This week’s Roar and Against debate is on Leicester’s incredible achievement to win the English Premier League. Is it the greatest underdog sporting moment of all-time or just another special moment to tell the grandkids?
Each week two writers will go head-to-head, and will only have 250 words to get their point across on one of the big sporting issues of the week.
It will be up to you, in the comments section, to decide the winner. That winner will stay on and take on a new challenger and new topic. That challenger can be anyone, including any commenters who throw their hat in the ring.
To debate this week’s topic, Roar guru Connor Bennett is the challenger to take on fellow Roar guru Daniel Jeffrey.
Leicester’s EPL win is the greatest underdog story in sports history
AGREE
Connor Bennett (Roar Guru)
Leicester’s Premier League fairytale has finally come to fruition after weeks and months of nerve-racking anticipation. The constant ‘will they or won’t they’ teased fans of football all around the world.
There’s always been underdogs in sport, it’s what makes the spectacle so great, but no underdog has captured the imaginations of so many people from every corner of the Earth quite like this.
The Foxes weren’t even in the Premier League two seasons ago and spent all of last season duking it out to avoid relegation, finishing 14th.
The bookies had the 132-year-old club at 5000 to 1 odds to win the title at the start of the 2015-16 season. Good luck finding a win that was born from bigger odds than that.
Compare it to some of the other well-known underdog triumphs, such as the Greek Euro Cup winners of 2004, Buster Douglas toppling the undefeated Mike Tyson, the unforgettable Steven Bradbury gold medal or even England’s 2005 Ashes win.
These are memorable accomplishments, we all agree, but the reason Leicester’s unlikely triumph towers over the rest is simple – longevity.
No other underdog story has had to sustain such an unexpected series of results for so long. Greece in Euro 2004 shocked their way through a total of six games, Buster Douglas survived ten rounds with Iron Mike and Bradbury was the beneficiary of a last-lap crash.
The Foxes had to fight for 36 games, ten months, and palm off teams literally eight times their financial worth to earn their first ever Premier League title in what is the greatest underdog story in sports history.
DISAGREE
Daniel Jeffrey (Roar Guru)
Impressive as the Foxes’ Premier League triumph is, it’s hardly the only great underdog story in sports history.
I find it almost blasphemous to write, but Leicester’s season mightn’t even be the most unlikely English success story. After all, Nottingham Forest went from second-division also-rans to two-time European Champions in the space of five years back in the 1970s.
Ice hockey’s ‘Miracle on Ice’ also deserves a mention. How a group of amateurs and college players from the USA came from behind to stun the tough, dominating Soviet Union side at the 1980 Winter Olympics remains beyond me.
Unlikely as Leicester’s season has been, their side is at least fully professional.
I might as well pull out the Australian card and mention Steven Bradbury here. Putting aside the fact Bradbury relied on a disqualification and two crashes, the Aussie claimed what the Olympics themselves have called “the most unlikely gold medal in history” at the 2002 Winter Olympics. That’s no mean feat.
But if there’s one underdog story which really stacks up to Leicester’s, it’s Australia II’s unlikely America’s Cup victory in 1983. Prior to that year, it was a foregone conclusion that the US would win the event; their dominance over the Cup reached back 132 years.
Awesome as Leicester were, they weren’t going up against more than a century of history. Underdogs have won the EPL – take Blackburn in 1995 or Forest in 1979. They’re rare, to be sure, but not 130 years rare.
So, much as I’ve enjoyed Leicester’s success, I’m going to take Australia II.
And anyone who disagrees is a bum.
Queries
Guest
The English league is crap these days.
Fussball IUL
Roar Rookie
To win the English Premier League you have to be the best of 20 teams who each play 38 matches each. Over Autumn, Winter, Spring all over England & Wales. It's simply ridiculous to compare any other team's achievement in sport unless it involves a comparable number of matches played at the top level of that sport. Stephen Bradbury?! What utter nonsense. And, America's Cup. The real winners are the engineers, mechanics, designers. Just like F1 racing. If all yachts were designed the same, then we can say the crew are legitimate sporting winners.
Peter Cotton
Guest
Okay, let's see if Leicester can win the next two Champions Leagues, That is what Nottingham Forest did by winning two European Cups in the two years following their First Division Championship victory. We don't have to be carried away by modern day hype.
Chris
Guest
And the fact that it was in a tournament so not one game and that the USSR ice hockey team was arguably the greatest sporting team ever in any sport.
Chris
Guest
The miracle on ice was in a tournament. So it wasnt just one game, and that USSR team was like Barelona FC 6 years ago but better, alot better. What Leicester has done is incredible but so many things had to align for it to happen, the biggest thing was that everyone else in the Premier League played rubbish, in any other season this doesnt happen. Leicester still had to step up but for my Nottingham's story is much more impressive. This is not to take away from what Leicester have done, they played some great football and totally deserve to win but this Premier League season has been the most competitive in the worst way, in that everyone played rubbish most of the time.
Tim Reynolds
Roar Pro
That Finnish wife carrying result of two years ago was huge (and there was a semi final play-off, so it wasn't just a one-off), but compared to the Belizean frog-jumping championship of 1958 the Finnish event was small change. The trainer of the frog who jumped furthest in Belize in 1958 had been doing his thing in the 4th Division for 20 years, and only got the chance to play off against the best frog jump trainers in the world because his name was very similar to the champion Belizean trainer, and they made a typo mistake when they sent out the invitations. The champion of 1958 now has his statue in the centre of Belize City and his face adorns the Belizean currency.
apaway
Roar Guru
The Nottingham Forest story is remarkable, I'll grant you. But teams emerging from the 2nd division to compete in the 1st division was not an unusual occurance in the era. Swansea Town went from 4th to 1st Division in 3 seasons and then finished in the top 4 in their first season. Watford did the same and finished runners-up to Liverpool in their first season in the top flight. Derby County were promoted in 1970 and won the title in 1972.
apaway
Roar Guru
There was an enormous upset in the Finnish wife carrying championships two years ago but it was only one race...
apaway
Roar Guru
The USA-USSR Miracle on Ice was ONE game. There have been big single game upsets in football; the English FA Cup has produced some crazy results; Hereford United beating Newcastle, Bradford City beating Chelsea, Colchester United beating Leeds. Internationally, the USA beat England 1-0 in the 1950 World Cup finals in a result so unbelievable, most wire services thought the result was a typo and was actually 10-1 to England. The Americas Cup was a wonderful story and certainly united the nation but the reality was Australia had a better boat, better crew, better technology and a secret weapon. And Australia was the second-best yachting nation in the Cup for many, many years. Just last season, Leicester were the 18th best team in the EPL. So given they've done it over 36 games rather than a single one, and have come from absolutely nowhere to win, I'll take the Leicester story as the biggest upset I've seen, probably more so than the great Nottingham Forest story of winning the top flight title the season after promotion from the second tier, if only because of the gulf in standard between the EPL and the lower divisions in the modern era.
Peter Cotton
Guest
Yeah Kaks, I have to agree with Daniel on this. Nottingham Forest came from the equivalent of The Championship to win the equivalent of the EPL on their first attempt. Then, as you say, they won the next two European Cups (today's Champions League). LCFC came from 14th to 1st in the EPL. Great achievement, but not one that matches that of Nottingham Forest.
TimberTim
Guest
Just a few others South Africa winning the 1995 rugby world cup (yes this wasn't really expected at the time). Iraq winning the 2007 asian cup.
TimberTim
Guest
I have to correct you here as Finland didn't medal but USSR took home the silver and Sweden the bronze. back in 1980 there was what they called a medal round rather than technically a semi final and final and it went like this: The 1980 medal rounds consisted of USSR, USA, Sweden and Finland. Points against each other counted in the round robin between USSR and Finland (USSR won) and USA and Sweden (2-2 draw) so points leading into the medal round were: USSR on 2 points USA on 1 point Sweden on 1 point Finland on 0 points results were USA beating USSR and then Finland to claim the gold, USSR losing to USA but beating Sweden to claim Silver and Sweden and Finland drawing and then losing their respective other games. Tally at the end of the medal round was: USA on 5 points (GOLD) USSR on 4 points (SILVER) Sweden on 2 points (BRONZE) Finland on 1 point This to me was a tougher way to prove who was the best team of the tournament that how the format is in today's winter olympics which makes the miracle on ice even more remarkable so even though the miracle of ice is remembered for one particlular game their whole tournament went very well. Had they lost to Finland and they almost did (trailing 2-1 at the start of the third period before winning 4-2) USA would have taken the Bronze and USSR would have captured the Gold medal.
Daniel Jeffrey
Editor
Had to pull out all the tricks to have any hope in this one - if a Bob Hawke reference wasn't going to get the job done, nothing would.
Tim Reynolds
Roar Pro
What would Aussies do without hyperbole? A nation that often prides itself on having a multi cultural record second to none - and this is a country that treated Aborigines as non citizens till the 1960s, and maintained a White Australia policy to keep the Chinese out. Why does Leicester's victory have to be the greatest ever? Do either of the writers, or anybody else, know of big upsets in Paraguayan soccer, or Latvian snowman making, or Finnish wife carrying? Surely we can just say that Leicester's victory was a magnificent achievement, and leave it at that.
Sydneysider
Guest
Not sure what your point is Dean. Are you saying he isn't a journeyman manager because he is wealthy?? I was more referring to the fact that Ranieri has never been considered at the top in terms of managers during his career in the same vein as a Mourinho, Hiddink, Ferguson, Guardiola, Del Bosque etc... Even in his home country of Italy he was respected but never in the top echelon of managers eg. Fabio Capello, Marcello Lippi, Giovanni Trapattoni, Carlo Ancelloti, Arrigo Sacchi. He was a good manager that never won the league title or Champions League like those Italian managers mentioned above. He has also managed 15 clubs. That's what I meant by journeyman.
Joe Frost
Editor
Connor sealed it for me with longevity. But cracking debate gents.
SM
Guest
The only reason anyone hears of this one off ice hockey fluke is due to the American involvement and the cold war. Comparing it to proving yourself to be the very best after a 38 match league season is just absurd.
SM
Guest
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Original Dean
Guest
Ranieri a journeyman manager?!?! He's hardly Brian Clough, the man's a multi-millionaire who's managed in huge clubs in the biggest leagues and competitions.
Original Dean
Guest
The odds reflect the inability for people to think about likelihoods and risks as anything other than likelihood of previous events repeating. (more accurately they reflect the inability of punters to envision anything other than variations of the past). Assessing each event on its merits (without referring to history) is nigh on impossible, but would be the only accurate way to properly frame a market. Think of a race between wild horses, tamed and ready to be released. You wouldn't have the history to look at so you would base your assessment on things in the present like temperament, attitude, strength. If punters did that at the start of every EPL season, you would never have a team at 5000-1. It's a risk management theory that even investment banks haven't mastered. The four big clubs have busy schedules that hold them back (will be worse with half of them playing Euros over the summer break) so wouldn't be surprised to see it happen again next year. Plus they've had the eyeballs picked out of them by European clubs with rich owners, EPL isn't as big as it used to be.