So, The list.
Loads of sporting venues from all over the globe, plotted on a huge list in order to prove who’s more of a sports fan. There’s a multitude of power-ups, bonuses and extras that bump up your score – it’s so complicated it’d make Carol Vorderman wince.
Each sport has it’s own mini-list of venues – but instead of printing them all out as a big long undigestible list that would be about as exciting as reading through the Encyclopedia Britannica, I’ll go through each sport one by one.
This time it’s football and below is a breakdown of the 8 that made it onto the list plus a few others that didn’t – for those who missed it, you get a point if you’ve been to the venue and another one if you’ve seen a match there (max of 1 extra point). Oh, and if the stadium has been bulldozed you get an extra brucie bonus point.
The Football List
Wembley Stadium (England): The home of football. I’ve been there loads of times, had a guided tour and lifted the FA Cup in front of the royal box. (It was a replica and there was no royalty that day).
Hampden Park (Scotland): Not 100% sure why this made it. Either it’s a nod to our friends north of the border, or it’s hosted the biggest crowd on UK soil, it’s most likely be the latter.
The Camp Nou (Barcelona): It’s massive. And massive doesn’t cover the half of it. I only went half way up the stand and had vertigo – the seats just went up, and up, and up……
Azteca Stadium (Mexico): The World Cup in Mexico 86 was the first world cup I remember. I have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of that tournament and can tell you without hesitating the England starting lineup against Argentina (Shilton, Stevens, Sansom, Fenwick, Butcher, Hoddle, Reid, Hodge, Steven, Lineker, Beardsley with Waddle and Barnes off the bench). The game was one of the best ever and was played at the Azteca. As was the final. It’s on the list.
Maracana (Brazil): It once had a game there with nearly 200,000 people! That’s immense and a list of famous football venues wouldn’t be complete without it.
The Bernabeu (Real Madrid): This one is in mostly because of Real Madrid and the fact that when the list was being drawn up I was watching a lot of spanish football and was supporting Real. But it’s held the World Cup Final and that’s nothing to be sneezed at.
San Siro (Milan): Not on the list for being a famous sporting venue, but for being the background image when managing Internazionale or AC Milan in Championship Manager. And I spent a LOT of time managing AC Milan on championship manager.
Hidegkuti Nandor Stadium (The Allies): What’s the greatest football film of all time? Mike Bassett England Manager? Maybe? But not far behind (and possibly a little bit ahead) is Escape to Victory. Any film that has Sylvester Stallone playing in the same team as Pele, Ossie Ardiles, Bobby Moore and Michael Caine is genius. It was on all the time when I was younger (along with Swiss Family Robinson) and the final is played at the Hidegkuti Nandor Stadium. Sly saves a penalty in the last minute, he doesn’t escape at half time (who can forget Russell Osman telling him “but we can win this”) and Ardiles scores with a bicycle kick. Forget the greatest football film of all time, I’m upgrading it to the greatest film of all time!
The nearly list
Old Trafford (Man Yoo): The theatre of dreams? Pah, Man United play there so only likely to get onto the B list.
Millenium Stadium (Wales): Not built when the list was created – would definitely be on it if I was creating it today.
La Bombonera (Boca Juniors): Diego Maradona used to play there and has an amazing atmosphere. On the B list.
Molineux (Wolves): Would love to have this on the list, but I’d used up my 2 wildcards!
That’s the football list done and hopefully you’ll see why I picked some and not others. Feel free to leave comments with your football stadia recommendations, I’ll collate them all and maybe create another list based on suggestions!
Also, if you can beat my score of 5 I’d love to hear what you’ve seen and where!
Next up, cricket with Lords, Edgbaston and the SCG. What made it and what didn’t?
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Tags: escape to victory, football, sporting stadia, sylvester stallone
Ok! So I have not visited all the lovely stadia you have but I have been to the following important matches….
Wed 25th June 2008 – Vancouver Whitecaps vs Montreal Impact, Canada Cup. (The north-america equivalent of the “Champions League”!!!). I think Impact won 3-0!!
Sun 6th January 2002 – Cardiff City vs Leeds United, AXA FA Cup 3rd Round. (My wife queued for 3 hours around Ninian Park while I was at work to get the tickets to go to this match. I woz there.)
Tue 23rd May 2000 – Wales vs Brazil, International Friendly. (Ok, we lost 3-0 and we were up the rafters, but I SAW Rivaldo with my own eyes!!).
Sat 3rd September 2005 – Wales vs England, Germany 06 World Cup Qualifier. (I REALLY thought we would get something from this match, with the hostile home crowd. England won comfortably and I was nearly involved in a riot when an English fan stood up in the Welsh section!!!!).
Wed 17th November 1993 – Wales vs Romania, USA 94 World Cup Qualifier. (Wales only needed to win this match to book themselves a place at USA 1994. Paul Bodin missed a penalty when the scores were level 1–1 and the rest is history!)
Wed 31st March 1993 – Wales vs Belgium, USA 94 World Cup Qualifier. (The game where Ryan Giggs scored his first international goal. I was standing right behind him on the terraces and saw the ball in the back of the net before anyone. AWESOME! Charlie and I jumped and hugged for joy. I think we won 2-0).
Wed 14th December 1994 – Wales vs Bulgaria, EURO 96 Qualifier. (I think this was Vinnie Jones’ international debut, or was he sent off! He only played 9 matches for us!!).
Sat 3rd February 1996 – Wimbledon FC (remember them??) vs Manchester United, FA Carling Premiership. (This was my FIRST Man Utd match. Bex bought me the ticket and took me. I saw Cantona in the flesh – his warm up routine was AWESOME. It was also the first him he returned to Selhurt Park after THAT incident.)
7th April 2009 – Manchester United vs FC Porto, Champions League Quarter Final 1st Leg. I’ve been to Old Trafford before, did a tour of the stadium with my Dad when we were looking at Universities! Attended this match with my bro and Uncle-in-law. I thought United had done it when Tevez scored right in front of us, denied at the death! Watching this match, I could see Ronaldo was causing problems to the side by not tracking back, whinging and giving up when he lost the ball. Sad to lose this tallent at United, but here’s to a better team without him.)
And if I don’t mention this one Bex will kick me…
Sat 23rd March 1996 – Crystal Palace vs Portsmouth, Endsleigh League Division 1. (The referee said there was 2 minutes of extra time, at 0-0 Palace dude shoots in the area, the ball is going in and the referee blows the whistle a MINUTE early! Robbed they were!).