German teams break longest football match record
June 5, 2019
Two German clubs are set to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for completing the longest ever football match, playing a continuous 168-hour game that began on May 29 and ended late Wednesday.
The final score between "Sportfreunde St. Wendel-Winterbach" from the southwestern state of Saarland against "Thank God it's Friday Event Club" from the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate was 1802 to 1802.
Two British teams had set the previous record of 108 hours in 2016. Winterbach and Thank God it's Friday surpassed the 109 hour-mark on June 3.
"We wanted to pack a whole load of hours on the previous record so that nobody would have the idea of ever contesting the title again," organizer Thomas Handle told the DPA news agency.
Each team fielded 18 players, who took a five-minute break every hour and were not allowed to leave the pitch for the duration of the game.
The Guinness Book of World Records is yet to confirm the achievement.
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