
A treble in
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
is achieved when a club team wins three trophies in a single season.
A continental treble involves winning the club's top-level domestic league competition, main domestic cup competition, and main continental trophy.
Although winning a second-tier continental trophy (e.g.
Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...
) has also been described as a continental treble, it is not as widely accepted.
A domestic treble involves winning three national competitions—including the league title, the primary cup competition, and one secondary competition, such as a
league cup.
Competitions which consist of a single match or a two-leg match are not normally counted as part of a continental treble (e.g., the
FA Community Shield
The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is Football in England, English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA ...
,
Supercopa de España
The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...
,
Supercoppa Italiana
The Supercoppa Italiana, also known as the Italian Super Cup, is an annual super cup tournament in Italian football. Founded in 1988 as a two-team competition, it has featured four teams since 2023 (the winners and runners-up of the previous ...
,
Trophée des Champions
The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the Super cup, super cups found in many other count ...
,
DFL-Supercup
The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off association football, football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (E ...
,
UEFA Super Cup
The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...
,
Recopa Sudamericana
The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana (), also known as Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club Association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1988. It ...
,
FIFA Club World Cup
The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...
,
Intercontinental Cup and others).
Continental trebles
This list includes clubs who have won 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. Tokyo Verdy of Japan and Barcelona of Spain are the only clubs to win continental trebles for both their men's and women's sections, completing the feat in 2019 and 2021, respectively.
Barcelona is the only club to win multiple trebles with both their men's and women's team, completing the feat in 2024.
Men
Twenty-three men's clubs have achieved the feat with 31 occurring in total, the first being
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
of Scotland in May 1967, and then
TP Mazembe
Tout Puissant Mazembe, commonly referred to as TP Mazembe, is a Congolese professional association football, football club based in Lubumbashi.
History
Tout Puissant Mazembe, the first sports club from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a ...
(then known as FC Englebert) of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
in November 1967.
European teams have won the most continental trebles with eleven, by nine clubs.
The only countries to have more than one team win a continental treble are Mexico, New Zealand, England and the Netherlands, with two teams winning trebles each.
No South American team has achieved the feat with the above stipulations, making it the only continent to never have a continental treble winner.
Multiple Brazilian teams have won some combination of the
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian" or "Great Brazilian"), the Série A or the Brazilian Série A (to distinguish it from the I ...
, their
state championship, the Copa do Brasil, and the now-defunct
Taça Brasil
The Taça Brasil () was the Brazilian national football championship contested from 1959 to 1968.
Bahia, Cruzeiro and Botafogo were the only champions to have played all phases of the tournament, because until the 1968 edition teams from Rio de ...
, plus the
Copa Libertadores
The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...
, but never by winning the Série A, Copa do Brasil, and Copa Libertadores.
Five men's clubs have won the continental treble two or more times:
Al Ahly
Al-Ahly Sporting Club (), commonly known as Al-Ahly, is an Egyptian professional sports club based in Cairo, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional football team which currently plays in the Egyptian Premier League, the highest ...
of Egypt,
Auckland City of New Zealand,
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
of Spain,
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...
of Germany and
Cruz Azul
Club de Futbol Cruz Azul S.A. de C.V., commonly referred to as Cruz Azul, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football league system, Mexican footba ...
of Mexico.
with Cruz Azul being the first team to achieve it in 1997.
Al Ahly and Auckland City are the only teams with more than two continental trebles, with both having won four.
Auckland City completed this achievement first, winning their third treble in 2015 and fourth in 2022.
Al Ahly and Auckland City are also the only men's clubs to win trebles in back-to-back seasons, though Al Ahly were the first to do this after winning in both 2006 and 2007.
Women
Ten women's clubs have won a continental treble with these stipulations, five of which are European clubs, one Asian, one African, one South American and two Oceanian club, with a total of 16 trebles across all the clubs. The first to do so was
1. FFC Frankfurt in 2002, who won the treble again in 2008.
The only other women's club to achieve it more than once are
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
, who has done so five times (a record for both men's and women's clubs) and
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
and
Corinthians, who have achieved it twice each. Lyon are also the only women's club to win trebles in back to back years, and have completed this feat on two occasions.
The lack of women's continental trebles compared to men's can largely be attributed to the absence of continental competitions for women until recently. The
UEFA Women's Champions League
The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA.
...
did not begin until 2001, the
Copa Libertadores Femenina did not begin until 2009, the
AFC Women's Club Championship did not begin until 2019, the
CAF Women's Champions League
The CAF Women's Champions League (; ), sometimes abbreviated as ''CAF WCL'', is an annual African women's association football club competition launched on 12 September 2020 and organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). It is ...
did not begin until 2021, the
OFC Women's Champions League did not begin until 2023, and the
CONCACAF W Champions Cup
The CONCACAF W Champions Cup is an annual continental women's football club competition organized by CONCACAF that determines the club champion for the region encompassing North America, Central America and the Caribbean. It is comparable to ...
had
its inaugural edition began only in August 2024.
Additionally, many nations do not have a top level cup competition for women, and some do not even have a national women's football league.
Domestic trebles
A domestic treble is usually made up of the league, main domestic cup and the most prestigious secondary domestic cup (usually being a
league cup, like the
EFL Cup
The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England.
Orga ...
,
Scottish League Cup
The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...
, or the
Thai League Cup
The League Cup () is a association football, football cup competition in Thailand. It is also known as Hilux Revo Cup for sponsorship reasons.
History
Thai League Cup was started by Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor (Thailand) in the name of ...
).
Usually
super cups or regional titles, like the
Brazilian states championships,
Biscay Championship and
Glasgow Cup
The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...
, are not included in the treble, therefore domestic trebles are only possible in some countries, as most federations hold only one league and one cup competition,
thus clubs from countries like Spain, Germany and France, who used to hold a secondary national cup but were discontinued, currently cannot achieve the domestic treble in the most accepted form. Domestic trebles that might include super cups, or regional titles, are considered to have an "asterisk" attached to it for not being perceived as a "genuine" achievements.
Men
76 men's clubs have won a domestic treble, 27 of whom have done it more than once, with 131 trebles occurring overall. The first team to win a domestic treble was Ireland's Shamrock Rovers in 1924–25. Scottish side Celtic has won the most domestic trebles, with eight.
Celtic, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich are the only men's sides to have won both a domestic treble and a continental treble, but Celtic are the only one to win both in the same season. Celtic also hold the record for the most consecutive men's domestic trebles, with four.
Women
Eight women's clubs have won domestic trebles, and three of those teams have won their domestic treble more than once, for a total of 16 trebles overall. Scotland's Glasgow City and Arsenal of England have won the most domestic trebles, with five each. Glasgow City also have the most consecutive women's domestic trebles with four, while Arsenal were the first women's team to win a domestic treble when they won it in 1992–93. They, along with Tokyo Verdy Beleza of Japan and Corinthians of Brazil. are the only women's clubs to win both a continental treble and a domestic treble, and each team won the domestic treble in the same season they won the continental treble (2007 for Arsenal, 2019 for Tokyo Verdy and 2023 for Corinthians).
Notes
See also
*
Double (association football)
The Double, in association football, is the achievement of winning a country's top tier division and its primary domestic cup competition in the same season. The lists in this article examine this definition of a double, while derivative secti ...
*
Sextuple (association football)
*
*
List of football clubs by competitive honours won
This article lists men's association football clubs who have won 50 or more total competitive honours run by official governing bodies as well as women's clubs who have won 30 or more of such competitive honours. Friendly and invitational compet ...
*
Triple Crown of Brazilian Football
References
External links
List of domestic treblesfrom
RSSSF
The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Treble
Association football terminology
Association football records and statistics
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