The Double

For the novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky, see A Petersburg Poem.

The Double is a term in football, meaning to win a country's top division and its main cup competition in the same season. It can also mean beating a team home and away in the same league season.

In an English context, it means winning the English Premier League (previously the Football League First Division) and the FA Cup in the same season. It was last achieved by Arsenal in 2002.

The English Double

A complete list of seasons with The Double winning teams in England:

Preston North End in 1889
Aston Villa in 1897
Tottenham Hotspur in 1961
Arsenal in 1971
Liverpool in 1986
Manchester United in 1994
Manchester United in 1996
Arsenal in 1998
Manchester United in 1999 (The treble with the UEFA Champions League)
Arsenal in 2002

Arsenal and Manchester United share the record of 3 double wins each. Arsenal are the only club to win a double in more than one decade (1970s, 1990s and 2000s), and United's three 1990s double illustrate their near domination of English football at that time.

A rarer double in English domestic football is that of the League Championship and the League Cup. This feat was first achieved in 1978 by Nottingham Forest. Liverpool achieved this double no less than three times in succession (1982, 1983 and 1984). The last of these was won with the European Cup, making it a less celebrated but non the less notable treble. Chelsea were the last side to achieve the League/League Cup double in 2005.

An unique double was also achieved by Arsenal in 1993 when they won both the FA Cup and the League Cup in the same season. That they did so by beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in both games is also remarkable.

Other Doubles

The term is used outside England as well. One notable double-winning team of note in 2006 was Bayern Munich in Germany, which became the first team in the country's history to successfully defend a double. In countries that operate their season within a single calendar year, D.C. United won the first American Double in 1996, Chicago Fire won the second American Double in 1998. CSKA Moscow in Russia and the Los Angeles Galaxy in the United States won doubles in 2005.

The all-time leader for domestic doubles is Linfield, from Northern Ireland, United Kingdom — with 18, as of May 2006.

All-time leader table

Club	Nation	Number of doubles
Linfield		18
Rangers		17
Celtic		13
HB		12
Muharraq		12
Al-Ahly		12
Olympiakos		11
CSKA Sofia		10
Dinamo Kyiv		10
Levski Sofia		10
Red Star Belgrade		9

The term is also used in football to denote a team beating the same team twice in a season, home and away.

Other sports

In auto racing, The Double is a term used for a driver on Memorial Day weekend attempting to race in two prestigious races on the same day, the Indianapolis 500 during the day and the Coca-Cola 600 during the night. Pulling "the Double" has only been possible since 1992, when the 600 began being held under the lights. Such an accomplishment can be very draining, with one driving up to 7 hours on a race track and also having to travel 430 miles from Indianapolis to Charlotte, North Carolina, where the 600 is held.

One-time Indy racer John Andretti first attempted the feat in 1994 and it has been done successfully by two other drivers since, Tony Stewart in 1999 and 2001, and Robby Gordon in 2002 and 2003. Stewart's double in 2001 is the only attempt which has encompassed all 1,100 possible miles. Gordon has also tried the double in 1997 and 2000, but rain plagued both attempts. The '97 Indy 500 was postponed by rain until the following Monday (eliminating a true "double") while the 2000 Indy 500 was rain delayed for 3 hours and prevented Gordon from officially starting the 600.

In baseball, Edgar Martinez, long time Designated Hitter for the Seattle Mariners, came up with a clutch hit that has since been known by Mariners fans as "the double." During the 1995 postseason, the Mariners had tied the New York Yankees to bring the best of three American League Division Series to a 2-2 tie. The hit was delivered in the bottom of the 11th inning with the Mariners down 4–5, scoring 2 runs and winning the series for the Mariners. According to Mariners fans, "the double" was responsible for saving baseball in Seattle due to the soon to follow approval of funding for SAFECO Field by the Washington State Legislature.

In cycling the term is used when cyclists win a two Classic cycle races courses which are considered twinned, like the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix or La Flèche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Gourt Home::Gourt :: The Double

The English Double

Other Doubles

All-time leader table

See also

Other sports