8 Football Teams Who Were Stripped Of Their League Titles

An international youth tournament in China is hardly the same scale of event as some that we will come to on this list, but nevertheless the South Korean Under-18 team's loss of their Panda Cup title drew headlines around the world for the bizarre nature of a story in which the teenage players were accused of an "unforgivable" violation of the spirit and ethics of sport.

At the event, hosted by the Chengdu Football Association last May, the Korean team beat youth teams representing Thailand, New Zealand and China to secure the trophy. However, it was in celebrating their triumph that the Korean players so offended their hosts that they had to return the trophy and were asked never to come back, like misbehaving kids on a school trip.

And what did they do that was so intolerable? There was talk of the Korean players posing pretending to urinate into the trophy, but the thing that really caused a scandal was the photos taken of Korea's Park Kyu-hyun standing with his foot on the cup like a trophy hunter with his catch.

With the Chinese state press describing the Korean players as "acting more like conquerors than champions" the celebrations were seen as vulgar, indecent and offensive to their hosts and the other teams, leading to the Chengdu FA taking back the trophy.