How you can do The 92 in a single season

As fixture lists drop and pre-season optimism peaks each summer, a certain type of football fan starts plotting something a little different from the usual season-ticket routine.

Forget top-four predictions or relegation fears, their obsession is geography, kickoff times, and whether it is physically possible to be in Plymouth on a Tuesday and Carlisle by Saturday.

This is the world of ‘The 92’ – English football's unofficial badge of honour for the truly committed groundhopper.

With the 2026-27 season now underway, we take a closer look at what the challenge actually involves, which teams are in The 92, and whether cramming the whole thing into one season is ambition or madness.

What is The 92 club?

The 92 Club is exactly what it sounds like: a challenge to watch a match at all 92 clubs across England's four professional divisions – the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two.

There is no entry fee, no governing body, and no trophy waiting at the other end. The reward is simply being able to say you have done it! (alongside a small but proud community of fans who understand exactly what that involved).

The concept is not new. Groundhopping as a hobby dates back decades, and the original 92 club was founded in 1978 by Bristol Rovers supporter Gordon Pearce, who gathered 38 fellow obsessives who had already managed the impressive feat.

Since then, the club has grown into an informal fraternity, and football lovers across the country have set themselves the challenge to complete it, either in a lifetime or in a single season!

What makes it endlessly repeatable, and genuinely maddening, is that your individual target moves every single year. Promotion and relegation can reshuffle your list each summer, so a ground you ticked off in April might not count anymore come August, while a club you had never normally visit suddenly appears on your list.

Ground tours, driving past a stadium, or watching from outside does not count. You must watch the match from inside the stadium.

While some choose to only watch official league matches to join The 92 club, others also include domestic cup fixtures (FA Cup, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy) and also European games.

As long as the fixture you watch is a competitive or recognised first-team match where general tickets were offered for sale, it counts!

Which teams are currently in The 92?

Premier League (20 teams):

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Hull City, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur

Championship (24 teams):

Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Bristol City, Burnley, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Derby County, Lincoln City, Middlesbrough, Millwall, Norwich City, Portsmouth, Preston North End, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Southampton, Stoke City, Swansea City, Watford, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Wrexham

League One (24 teams):

AFC Wimbledon, Barnsley, Blackpool, Bradford City, Bromley, Burton Albion, Cambridge United, Doncaster Rovers, Huddersfield Town, Leicester City, Leyton Orient, Luton Town, Mansfield Town, Milton Keynes Dons, Notts County, Oxford United, Peterborough United, Plymouth Argyle, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday, Stevenage, Stockport County, Wigan Athletic and Wycombe Wanderers

League Two (24 teams):

Accrington Stanley, Barnet, Bristol Rovers, Cheltenham Town, Chesterfield, Colchester United, Crawley Town, Crewe Alexandra, Exeter City, Fleetwood Town, Gillingham, Grimsby Town, Newport County, Northampton Town, Oldham Athletic, Port Vale, Rochdale, Rotherham United, Salford City, Shrewsbury Town, Swindon Town, Tranmere Rovers, Walsall and York City

*Information correct for the 2026-27 season

How can you do The 92 in a single season?

Doing The 92 across a decade is one thing; most hoppers take five to fifteen years, or even longer picking off grounds as life allows. Doing it inside a single 10-month season (roughly August to May) is an entirely different exercise in logistics, and it requires treating the fixture list less like a football calendar and almost like a military campaign!

Start planning before a ball is kicked:

Fixtures for all four divisions are typically released in June, giving you a two-month head start to cross-reference kickoff times (though some times are subject to change), spot regional clusters, and build a season-long route before pre-season friendlies have even finished. Organisation is key.

Build regional weekends, not single trips:

The single biggest efficiency gain comes from clustering. A Saturday 3pm game in one city, a Tuesday night EFL fixture 40 miles away, and a Friday night League One match somewhere in between can turn one weekend into three grounds instead of one – a highly beneficial strategy if you wish to complete the challenge in one season.

Lean on the cup competitions:

The FA Cup, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy are a groundhopper's best friend – they regularly send Premier League and Championship clubs to smaller, lower-league grounds outside the normal fixture rhythm, letting you tick off a big name without needing a coveted league ticket. Limiting yourself strictly to league matches ramps up the difficulty exponentially.

Try to visit the hardest grounds first, not last:

Premier League tickets are the ultimate pinch point of the entire challenge. Demand is massive and general admission often sells out to club members and season-ticket holders long before the public ever gets a look in. Try to prioritise securing entry to these toughest top-flight stadiums early in the season while you have the maximum number of fixture dates available. You can then save the more accessible League Two grounds, which are cheaper and rarely sell out, to fill the gaps in your schedule later on.

Use midweek football relentlessly:

Saturday 3pm kickoffs across the EFL all clash with each other, so a significant chunk of your progress has to come from Tuesday and Wednesday night fixtures, Friday night games and the occasional Monday or Thursday slot – anything that does not compete directly with a Saturday you have already committed elsewhere.

Accept the cost up front:

Between match tickets (anything from roughly £15-20 in League Two to £50-90+ for some Premier League fixtures), fuel or rail fares and the odd overnight stay when the geography does not allow a same-day return, a season-long 92 attempt realistically runs into several thousands of pounds. Budgeting for it honestly, rather than discovering it mid-season, is what separates finishers from fans who reluctantly give up at Christmas.

Track your progress properly:

Since there is no official verifying body, some hoppers use a groundhopping app, a simple spreadsheet or jot down notes on their phone to log dates, opponents and any other relevant information – partly for personal record, partly because no-one else is going to certify your achievement for you. Taking photos of your adventures is also part of the fun!

Is it realistic to complete The 92 in a single season?

Realistic? Yes. Easy? Absolutely not.

It has been done. A handful of dedicated groundhoppers have completed it in a single season (or close to it), and it has even become something of a minor genre on YouTube, with fans documenting the whole odyssey from Cornwall to Carlisle.

But the honest answer is that it demands a significant level of time, money and flexibility to your daily/weekly life that puts it out of reach for most people with a standard job, a family, or a life that occasionally needs to take priority over a Tuesday night trip to Accrington.

The core obstacle for some is not distance. England is compact enough that nowhere is more than a long day's drive from anywhere else. Fixture clustering to complete this challenge in a 10-month period is so important. Saturday 3pm kickoffs across the lower leagues are a wall you simply cannot get through with league football alone. You may need cup replays, rearranged fixtures, and a fair amount of luck to avoid a season where four must-visit grounds all play at exactly the same time on the same afternoon.

Premier League ticket availability adds a second layer of difficulty entirely outside your control. Demand for top-flight matches is so intense, and general admission is so heavily rationed, that a single season is not always enough time to guarantee entry to every stadium, no matter how well you plan.

The people who do pull it off tend to share three things: near-total control over their own schedule, a genuine appetite for hundreds of hours in a car or on a train, and a willingness to treat the whole season as the project rather than a hobby squeezed around one. For everyone else, the 92 remains what it has always been; not a sprint, but a slow, satisfying collection built one ground, one Tuesday night, one questionable motorway service station at a time – and there is nothing wrong with that. You choose how to take on the challenge!