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The top ten April Fools’ Day pranks in football

By on April 1, 2016

It’s April Fools’ Day in football and the game for the best prank is well afoot. We’ve compiled the top ten April Fool’s Day pranks in football, 2016 edition.

1. Dancing with the Sporting Kansas City Stars

Sporting Kansas City tricked two of their star players into believing they were auditioning for ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. The resulting video has to top our roundup:

2. Fabian Delph storms out of CityTV interview

In a world of posh, often volatile soccer superstars, Fabian Delph adopted the role of prima donna to fool Manchester City’s in-house TV crew in cruel, but hilarious fashion:

3. Non-league chairman signs himself after first home defeat in four years

The New Saints of Oswestry Town made a surprise announcement ahead of their JD FAW Welsh Cup semi-final against gap Connah’s Quay on Saturday. Poking fun at the grassroots nature of non-league football and their first home defeat in four years, a 2-1 loss to Newtown, they revealed that Chairman Mike Harris is to start as the sole striker for tomorrow’s match.

“We have been conceding goals and only scored one last week so I felt that I could do a better job myself, so I am,” said Harris.

Despite not playing professionally, the TNS owner is confident he is the key to securing progression into the Final, “I will be in the starting line-up because we need more firepower up top.”

With full timers TNS still on course for a treble, Harris is confident of scoring his own treble tomorrow, “After a week training hard, I am sure I can help the side and I am confident I can also score a hat-trick tomorrow, having found the back of the net with ease this past week.”

The Saints will take on gap Connah’s Quay tomorrow in the JD FAW Welsh Cup Semi-Final at Paveaways Latham Park. The match will kick off at 17:15 and will be broadcast live on S4C.

4. Plymouth rent water buffaloes to…well, see for yourself

The Plymouth Herald reported early this morning that the club have turned to water buffalo droppings in an “extraordinary new attempt to destroy the infamous Home Park algae and save the pitch for their make or break run-in.”

The article continued: “Groundsmen and zoo staff will keep a 24-hour watch on the miniature water buffaloes, which will have the freedom of the entire pitch until next Friday, with the hope the surface is revitalized for the final three home matches.”

5. Orlando City FC launches Lions Only, a dating platform exclusively for City fans

Orlando City FC launched a unique matchmaking system called Lions Only, a dating platform design to hook up Lions fans at Orlando matches.

“Orlando City fans proved extremely compatible with each other in our early beta testing,” said Lorenzo von Matterhorn, the man behind the Lions Only technology, according to the club’s spoof article. “It was our expectation that having a common interest would serve as a fantastic foundation for a relationship, and it looks like we have been proven correct.”

Equipped with a social media campaign, a press release and promo video, their PR team clearly had a laugh. And hey, maybe their onto something…

“Seriously though, use the hashtag #LionsOnly and see if you can find someone to take to Sunday’s game,” the club joked. “Maybe Lorenzo von Matterhorn was onto something after all. And check out the terrible video we made below, because it’s not a good April Fools joke if you can’t laugh at yourself, too.”

6. Football Manager introduce mascots

Ahead of the announcement of Football Manager 2017, everyone’s favorite managerial simulation leaked the newest featured to the game…mascots on the touchline. They got the Mirror in on the joke, too.

“Football Manager 2017 is still some time away – but we have obtained an exclusive screenshot which shows it will be the most detailed, comprehensive version of the game yet,” the paper reported.

“Everyone’s favourite managerial simulation already allows you to do pretty much everything an actual football manager can do (and more), right down to changing the width of your team’s pitch.

“However, the game has never included the ability to create a brand new mascot… until now.”

7. Barcelona and Real Madrid start cricket clubs

AS Sport crafted a masterful article ahead of the weekend’s El Clasico claiming that Barcelona and Real Madrid are starting cricket clubs.

8. Arsenal introduce retractable roof to Emirates Stadium

9. Rio Ferdinand embarks upon managerial career

10. The grass is always, erm, bluer in France

The Parc de l’Olympique Lyonnais, home of Lyon, put out a tweet introducing their newest stadium upgrade ahead of Euro 2016 — a blue pitch!

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.