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A perfect season is a sports
season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
, including any requisite
playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
portion, in which a team remains and finishes undefeated and untied. The feat is extremely rare at the professional level of any team sport, and has occurred more commonly at the collegiate and scholastic levels in the United States. A perfect regular season (known by other names outside the United States) is a season ''excluding'' any playoffs, where a team remains undefeated and untied; it is less rare than a complete perfect season but still exceptional. A perfect season may be part of a multi-season winning streak, or even a streak of perfect seasons.
Exhibition games An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...
are generally not counted toward standings, for or against. For example, the 1972 Miami Dolphins (below) lost three of their preseason ("exhibition" games in 1972 NFL vernacular) games but are considered to have had a perfect season. Perfect season in fantasy sports is defined as follows: The league will declare a franchise to achieve the elite status of a “Perfect Season” when the following criteria have been met during the course of one season: - The team wins all their head to head regular season matchups and is declared regular season champion. - The team wins all their playoff matchups and is declared playoff champion. The feat is extremely rare in high level fantasy sports, and considered almost impossible in fantasy NBA.


Basketball

Basketball leagues outside the NBA tend to be shorter than the NBA's 82-game season, thus making a perfect season more achievable. Khimik won the
2014–15 Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague The 2014–15 Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague was the 24th edition of the Ukrainian top-tier basketball championship. The season started on October 11, 2014 and ended on May 4, 2015. Because of the unrest in Ukraine, just 7 foreign players played ...
by winning all 30 regular season games, and winning all playoff games, for a 36–0 overall record.


Cricket


County cricket

English first-class
county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...
has existed as the top tier of domestic cricket in England since the middle nineteenth century, and until the 1950s it was up to the highest standard of the game. Seasons have varied in length: before the 1880s, they were generally less than ten matches in length and some "first-class" counties played only against one or two different opponents, so that a team winning all its games was not implausible. Between 1887 and
1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholi ...
, seasons were gradually increased in length to a standard twenty-eight matches for all counties. However, because of the development and popularity of one-day cricket, seasons have been reduced to twenty-four games in 1969 and twenty in 1972, though this was increased by two in
1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrati ...
and 1983. With an increase to four days for all games, sixteen or seventeen games have been played since
1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
. Also, because of improvements to pitches via the heavy roller and covering to protect from rain, the proportion of games "drawn" (not finished) has steadily risen since the 1870s. Since tables of results have been kept in
1864 Events January–March * January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster (" Oh! Susanna", " Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song ...
,Wynne-Thomas, Peter; ''The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records''; pp. 53 to 67. the only team to have competed a true perfect season — winning outright every game — was
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
in
1867 Events January–March * January 1 – The Covington–Cincinnati Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, in the United States, becoming the longest single-span bridge in the world. It was renamed a ...
when led by George Freeman's and Tom Emmett's deadly fast bowling on uncovered and unrolled pitches, they won all seven county games. Since 1868 numerous county teams in longer schedules have finished a season unbeaten, but none have managed to win every single game outright:


American football


National Football League

Since the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...
began in 1920, only one team has played a perfect season (both regular season and playoffs): the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who won all fourteen of their regular season games and three postseason games, including
Super Bowl VII Super Bowl VII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Washington Redskins to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion f ...
, to finish the season 17–0–0. The next year the Dolphins extended their winning streak to 18 before losing their second game to the Oakland Raiders on September 23, 1973. It has often been reported that the surviving members of the 1972 Dolphins would, every season, either gather to drink champagne when the final undefeated team earned its first loss of the year, or send a case of champagne to the team who beat this final undefeated team. The head coach of the 1972 Dolphins,
Don Shula Donald Francis Shula (January 4, 1930 – May 4, 2020) was an American football defensive back and coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) from 1963 to 1995. The head coach of the Miami Dolphins for most of his c ...
, denied this in a 2007 interview with ESPN. On August 20, 2013, four decades after their accomplishment, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
hosted the 1972 Dolphins noting that they "never got their
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...
visit".


NFL undefeated seasons (with ties) before 1932

Until the development of a playoff system in the NFL in 1932, there were four teams who completed seasons undefeated, but with one or more tied games: the 1920 Akron Pros, the 1922 Canton Bulldogs, the 1923 Canton Bulldogs, and the 1929 Green Bay Packers. According to the 2012 NFL Record & Fact Book, under NFL practices at the time, from 1920 to 1971 tie games were not included in winning percentage (there was also no
overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...
to settle ties in the regular season until 1974) so, these four teams were recorded with perfect win percentages of 1.000. The 1921 Buffalo All-Americans were controversially denied a similar type of near-undefeated season, when they believed that their final game, a 10–7 loss to the Chicago Staleys, was an exhibition game which would not count in the final standings; the NFL records that game as official, and Buffalo's record as 9–1–2.


Other NFL perfect regular seasons

Apart from the 1972 Dolphins, three NFL teams have completed undefeated and untied regular seasons: the 1934 Chicago Bears, the 1942 Chicago Bears, and the 2007 New England Patriots. In 1934, the Bears played a 13–0–0 regular season and became the first NFL team to complete an undefeated regular season without tied games, but lost the
1934 NFL Championship Game The 1934 NFL Championship Game, also known as the Sneakers Game, was the second scheduled National Football League (NFL) championship game. Played at the Polo Grounds in New York City on December 9, it was the first title game for the newly c ...
against the New York Giants. Despite losing several players and head coach
George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (; February 2, 1895October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chi ...
to military service in World War II, the 1942 Bears finished 11–0–0 but again lost the NFL Championship Game, this time against the Washington Redskins. The 2007 Patriots became the first and only team under the 16-game schedule used from 1978 to
2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...
to finish the regular season undefeated. The Patriots then won their divisional and conference playoff games, but were upset by the New York Giants in
Super Bowl XLII Super Bowl XLII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion 2007 New York Giants season, New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion 2007 New England Patriots season, New England ...
in dramatic fashion, giving them a final record of 18–1.


Pre-NFL era and competing leagues

NFL predecessors such as the Ohio League, New York Pro Football League and Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit had many perfect seasons. In Ohio, the
Massillon Tigers The Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio. Playing in the " Ohio League", the team was a rival to the pre-National Football League version of the Canton Bulldogs. The Tigers won Ohio League championshi ...
(1904, 1905), Akron Indians (1909), Shelby Blues (1911), and
Dayton Triangles The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League (NFL)) in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triang ...
(1918) all had perfect seasons during this era. In New York, the Buffalo Niagaras went 5–0–0 (6–0–0 including a forfeit) in a league that consisted of teams entirely from the city of Buffalo in 1918. In 1920, the
Union Club of Phoenixville The Union Club of Phoenixville was a professional football team based in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The team was the result of a 1919 merger between the Phoenixville Union Club and the upstart Phoenix Athletic Club. From 1907 until 1919, the U ...
, located in eastern Pennsylvania, played in a league mostly consisting of local teams and earned a perfect season, claiming for itself a mythical national championship. In western Pennsylvania, the
1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), ...
and 1901 Homestead Library and Athletic Club teams, as well as the 1903 Franklin Athletic Club, all had perfect seasons. The caliber of talent was neither as high nor as consistent between teams at the time, the seasons were generally shorter (7 to 11 games), and it was not uncommon for top teams to play all their games at home while lesser teams played all of their games on the road. In 1918, Dayton and Buffalo had the additional advantage of having its strongest competitors suspend operations due to the
Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...
and the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
, restrictions that also prevented the two teams from playing each other. Thus, it was much easier to earn a perfect season than it would become in the NFL.


1937 Los Angeles Bulldogs

The
Los Angeles Bulldogs The Los Angeles Bulldogs were a professional American football team that competed from 1936 to 1948 (the last year as the Long Beach Bulldogs). Formed with the intention of joining the National Football League in 1937 (and turned down in favor of ...
were a member of the
second American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a professional American football league that operated in 1936 and 1937. The AFL operated in direct competition with the more established National Football League (NFL) throughout its existence.Bob Carroll ...
, who joined the league in 1937 after the Cleveland Rams defected to the NFL. Playing a combination of AFL teams and independent franchises (such as the Providence Steam Roller and the Salinas Packers), the team went 16–0, with 8 of those wins coming against AFL teams. The Bulldogs’ dominance is cited as one of the key factors in the AFL's demise, and the next season as an independent with a 10–2–2 record including a 2–1–2 record against NFL teams, several of the team's players were invited to play on the "Pro All Stars" team in the NFL's first Pro All-Star Game in Los Angeles. The Bulldogs are considered to be one of the few independent teams to have ever achieved parity with the NFL.


1948 Cleveland Browns

The Browns were a member of the
All-America Football Conference The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...
, a professional football league that played from 1946 to 1949. In 1948, the Browns won all fourteen regular season games and the 1948 AAFC championship to post a 15–0–0 record. Cleveland's perfect 1948 season was part of a longer string of 29 straight wins, which stretched from 1947 to 1949 and included both the 1947 and 1948 title games. Overall, the Browns won all four AAFC championship games and were accepted into the NFL when the two leagues merged after the 1949 season.


Near-perfect seasons

Since the NFL expanded to a fourteen-game regular season in
1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...
(being expanded twice since then), eleven teams have had regular seasons with one loss and no ties (or better) while failing to achieve a perfect season: Most of these teams above suffered their only regular-season loss early in the season and, other than the 2007 Patriots (started regular season and playoffs 18–0), only the 1962 Packers (10–0), 1985 Bears (12–0), 2011 Packers (13–0), and 2015 Panthers (14–0) were on track for a perfect season when they lost. Coincidentally, the 1985 Bears’ lone loss came to the Miami Dolphins. The best start from an NFL team who failed to complete a perfect regular season is shared by two teams: the
2009 Indianapolis Colts The 2009 season was the Indianapolis Colts' 57th in the National Football League (NFL) and their 26th in Indianapolis. It was the first season since 2001 that the Colts did not have Tony Dungy on their coaching staff, due to his retirement from ...
, who started 14–0 before losing their final two regular season games to the New York Jets and the
Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...
to finish 14–2, and the 2015 Carolina Panthers, who went 14–0 before losing to the Atlanta Falcons and going on to finish the regular season 15–1. The 2009 Colts, having clinched the top seed in the AFC, sacrificed their chances at a perfect regular season and instead rested their starters the final two games to protect them for the playoffs, on orders from then General Manager Bill Polian. The Colts faced immense criticism from their players, their fans, and the media for letting their chances of a perfect season slip away. The Colts would go on to Super Bowl XLIV but lost to the
New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...
. The 2015 Panthers were not resting their starters at the time of their loss (at the time, the
Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division, an ...
were 13–2 and still had an opportunity to surpass the Panthers for the top seed in the NFC). Four other teams have started 13–0 before losing in their fourteenth game: the 1998 Denver Broncos,
2005 Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts season was the franchise's 53rd season in the National Football League, the 22nd in Indianapolis and the fourth season under head coach Tony Dungy. The Colts improved on their 12–4 record from 2004 and finished the seaso ...
, 2009 New Orleans Saints and
2011 Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers season was the franchise's 93rd season overall and their 91st in the National Football League (NFL), and the sixth under head coach Mike McCarthy. The team not only improved on their 10–6 record from a season earlier, the ...
(Of those near-perfect seasons, the 2005 Colts and the 2011 Packers did not win a single playoff game). The 1998 Broncos, 2005 Colts and 2009 Saints lost at least two of their final three games but the Broncos and Saints recovered to win the Super Bowl. The 1953 Cleveland Browns and 1969 Los Angeles Rams started 11–0 in twelve- and fourteen-game seasons respectively; both lost their only playoff game.


Other leagues

The following is a list of teams in minor or alternate leagues that compiled perfect seasons of six games or more, including postseason games, with no ties: *The Hollywood Bears, a member of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League, went 8–0–0 in 1941. *The Hollywood Rangers were a member of the American Football League of 1944 (formerly the Northwest War Industries League), a short-lived competitor to the Pacific Coast Professional Football League on the West Coast. In their 1944 season, they went 11–0–0 and defeated the PCPFL champion San Diego Bombers (who had also had a perfect season in their league, going 9–0–0) in a two-game series. *The Charleston Rockets of the
Continental Football League The Continental Football League (COFL) was a professional American football minor league that operated in North America from 1965 through 1969. It was established following the collapse of the original United Football League, and hoped to beco ...
won all 14 games of the league's inaugural season in 1965, going on to defeat the Toronto Rifles in the league's championship. *The Hartford Knights went 17–0–0 in 1972 as a member of the Seaboard Football League, including a victory over the Chambersburg Cardinals in the league's championship. The Knights, unhappy with the level of competition (many of the Knights games had margins of victory of 40 points or more), quit the league the following year. In indoor football, the following teams have had perfect seasons: *The
Quad City Steamwheelers The Quad City Steamwheelers were a professional arena football team. They were a charter member of the AF2 and played their home games at iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois. The team was founded on September 1, 1999 when the Quad Cities ...
went undefeated in the inaugural season of arenafootball2, accruing a record of 19–0–0 including playoffs and an ArenaCup I win. *The Ohio Valley Greyhounds of the National Indoor Football League accrued a perfect season in 2003. *The
Sioux Falls Storm The Sioux Falls Storm are a professional indoor football team based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Storm joined the original Indoor Football League as an expansion team in 1999 as the Sioux Falls Cobras, and first took the field for the 2000 ...
of United Indoor Football won back-to-back perfect seasons in 2006 and 2007, winning the United Bowl championship both years. *The Fayetteville Guard won a perfect season in 2007 in the NIFL. *The Rochester Raiders won a perfect season in
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...
in the
Continental Indoor Football League The Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) was an indoor football league based along the Midwestern United States region that played nine seasons from 2006 to 2014. It began play in April 2006 as the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLI ...
, but withdrew from that league during the playoffs in a dispute. *The Chicago Slaughter won a perfect season in
2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
in the CIFL. *The Baltimore Mariners won a perfect season in
2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
in the American Indoor Football Association. *The Erie Explosion won a perfect season in
2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...
in the Continental Indoor Football league, winning all ten regular season games, a semifinal playoff, and the CIFL Championship. At least twenty-three other semi-professional football teams have had perfect seasons, seven of them being at least 17 games long. The Chambersburg Cardinals won a record 72 straight games between 1977 and 1984. There have been no perfect seasons (or even perfect regular seasons) in the American Association, World Football League,
United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...
, original XFL, the
Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...
or the
Alliance of American Football The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan are ...
, all of which are now defunct. The United Football League has had two perfect regular seasons, but neither qualify for the list: the 2009 Florida Tuskers finished 6–0, but that team lost the subsequent championship game; the 2012 Las Vegas Locomotives had a record of 4–0 when the league abruptly suspended operations halfway through the season. Likewise, the 2020 Houston Roughnecks of the second incarnation of the XFL were undefeated at 5–0 at the time the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The 1933 Providence Huskies (possibly a successor to the Providence Steam Roller) played arguably the most perfect season ever recorded by a professional or semi-professional team: a ten-game season in which they won every game and did not concede a single point during any game.


Leagues outside North America

In the 2014 German Football League the Braunschweig Lions compiled a perfect season (12–0 postseason 3–0), losing only in the BIG6 European Football League which is a different competition. They crowned the season with another German Bowl triumph. Similarly in the 2016 German Football League the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns achieved a perfect regular season with a 14–0 record, similarly their lone defeat came in the BIG6 European Football League which is not considered for league standings. However, unlike Braunschweig before them, Schwäbisch Hall ultimately lost the German Bowl, in this case to Braunschweig. In the 2017 German Football League season, Schwäbisch Hall once more compiled a perfect season (14-0) but this time also won the German Bowl, again against Braunschweig. Interestingly, their opponent in the final had also entered the game with a 14-0 regular season record. Overall the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns posted five consecutive perfect regular seasons (GFL games only) between 2016 and 2021 (both inclusive) — their only losses in that span coming in German Bowl XXXVIII (2016), German Bowl XLI (2019), and German Bowl XLII (2021).


Association football


Domestic teams

No
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...
team has ever achieved a perfect season across all competitions entered, but some have achieved a perfect record in their respective domestic league competitions, although that feat itself is rare. The earliest known perfect league season is that of
Rangers F.C. Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fo ...
of Scotland who, in 1898–99, won all of their 18 Scottish League Division One matches. Other football clubs to have achieved perfect league seasons since then are:
Racing Club Racing Club may refer to: Football * Racing Club Abidjan, Ivory Coast * K.R.C. Genk, Belgium * Racing Club Bafoussam, Cameroon * Racing Club Beirut, Lebanon * Racing Club de Avellaneda, Argentina * Racing Club Haïtien, Haiti * Racing Club Port ...
of Argentina in 1919 (13 wins out of 13), Ferencvárosi of Hungary in 1931–32 (22 wins out of 22), Dresdner SC of Germany in 1942–43 (23), Sunrise Flacq United of
Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
in 1995–96 (22), and Nacional of
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
in 1941 (20).
FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...
managed a 11-0-0 perfect record en-route to winning the
2019–20 UEFA Champions League The 2019–20 UEFA Champions League was the 65th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 28th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Bayern Munich ...
, the first team to do so. The competition's format was reformulated in a single elimination match since the quarterfinals due to
COVID-19 pandemic in Europe The global COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Europe with its first confirmed case in Bordeaux, France, on 24 January 2020, and subsequently spread widely across the continent. By 17 March 2020, every country in Europe had confirmed a case, and all ...
and its following
lockdown A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison ...
. Many teams have achieved an unbeaten domestic season with zero losses, but with several draws. In women's football, Italian club Juventus become the first to win the
Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...
with a perfect record (22-0-0) in the 2020–21 season, an unprecedented feat in Italian men's or women's football history. The following season,
FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional Football team, football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish footb ...
did the same in Spain's
Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...
with 30 wins from 30 matches.


FIFA World Cup

The likelihood of a national team in the
FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the ...
winning all its matches in regulation time to become the champion is much higher than most clubs in their domestic league, as the finals tournament in its current format lasts only seven games. This feat has been achieved three times, by
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
in the inaugural
1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...
tournament, and by
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
in
1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and 1 ...
and
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...
. This is not counting the qualifying round of the tournament, which lasts over a year and has had a varied format since
1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a max ...
. Only the Brazilian team of 1970 has won every game in the qualification and final rounds of a single tournament, a total of 13 games. As there was no qualifying phase for the 1930 tournament, Uruguay also won all the games they played to become champions. In 2010, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
came very close achieving the same feat as Brazil did in 1970. The Netherlands won 8 out of 8 qualifying games and went on to win the next 6
World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
matches in regulation time only to lose in
extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...
to
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
in the final, ending with a 14–0–1 record. In 1998 France became the only host nation to win all seven games of the FIFA World Cup and win the tournament. In the quarter-finals, however, they defeated Italy on penalties; wins (and also losses) on penalties are represented as a draw in statistics.


FIFA Women's World Cup

Through 2011, the likelihood of a national team winning all of its matches in the
FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...
was slightly greater than in the men's version. The Women's World Cup began in
1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the ...
with 12 teams and expanded to 16 effective in
1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...
. Under both structures, the winning team only had to win six games (three in group play and three in the knockout stage) to win the title unbeaten. The tournament expanded to 24 teams in
2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...
, at which time the number of games that the champion must play increased to seven (the same total as in the men's World Cup). The 2011 event, won by Japan, was the first in which the champion lost in group play; the other finalist, the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
, had also lost in group play. Each previous team to have won the title — the United States in 1991 and 1999,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
in
1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...
, and
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
in
2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...
and
2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...
— won all of its group stage matches. In fact, only one of these teams, the United States in 1999, had a knockout match go to extra time—specifically the final against China, which ultimately went to a
penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
. Germany won all of its matches in the 2007 final tournament without giving up a goal, becoming the first team in either the men's or women's World Cup to accomplish this feat. The United States' third championship team in 2015 had one draw in the group stage; in
2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
, the United States won all seven games in regulation, by a combined score of 26–3, en route to their fourth title. As of the 2019 tournament, four undefeated, untied Women's World Cup champions also went through their qualifying stage without a loss or draw: * United States, 1991 ( 5 wins, 49 goals for, 0 against) * Germany, 2003 ( 6 wins, 30 goals for, 1 against) * Germany, 2007 ( 8 wins, 31 goals for, 3 against) * United States, 2019 ( 5 wins, 26 goals for, 0 against) Of the other two teams to win the Women's World Cup without a loss or draw in the finals: * Norway went through their 1995 qualification campaign with 8 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. * The United States automatically qualified for the 1999 edition as hosts.


Australian rules football


Australian Football League (AFL)/Victorian Football League (VFL)

The
VFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
began in 1897. Based entirely in the state of Victoria, before it expanded through the 1980s, and 1990s to become the top level national league (AFL) in the sport of Australian rules football. The length of a complete season (including finals matches) has typically been between 18 and 26 games. Throughout the history of the league, no team has ever completed a perfect season. One team, in
1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholi ...
, completed a perfect home-and-away season, finishing with a record of 18–0; the club won the premiership, but did not complete a perfect season after losing the second semi-final against .


South Australian National Football League (SANFL)

The SANFL has existed since 1877 within South Australia, and until the latter part of the twentieth century was of equivalent standard to the VFL. The only perfect season to be completed was by the 1914
Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...
team, known as the "Invincibles". Port won all four of its pre season matches. It finished the minor round with a 12–0 record, before winning both finals to finish with a 14–0 record and a perfect season. They also won the Championship of Australia against VFL premiers Carlton, to extend that record to 15–0. In addition to this the club played a combined team from all the other SAFL clubs and won to extend the record to 16–0. The closest any team got to Port Adelaide was
North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. History Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colon ...
, losing by 21 points in Round 10. This is the only instance in the big three Australian football leagues (VFL/SANFL/WAFL) where a club has gone undefeated in the pre-season, season main and post season. In 1912, Port Adelaide had a perfect minor round and then beat West Torrens in its semi-final but lost both the final and Grand Final to West Adelaide.


West Australian Football League (WAFL)

The WAFL has existed since 1885 within Western Australia, and until the latter part of the 20th century was of equivalent standard to either the VFL or SANFL. The 1946
East Fremantle East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
team was the first club in senior WAFL football to have managed a perfect season, winning all twenty-one of its games; it is noted that the playing lists of many of its opponents had been seriously depleted by World War II. The only loss for the season came against Victorian club Collingwood in a post season exhibition match. The
2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
Subiaco team was the second team to complete a perfect season, winning all of its 18 games in the minor round before winning both their second-semi-final against South Fremantle and the Grand Final against West Perth.


Victorian Football Association (VFA/VFL)

The Victorian Football League, known until 1996 as the Victorian Football Association, began in 1877 and was Victoria's premier football league until 1897, and has been the second-tier league in the state since. Perfect seasons have been completed on five occasions in VFA/VFL history, but only twice in full-length seasons: #by North Melbourne during a war-shortened
1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 ...
, with a record of 15–0 #by North Melbourne in
1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...
, which was also shortened by the war, with a record of 12–0; #by Geelong West in 1972 Division 2, with a record of 20–0 #by
Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city List of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of ...
in 2011, with a record of 21–0. #by the Footscray reserves during a pandemic-shortened
2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
, with a record of 10–0 There were also cases of teams going undefeated through the season in the nineteenth century, but none completed perfect seasons because some of their matches were drawn. Of those, could be interpreted as having been perfect in
1879 Events January–March * January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War. * January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins. * Janu ...
; it had a record of 15–0–1, and the draw came by agreement when a match which Geelong led 1–0 was abandoned due to inclement weather. Four other teams have completed perfect home-and-away seasons, but subsequently lost finals matches: # North Melbourne in
1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the ...
won all eighteen home-and-away games before losing to Brunswick in the second-semi-final and Footscray in the Grand Final. #
Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it ...
in
1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 * ...
won all eighteen home-and away games before drawing with Port Melbourne in the second semi final, losing the replay, then winning the Grand Final. # Coburg in 1945 won all twenty home-and-away games before losing to Williamstown in the second semi-final and being eliminated by Port Melbourne in the preliminary final. # Williamstown in
1957 1957 (Roman numerals, MCMLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday, common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, t ...
won all twenty home-and-away games before losing to Moorabbin in the second semi final, and being eliminated by Port Melbourne in the preliminary final.


Canadian football

A true perfect season (no losses and no ties through the regular season and playoffs) has never been achieved in professional Canadian football. Only one team, the 1948
Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third ...
(in the pre-CFL era), has completed a perfect regular season; more on this can be seen below. The current
Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ...
schedule in place since 1986 would require a team to win 20 games (18 regular season, 1 playoff after bye week, and the Grey Cup championship) to post a perfect record; the closest any team has come to such since the CFL's establishment in 1958 are the 1981
Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Comm ...
, who went 14–1–1 in the regular season, en route to winning their fourth of five straight Grey Cup titles by winning both their playoff games, and the closest since the institution of the 18-game schedule coming in 1989, also set by the Edmonton Eskimos, by going 16–2 in the regular season, only to be upset by the
Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded i ...
in the West Final.


1948 Calgary Stampeders

Under head coach Les Lear, the 1948
Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third ...
completed a perfect regular season with a record of 12–0; they had two wins and a tie during the playoffs to finish with a record of 14–0–1, the only undefeated complete season in Canadian pro history. In the
Western Interprovincial Football Union The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), its counterpart being the East Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagu ...
championship (a home-and-home
aggregate Aggregate or aggregates may refer to: Computing and mathematics * collection of objects that are bound together by a root entity, otherwise known as an aggregate root. The aggregate root guarantees the consistency of changes being made within the ...
series decided on total points) against the
Regina Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...
, the first leg was tied 4–4, and the Stampeders won the second 21–10, to win the aggregate 25–14. The Stampeders then defeated the
Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...
12–7 for the 36th Grey Cup. Despite the Stampeders' title, their achievement was only lightly regarded in the East. At the time, the Eastern and Western unions played separate regular seasons and met only in the Grey Cup. The Western union was openly regarded to be a weaker competition than the East, and Calgary's win (only the third for a Western team up to that time) was dismissed as a fluke.


Handball

In 2020–21 FC Barcelona Handbol had over all championships a perfect season. They won the following domestic championships: Liga ASOBAL with 34 perfect games, the Copa del Rey de Balonmano,
Copa ASOBAL The Copa ASOBAL is an annual cup competition for Liga ASOBAL teams. It was first played for in 1990 and is contested by the top four teams at the end of the first half of the Liga ASOBAL Liga Asobal is the premier professional handball league in ...
and the Supercopa ASOBAL. At the European level they won the
2020–21 EHF Champions League The 2020–21 EHF Champions League was the 61st edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 28th edition under the current EHF Champions League format. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, each local health department dictated the nu ...
with 20 perfect games. In total they won 61 games out of 61 in 2020–21.


Germany

In 2011–12, German handball champion THW Kiel achieved a perfect season of as many as 34 matches. Additionally, the team also won the national DHB Cup and the international
EHF Champions League The Men's EHF Champions League is the most important club handball competition for men's teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations. The competition is organised every year by EHF. The official name for the me ...
.


Spain

In the Liga ASOBAL the FC Barcelona Handbol had 4 consecutive perfect seasons from the 2013–14 season to the 2016–17 season.


Croatia

In the
Premijer liga The m:tel Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( bs, m:tel Premijer liga Bosne i Hercegovine / м:тел Премијер лига Босне и Херцеговине), also known as Liga 12, is the top tier football league in Bosnia and Herz ...
the RK Zagreb is unbeaten for 11 years, they won 190 consecutive games, last time they lost against Osijek Motormodul (38:39) on 14.4.2007. In that 190 games they just have one tie with RK Poreč (31:31), after that game they won 178 games in a row and that row is still active.


Lacrosse

In professional
lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...
, the
1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
Buffalo Bandits are the only team to have won a perfect season in the
National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United States and five in Canada. The N ...
. The Bandits won all eight of their regular season games and won the championship in a two-round tournament; the season was the continuation of a multi-season winning streak that dated to the Bandits’ successful run for the previous year's championship. In
Major League Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff ...
, which began play in 2001, the 2013 Denver Outlaws were the first team to complete a perfect regular season, winning all fourteen of their games. After beating the Hamilton Nationals, the Outlaws had a sequence of twenty consecutive regular season wins despite losing the 2012 championship. However, the Outlaws lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Charlotte Hounds, who had only gone 7–7 in the regular season.


Mountain bike


Cross-country

In the
2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
season the Swiss mountain biker Nino Schurter won 6 out of 6 races and additionally at the
World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
he won the gold medal at the single and at the mixed race and the
Cape Epic The Absa Cape Epic, founded by Kevin Vermaak and also known as the Cape Epic, is an annual mountain bike stage race held in the Western Cape, South Africa. First staged in 2004, it has been accredited as '' hors catégorie'' (beyond categoriz ...
.


Downhill

In the 2016 season the British mountain biker Rachel Atherton won 7 out of 7 races and additionally at the
World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
she won the gold medal.


Netball


Commonwealth Bank Trophy

The Commonwealth Bank Trophy was the main national netball competition in Australia from 1997 to 2007. There were eight teams in a double round robin format and finals. The Sydney Swifts were the only team to achieve a perfect season, winning all fourteen regular season games and both their finals matches for a record of 16–0.


ANZ Championship

The ANZ Championship, the principal netball competition for Australia and New Zealand was established in 2008 to replace the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. Comprising ten teams (five from Australia and five from New Zealand) there has so far been one perfect season, by the Mission Queensland Firebirds, based in
Brisbane, Queensland Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
in 2011. The Firebirds won thirteen regular season games and both their finals matches for a record of 15–0. In 2010, the New South Wales Swifts managed to win all thirteen regular season games, but lost both of their finals matches and ended with a 13–2 for that year.


Rugby league


National Rugby League

The
National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
has existed since 1908, being originally known as the New South Wales Rugby League and before the
Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...
war of 1995 as the Australian Rugby League. In its history, only one team has completed a perfect season: the
South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league club based in Redfern, New South Wales, Redfern, a suburb of inner-southern Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are ...
in 1925, who won all twelve games contested. Five other teams have gone undefeated but featured at least one drawn match: Balmain (
1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 ...
), North Sydney ( 1921), Eastern Suburbs (
1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...
and
1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Febr ...
) and
St George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...
( 1959).


Brisbane Rugby League

The Brisbane Rugby League premiership began in 1909 and continued in varying forms until 1996, after which it was superseded by the
Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by fo ...
. Between the 1930s and the 1960s it was of comparable standard to the New South Wales Rugby Football League, but subsequently a huge drain of players to Sydney eroded the standard of play. Before
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
seasons were typically no more than twelve games long; however as the competition grew it was expanded to 21 games by 1960. The only BRL teams to manage a perfect season were: The following team managed an undefeated season but drew one game: The following teams managed an undefeated home-and-away season, but subsequently lost finals matches:


British Rugby League

Whilst no rugby league team in Britain has completed the perfect season in the top flight, this has been achieved on four occasions in lower divisions, twic in the 2nd division and twice in the 3rd. Hull F.C. achieved this feat in the 1978–79 Season, where they won 26 from 26 games, gaining promotion to the top division for the second time in three seasons. This was also achieved by the
Dewsbury Rams The Dewsbury Rams are a professional English rugby league club based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire that compete in the Championship. They play their home games at the Tetley's Stadium, on Owl Lane. The Rams' main fanbase comes from their homet ...
in
2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
during their Championship 1 (third division) season where they won all 18 games from a possible 18, winning promotion immediately after being relegated the previous season where they won just two games. Since their 2009 promotion, the Rams have so far stayed in the sports' second division, including two play off finishes. The third occasion came in 2021 when Toulouse Olympique finished the 2021 Championship with a 100% record having won 13 games and awarded a 14th as a walkover. The season was badly affected by postponements and cancellations caused by restrictions imposed under COVID-19 regulations and Toulouse only managed to play 13 games (all away) while all the other teams in the division played 20 to 22 games. The fourth occasion was in 2022 when