Which capital city has had the longest wait for European football?

“There surely can’t be many nations whose capitals have had as long a European drought as Moldova with Chisinau,” tweets Richard Wilson.

It’s certainly been a while since the denizens of Chisinau have had anything to look out for on the European stage – you have to go back to 2017-18 for the city’s last appearance of any kind in European competition, Dacia Chisinau crashing out of the Europa League in the first qualifying round with a 7-0 aggregate defeat to North Macedonia’s Shkendija Tetovo.

Chisinau also hosted Manchester United’s Europa League group game against Sheriff Tiraspol last season – but for a city team’s last appearance in European competition proper, you have to go all the way back to 2003-04 and Zimbru Chisinau’s first-round defeat to Aris Thessaloniki. Fear not, though – next season Zimbru are back! Well, they’re in the Europa Conference League qualifiers at any rate.

There are a couple of capital cities who can claim to have had a longer wait, including one much closer to Knowledge HQ. “Look to Cardiff for a 20-year drought between Cardiff Metropolitan University (then Inter Cardiff) participating in the 1999-2000 Uefa Cup and the 2019-20 Europa League,” writes Matthew Watson.

Eddie Eyers attempts to stretch that a little further in France: “From the inception of Uefa competition in 1955-56 until Paris Saint-Germain’s debut in the 1982-83 Cup Winners’ Cup, the City of Lights had no representation in European football for 27 seasons.” Which is true as far as Uefa competitions go, though Racing Club de Paris’s 1963-64 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (total sum of which: a first-round exit to Rapid Vienna) surely counts as European football, bringing the streak down to 19 years.

A long wait, nevertheless. But