of teenagers, some as young as 15, who hadn't even played a 90-minute game before.
Archie Thompson scored 13 goals by himself.
He actually looked almost embarrassed by the end. The scoreboard at the stadium originally showed 32-0 because the person operating it literally lost count. This match single-handedly forced FIFA to change how World Cup qualifying works in Oceania because, frankly, it was painful to watch.
The 1885 Scottish goal-fest
Before the Madagascar madness, the record lived in Scotland for over a century. Arbroath 36, Bon Accord 0.
This happened in the Scottish Cup in 1885. Bon Accord weren't even really a football team; some historians say they were a cricket club that got the invitation by mistake. They showed up without a proper kit. Their "goalkeeper" was a gas-fitter who had never played in goal.
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Arbroath's keeper, Jim Milne Sr., reportedly didn't touch the ball once. He spent the second half standing under a spectator's umbrella because it was raining.
What’s wild is that on the very same day, 18 miles away, Dundee Harp beat Aberdeen Rovers 35-0. The referee in that game actually counted 37 goals, but the Dundee Harp secretary suggested he'd probably lost track and they should just settle on 35. Imagine being so dominant you offer the other team a two-goal discount.
Ranking the highest scores across the globe
To get a sense of the scale, we have to look at various levels of the game. Professional leagues, international qualifiers, and even the "modern" era of the Premier League all have their own versions of "blowouts."
- AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne (2002): The Madagascar protest.
- Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord (1885): The original world record.
- Dundee Harp 35–0 Aberdeen Rovers (1885): The "lost" record from the same afternoon.
- Australia 31–0 American Samoa (2001): The international qualifying record.
- Tahiti 30–0 Cook Islands (1971): South Pacific Games dominance.
- Villarreal 27–0 Navata (2009): A pre-season friendly that got way out of hand.
- Australia 22–0 Tonga (2001): The game Australia played two days before the 31-0 win.
- Preston North End 26–0 Hyde (1887): Still the record for the English FA Cup.
- Borussia Mönchengladbach 12–0 Borussia Dortmund (1978): The highest score in Bundesliga history.
- Athletic Club 12–1 Barcelona (1931): Barca's worst-ever nightmare in La Liga.
- Portsmouth 7–4 Reading (2007): The highest-scoring Premier League game ever.
- Tottenham 9–1 Wigan (2009): Jermain Defoe scored five in one half here.
- Manchester United 9–0 Ipswich Town (1995): The benchmark for PL dominance for decades.
- Southampton 0–9 Leicester City (2019): An away win that defied logic.
- Manchester United 9–0 Southampton (2021): Sorry again, Saints fans.
- Liverpool 9–0 Bournemouth (2022): Jurgen Klopp’s men at their peak.
- Borussia Dortmund 8–4 Legia Warsaw (2016): The Champions League record-breaker.
- Hungary 10–1 El Salvador (1982): The biggest win in World Cup finals history.
- Austria 7–5 Switzerland (1954): Most goals in a single World Cup match.
- West Brom 5–5 Manchester United (2013): Sir Alex Ferguson’s final game. Pure chaos.
Why the Premier League is different
In the Premier League, you don't see 30-0. The talent gap just isn't that wide. When Portsmouth beat Reading 7-4 in 2007, it wasn't because Reading were bad—they actually scored four goals away from home! It was just one of those days where every single shot seemed to go in.
Then you have the 9-0s.
Manchester United has done it twice. Leicester did it to Southampton in the pouring rain. These games usually follow a pattern: an early red card, a team losing their spirit, and a favorite that refuses to take their foot off the gas.
When Liverpool put nine past Bournemouth in 2022, Bournemouth's manager, Scott Parker, was sacked shortly after. High scores in the modern era aren't just trivia; they are career-enders.
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The psychology of the blowout
Why do teams keep scoring?
In the 31-0 Australia game, Archie Thompson said they kept going because goal difference matters in tournaments. But honestly? Once you get to 10 or 15, the other team has basically stopped moving. It becomes a training drill.
There's a sort of "mercy rule" debate that pops up every time this happens. Some people think it's disrespectful to keep scoring. Others, like most professional athletes, think the most respectful thing you can do is play hard until the whistle blows.
Actionable insights for fans and bettors
If you're looking at these scores to understand the modern game, here’s what actually matters:
- Watch the early red card: Almost every modern 7-0 or 9-0 scoreline started with a sending-off in the first 20 minutes. If a team goes down a man early against a top-six side, the "Over 4.5 goals" market starts looking very realistic.
- Tournament context: High scores like Australia's 31-0 happened because of poor seeding. Nowadays, FIFA uses preliminary rounds to weed out the lowest-ranked teams before they face the giants.
- The "bounce back" factor: Statistically, teams that lose by a massive margin (like 5+ goals) often tighten up defensively in their next match. They focus entirely on "not being embarrassed again," which often leads to a low-scoring game the following week.
The top 20 football scores tell us that while football is a beautiful game, it can also be a very, very cruel one. Whether it’s a protest in Madagascar or a rainy night in Southampton, these numbers remain etched in history as reminders of what happens when the balance of the game completely snaps.
To better understand these outliers, look for the match reports from the 9-0 Premier League games. They reveal how tactical collapses happen in real-time. Check the official FIFA archives for the 2001 Australia highlights to see how the qualification rules were fundamentally changed after that 31-0 result.