Wisla Krakow 1 Cracovia 0 - Ekstraliga, Sunday 22nd November 2009 - A report by Terence Sowa
First off, my father is Polish, he ended up here in England after the war, after Roosevelt and Churchill sold Poland down the river, giving the country to Stalin. From the early sixties we always had a copy of World Soccer around the house (if only I had kept them I would be a rich man today!) as it was his only contact with football back in his homeland. When the odd Polish team made their way to these shores he tried to see the game; the poor old boy watched a Polish team (I think Widrew Lodz) get beaten against West Ham and came home from White Hart Lane in tears after the Spurs “double team” had thrashed Gornik Zarbze 8-1...What didn’t help was that his little boy (me) had started supporting Tottenham around that time.
I loved overseas football and fell in love with the far away teams such Santos, River Plate, First Vienna, Ferencvaros, Slavia Prague and of course the Polish teams with strange names like Gornik, Legia, and Wisla. Dad told me that unlike England the names all meant something other than the district the team was based in, for example Gornik means “Miner” Legia was the Army team (Dad didn’t like them much) and Wisla were named after the river that flowed through the town, and divided Poland in half.
Dad couldn’t go home for many years as it was still a dangerous place to visit so my chance to see a match in his homeland was non existent. Finally I got to watch Legia Warsaw in the late 80’s and loved every moment - a foggy, cold night gave a real atmosphere of the mysterious “Eastern Block”.
Sorry if I have gone on a bit but watching a match abroad still gives me a feeling of “something different” in terms of culture, style, fan behaviour and of course the teams themselves. So it was with great excitement that I walked out of Krakow town centre and along Ulica Reymana to the Wisla stadium a few days before the match to purchase a ticket that I was told by my hotel receptionist “you will not be able to buy”. A ticket for the infamous Krakow derby.
So into the club shop I go and after a lengthy and very interesting conversation with the ticket seller about the merits of the Premier League, and the skills of Rooney, Owen and Crouch I got a book on the history of Wisla, a lapel badge and finally, my ticket.
The ticket cost about £6.50 and this included the train travel. “But I don’t need a train, my hotels only a mile down the road” I told him..but with a glint in his eye he delivered the bad news... “Due to both teams stadiums being renovated the match will be played 70 kilometres away in Sosnowiec” he replied “The supporters train leaves Krakow at 1pm“. Great. My first chance to see one of the most volatile derbies in European football and it was being played in another town. Imagine West Ham v Millwall being played in Dover and you get the idea.
“ It’s not a hooligan special is it?” I asked, “No” he said “this is a proper supporters train”. Having experienced train travel in Poland I knew what to expect, and it wasn't Eurostar!
After leaving the Wisla club house I made my way for about a mile across the park to the Cracovia stadium, in the process of being totally rebuilt from its basic shell that was once home to goalkeeper ex-Pope John Paul II. I popped in their basic club shop, hiding my Wisla bag and purchased a Cracovia lapel badge.
Sunday arrived and I pitched up at Krakow Glowny train station about 15 minutes before the "football special" train was due to leave and could see which platform I had to be on by the mass of noisy Wisla fans gathered there. This dirty old train turned up, looked like it had done many years service and they all piled on. My Polish is pretty poor so I latched on to Monika and Mariucz who spoke some English and told me to sit with them. They trust a bottle of “Tyskie” beer into my hand and explained that there was a "whip round" going through the carriage “for a Wisla hooligan who has just gone to prison….unjustly”. Well looking at the three skinheads with the collection bag I thought it made sense to contribute, they also had noticed my Tottenham badge and didn’t seem very happy, although this was countered with my Wisla Krakow badge just underneath (plus just in case, I had my new Cracovia badge in my pocket).
So here I was, on a train with about 500 Wisla hooligans travelling at about 20 miles an hour with every passing train getting showered in cans and bottles, doors getting opened, cords pulled, people spewing up, and I turned to my hosts and told them “you know this could be me going to watch Spurs “away” 30 years ago, the similarities are uncanny” Whether they got my drift I don’t know but the train took three hours to reach Sosnowiec and then the real fun began.
Maybe I am getting too old for all this but being met by about 200 riot police with guns, shields, body armour and tank like things with water cannons was not what I was looking for for my Sunday afternoon's relaxation. I offered to take Monika and Mariucz for a “quiet beer or two” but they told me that if I tried to step out of our escort I would probably be battered.
Finally after a 25 minute walk around the grim suburbs of Sosnowiec we reached the “Stadion lodowy” home of 2nd division Zaglebie Sosnowiec and our hosts for tonight. After a thorough search (think passing through airport security with guns, drugs and bottles of liquid over 100ml and not in a plastic bag) and avoiding the many skinheads pushing in front of me I was in. “Ok now I will buy you a beer I told my Polish companions” the reply was really sad but not too unpredictable based on the way I had been treated as an innocent football fan all day, “you can only buy water, oh and hot dogs”.
The match started five minutes late for some reason and no Cracovia supporters were allowed to attend and altogether around 3,500 Wisla supporters had made the journey. The Ludowy stadium held about 8,000 people and had grass banking behind both goals - hardly a venue that would create a volatile atmosphere.
Everything in the stadium was choreographed, unbelievably by a couple of what looked like 15 year old kids, confetti in bags by your seat, flags to wave, chants and banners being displayed during the game. The match was poor, Wisla were the present Polish champions, Cracovia were struggling and this is was a “Derby” after all. I expected more. Secretly I was hoping for a Cracovia win as they are portrayed as a “Jewish” team, the same as the mighty Spurs, Ajax and MTK Budapest. Thirty minutes gone and everyone around me charged up the terracing. “Is it free beer" I asked? Of course not - the Wisla fans simply found an opportunity to have a fight with the police.
The second half started and I went for a hot dog, avoiding the half time crowds who were continuing their running battle with the police. Typical, the only goal of the dull game arrived whilst I am downstairs munching on a bit of Polish fat. The choreography continued, interspersed with singing and more poor football. So I took the time to have a look around and the demographics of the crowd - very few women and children but in this very male, hostile and intimidating atmosphere I would not expect anything else otherwise.
Five minutes from the end of the game I could take no more and I told Monika and Mariusz that I was going to try and make my own way back to Krakow. There was no way I was going to spend another four hours (which is what they reckoned it would take) on the slow train to nowhere.
I came out of the ground and immediately went the wrong way! Sometimes luck shines on you and I asked a guy walking his dog how to get to Sosnowiec train station. He could not have been more helpful and said he would show me. So we walked for 15 minutes talking small talk when he hit me with this bombshell “I don’t watch Polish football but I like to watch the Premiership and especially Tottenham Hotspur!" Well the Spurs key ring in my pocket was his, I had meant to give it to someone during the match but he was the deserving one.
I Caught a train to Katowice, grabbed some beers and got a train onto Krakow, and by 9.45pm I was in the Hotel bar. Monika and Mariucz text me later to tell me that they finally arrived back in Krakow around midnight thanks to a few problems with doors opening and the odd cord being pulled.
Perhaps I would go again but only when Krakow's clubs have finished their building work and it would be back on "home soil"
Our latest football traveler is Lee Barnett who has literally just stepped off a plane from South America where he had by the sounds of it a fantastic three week adventure in Brazil and Argentina. Below is his travel diary.
Thursday 22nd October 2009 British Airways flight BA249 14:00 departure arrived in Rio de Janeiro at 22:30 Taxi to hotel in Santa Teresa area of Rio. Santa Teresa is fairly central and makes most things in the huge city accessible. We were staying at a British owned small hotel called Um Meira Tres. The nearest metro station to the hotel was called Gloria – nice and easy to remember!Friday 23rd October 2009
We were disappointed to find out that the Vasco da Gama match we had planned to take in later that night had been put back to Saturday and changed from the San Januario to the Maracana stadium. We also decided to secure our tickets early for Sunday’s game at Botafogo and so we had to go to their stadium to buy them. Afterwards we headed off to one of the hundreds of Favelas that have sprung up around the city with an English Ex-pat who was our guide. It was a fantastic if humbling experience as to how life can continue in such conditions.
Saturday 24th October 2009 Amazingly, after so many years at the top table in Brazil (and only a decade after playing in the World Club Championship), Vasco de Gama were in the 2nd tier of Brazilian football, the Serie B. We took the metro to the Maracana stop, which is conveniently next to the stadium. Over 52,000 fans saw Vasco da Gama beat Bahia 2-1. After the match there were plenty of taxi's available to take us back into town as most fans used the metro which was heaving to say the least.
Sunday 25th October 2009 Serie A was the highlight of the day as Botafogo lost 1-0 at home to Flamengo with Adriano scoring the only goal. The attendance was a decent 25,192 at the Engenhao stadium which is reached via metro to the stop named 'Del Castilho' then a short taxi ride. Around the stadium the local residents utilise their gardens as makeshift bars and barbeques giving the whole area a real character and some wonderful smells! There are a couple of more traditional bars close to the ground which are perfectly safe for us foreigners to use! The stadium is new and modern and had some of the comforts from home. After the game it was dark and the area is not the best or the safest looking and it took us a while to find a taxi. Land in this area is cheap and this was the reason why Botafogo relocated here.
Monday 26th October 2009 Our visit to Rio was at an end for a week or so as we boarded our flight to Buenos Aires. We armed ourselves a 'monedero', which is the Argentinean version of the Oyster card. The difference is it will only charge a flat rate fare each time you use as opposed to an oyster card where you have to swipe in and out. Each metro journey is ridiculously cheap and this card makes excellent sense and won our "travel tip of the day". We checked into a fantastic hostel paying just £27 per night. It ticked all the right boxes - Staff very friendly, beer, soft drinks and snacks available and free computer use. Our game of the day was at the brilliantly named Deportivo Moron, which must be up there with Deportivo Wanka. To reach the home of the Morons, take metro line B as far as it goes then get a taxi ride to the stadium. It’s just outside the city limits and is in an ok area with a conference style ground. Open terracing at both ends and a very old main stand. The opposite side consisted of huge advertising hoardings only. The game ended Deportivo Moron 3-1Deportivo Espanol with an attendance of just under 2,500. Within five minutes of the final whistle we were at the railway station close to the stadium and on our way to "Once" main terminus. Despite such a small crowd for this third tier game the police presence was quite high.
Tuesday 27th October 2009 A trip overseas today as we were off across the River Plate to Uruguay. A metro journey to the port of Buenos Aires where we boarded the ferry. On the other side of the river a coach then takes you from the ferry port to the centre of Montevideo. Travel Tip of the day - when the coach drops you at the bus station/shopping mall buy your return ticket from the office situated here. You have a choice of taking the coach journey back to Colonia for the ferry or taking the direct speedy crossing direct from Montevideo to Buenos Aries. This speedy crossing is the better choice in my opinion. All bookable with a company called Buquebus.
We were in Uruguay for the game between Penarol Rampla Juniors which ended in an easy 3-0 win for the home team. The attendance was around the 10,000 mark but as the Estadio Centanario, venue for the first ever World Cup Final in 1930 holds over 70,000 they did look a little lost. But they made up for their small numbers with lots of noise. The stadium was where Argentina had just qualified for South Africa a week or so earlier by beating Urugauy with a late Martin Palermo goal. The stadium is close enough to the city centre to be walkable, and is in a safe region of the attractive city. After the match there were plenty of taxi's to take us back to the port.
Wednesday 28th October 2009 After our high speed crossing back from Montevideo to Buenos Aires we had a choice of games but chose to head off to the San Lorenzo de Almagro v Arsenal Sarandi match. After a short taxi to the nearest subte (metro) we headed off on line E to the last stop 'Plaza de Los Virreyes'. Then we took a tram, getting off at the second stop where there is a huge roundabout with has five exits. Here is travel tip of the day - walk down the second exit. Do not take the first exit as you may not make it out of Buenos Aires with your possessions. The area is home to dozens of people sleeping in makeshift tents and it just doesn’t feel safe. On arrival at the stadium the ticket offices were the hole in the wall type. We bought the best available ticket which turned out to be in the Main Stand but also included entry to the Press Area, trophy room and museum. What was quite unusual about this game is that the main event was preceeded by a game between the reserve teams of both clubs. A crowd of around 16,000 watched both games with San Lorenzo running out 3-2 winners in the main game. Overall I would certainly think twice about going again to San Lorenzo simply because of the area
Immediately after the game finished I took a cab to Huracan for their game against Rosario Central. The journey was short and the fare very cheap. The cancha (ground)at Huracan is close to the pitch but open all round. Again as with most grounds in Argentina it is in need of updating and restoration. The game finished Huracan 1Rosario Central 0 in front of around 18,000 supporters. Huracan cancha is in an OK area and there are plenty of taxi's available within a short five minute walk from the main road. Alternatively if the game is an afternoon kick off you can get the metro to 'Caseros', although the Metro stations close at about ten o'clock.
Thursday 29th October 2009 The highlight of the day was our trip to Boca Juniors. A metro trip to 'Constitution' station and then a cab to Boca is the simplest way to reach the stadium. Boca is a bit dodgy in terms of the surrounding areas and the cab driver advised on not wearing my watch! The stadium sits in a complex of other sports venues as do most of Argentina's football stadiums. The Boca stadium looked from the outside in a good state of repair unlike most in Buenos Aires. When we reached the ground we found out that because the game later in the day against Chacarita Juniors was high risk there would be no tickets on sale today! I Couldn't believe it - to have come so far and be so close to the highlight of the trip. My story quickly passed around the ground and we did manage to buy tickets from a steward after he made a few phone calls. The ticket were delivered to me by a policeman! Only in Buenos Aires! Inside the ground there was a fantastic atmosphere. This was only going to be a small game in terms of attendances but you got the urge to come back for a bigger game. The views from the the third tier where our seats were were fantactis. When it gets really going the whole stadium literally shakes with the noise and energy from the supporters. The final score was Boca Juniors 3 Chacarita Juniors 0 and the official attendance was close to 30,000. After the excitement of seeing a game at the great Boca stadium it was off to a lower key game.
Game number two of the day was All Boys versus Gimnasia Jujuy. All Boys stadium is named the 'Estadio Los Islas Malvinas' - The Falklands Island Stadium. I took a taxi from San Telmo to the ground but there I was unable to get a ticket for the mainstand (platea) so instead took my chances with a place in the popular side. The ground had three sides of terracing and a platea of two tier seating. The ground is well kept though the crowd was only 2,000 to watch a 0-0 draw. Just round the corner from the ground I caught a bus that ran back to the city centre although cabs are also available from the main road.
Friday 30th October 2009 Travel tip of the day - "Always buy the 'Ole' newspaper to confirm venues and kick off times as they can change at quite short notice". If you can read Spanish then the paper is a great read. Today I was off to the River Plate stadium to get a ticket for the game on Sunday versus Lanus. I wanted to make sure I got a ticket in the shade as Argentina can get very hot at this time of the year. To get to River Plate you need to take the metro to 'Conresso de Tucuman' station. Then it's about a twenty minutes walk in a straight line down Avenida Calbido. The stadium is in the upmarket Nunez area of the city amongst shops including the 'Rivermania' store. Not that big a store by UK football grounds standards, but it stocked some good football gear. I picked up my ticket for the River game on Sunday and then headed off to Platense a five minute cab ride away. Platense is like an old fourth division ground going back to the early eighties. Three sides are terraced and the fourth, the platea had almost antique seating. All areas are open to the elements with no cover at all. I managed to blag a free press pass here to gain entry to the press box from which I had a great view of the game while being fed sandwiches and cakes. Marvellous I thought until I realised that the policeman that searched me on the way in had stolen my credit card! What comes around goes around in these parts! It was a poor game for a second division match and the final score was Platense 0 Ferro Carril Oeste 2 in front of an attendance of 3,000. Immediately after the game a bizarre series of events unfolded. Initially I saw a supporter run across the pitch towards the players tunnel, with in hot persuit three policeman, batons waving, trying desperatly to keep up with the invader. Then to everyones astonishment the players prevented the supporter from taking a beating from the police by ushering him up and over a very high fence that surrounded the pitch. Then there was a commotion in the tunnel. I decided to walk down the internal staircase of the platea only to be confronted with press guys frantically coming back back up towards me holding their noses and covering their mouths from tear gas let off by the police in the tunnel area! Never a dull moment in Buenos Aires I can tell you! After the match a cab to 'Congresso de Tucuman' metro station was my reward for an interesting afternoon of football.
Saturday 31st October 2009 Another two match day. First up was a game at Atlanta. The ground is situated very centrally in the city. It was a third division match. so I did not expect a big crowd. A metro ride to 'Dorrego' then a walk down to the level crossing, turning right into Humbolt. The ground is on the right. All together it is about six or seven minutes from the metro station. Again the ground is fully open to the elements. It had recently been revamped with new large terracing at each end. The main stand is large and crumbling but has the old seating from Boca Juniors repainted. The opposite side has no stand, only advertising hoardings and fences. From the club shop an old piece of bleacher mounted on a plinth can be purchased for thirty peso's (about five pounds sterling I calculated). I thought about buying one for Simon Inglis who seemed to have a fascination for bleachers having read his book about Argentinian football. The final score was Atlanta 1 Los Andes 3 in front of no more than 400 people. A poor crowd may have been a result of the torrential rain that fell all day. Porteno's fans do not like getting wet especially in an open ground in the third division. After the game a short walk back to the main road was all it took to get a cab to Velez Sarsfield. At Velez Sarsfield ticket office I had a bit of trouble with the language. My Spanish is not what it used to be and so I ended up with a ticket in a standing area behind the goal. That was fine except the rain by now was incessant. I took the metro to 'Carabobo' on the A line then hailed a cab. Its not far from the metro but the rain was still falling and the cabs were dirt cheap. The final score was Velez Sarsfield 2 Gogoy Cruz 0 and they should be fortunate that as many as 13,000 turned up on such a poor night.
Sunday 1st November 2009 Another couple of games on the agenda for sunday. First up was Chacarita Juniors versus Argentinos Juniors, being played at the latters stadium, although I still had no idea why. I took the metro to 'Carabobo' on line A, then a short cab ride. The ground is small for the first division. It has a two tier seated main stand where tourists like me could gain entry. In front of the stand is a small paddock of standing. The opposite side is a large stand, two thirds of which is terracing with the remainding third open seating. The home end is a small open terracing. There is no stand at the other end, just advertising hoardings and green tarpaulins to stop outsiders peering in. Despite it being a bit rudimentary a good atmosphere was generated in the ground by the supporters - Everyone sang here. I left the ground early to get a cab to River Plate for the big game with the score nicely poised at 2-2 (which eventually was the final score). The cab from Argentinos Juniors to River Plate was fifty peso's - a bargain for the trip through the traffic. After arriving at River Plate I got into the ground, and found my seat with ten minutes to spare before kick off. The River Plate stadium is a big open mostly seated two tier stadium with an athletics track and a moat. The result River Plate 0 Lanus 1 which was a surprise and most of the 18,000 in attendance ended a miserable afternoon soaking wet as the rain continued to fall. In Argentina after the match is finished the home supporters are kept in the stadium for fifteen minutes to allow the away supporters to get away - the complete opposite to what we see in Europe. During this period no home supporters are allowed to leave the ground. This is stringently enforced by the police. If you need to leave early to ensure you get a cab this could potentially be a problem. If you do need to leave early to go to another game or get a cab ensure you get a ticket for the main stand. This will give you a better chance of getting away ealier if you need to. Behind the goals forget it.
Monday 2nd November 2009 Back to the airport for the flight to Sao Paolo. Apart from a trip up to Portuguesa's stadium to buy a ticket for the Tuesday night it was a day of relaxing.
Tuesday 3rd November 2009 The game of the day today was at Portuguesa. A metro ride to Tiete/Portuguesa then five minutes in a cab or fifteen minutes walk gets you to the ground. The stadium is a crumbling mess. It is in desperate need of being pulled down and a replacement built. I hate to say that about any ground but its in a terrible state. The floodlights are on massive concrete stanchions set back behind the stadium. There is a seated area of about four thousand seats. The remainder of the ground is terracing with seated markings on them in a shallow open bowl. Only two floddlights are lit until two minutes before kick off to save money. The home supporters (around 6,000) were clearly not happy with the club and displayed their banners upside down for the duration of the match although they did go home happy as Portuguesa won 2-1.
Wednesday 4th November 2009 A coach trip from Sao Paulo to Paraty today. I had originally planned to stay in the city for Corinthians match but it had been put back to the weekend so headed to Paraty instead and spent a couple of days here.
Saturday 7th November 2009 A coach trip early in the morning from Paraty to Rio de Janeiro and straight away a metro to 'maracana' station for Vasco da Gama versus Juventude. If Vasco won they would be guaranteed promotion back to Serie A. The ticket office stopped selling tickets while I was queuing (and had been for an hour and a half). I went back to the 'Maracana' metro station where the touts were. They only had tickets in the cheap Geral but I figured that any ticket is better than no ticket. They charged triple the price but that still doesn't amount to much as the ticket was only seven reals to start with. The match atmosphere was fantastic with Vasco da Gama's 2-1 in front of 81,906 enough to see them promoted.
Sunday 8th November 2009 So for the final game of the trip - Fluminense. Another metro trip to the 'maracana' station, a walk across the walkway and hey presto - one of the world's biggest stadiums is right there. I Decided to posh it up for this game and bought a ticket next to the dirtectors box. The Cost of ticket was 120 reals , about £45. There was a great atmosphere as relegation threatened Fluminense were playing top of the table Palmeiras/ Fred scored the only goal of the game for the home side in front of 66,884.
So that was the end of an amazing trip. Games in three countries and countless memories. I had a couple of days of sightseeing to do the more cultural stuff before I headed back to London overnight on Tuesday.
Kevin Morris, our regular German hopper has been over to Germany again for a couple more games. Here's details of his trip...
"It was back to Germany again last week, my 4th trip this year and again, it was a great visit. Friday was Fortuna Dusseldorf v Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga equivalent of the Championship. A cheapo Ryanair special saw 3 of us arriving in Dusseldorf early on Friday morning. Weeze airport is not too close to Düsseldorf but it is a straight forward journey and given the time we arrived in Germany, we had a fair bit of time to play with. From the airport there was a 10 min bus ride to the nearest train station followed by an hours train journey into Dusseldorf. Neither journey was particularly cheap (4 Euros for the bus and 14 Euros for the train), public transport does seem expensive at present. Once in Dusseldorf, we had to collect our match tickets from the Tourist Information office which seemed to be in completely the opposite direct to that which the sign posts were pointing and then onto the hotel. Düsseldorf is a great City; it is full of bars and restaurants so we spent a pleasant afternoon by the Rheine having a few beers before going on to the game.
We took the easy route and got a taxi but there is a metro line and a station right next to the ground. Match tickets were booked on Fortuna’s website but they wouldn’t deliver the tickets to England. We paid £16 for a seat in the lower tier, along the side, about level with the penalty spot. The ground is impressive, it is a two tier symmetrical stadium, the concourse was remarkably clean and you could walk almost around the entire stadium with the exception of the blocked access for the visitors’ enclosure. A tabloid newspaper sized programme was available inside the stadium only and this cost 1Euro.
The 1st half of the game wasn’t the best, the highlight being the good looking female referee. It livened up in the 2nd half when the visitors took the lead. Fortuna hit back with two goals and the referee, somewhat debatably, disallowed an injury time equaliser for Cottbus.
The support for the home team was pretty impressive, especially in the 2nd half. The supporters around us made us feel welcome and we made full use of being allowed to have a beer in your seat. I find this much more civilised than rushing a pint at 230pm as we would do back home. After the game it was back into the city for more beers, it really is a superb place, especially around the Altstadt (Old Town).
On Saturday morning we took the train to Frankfurt for Eintracht v Borussia Monchengladbach. The train took just under 90 mins and cost approx £20. Frankfurt Station isn’t my favourite place in the world; the area is seedy and populated by beggars or drunks. We got the tram over to the Cathedral and had a few beers around here. Tram line 21 will take you directly to the stadium and they seem to run a stadium special on line 20, I’ve no idea where this starts from but you could pick it up around the church and the train station. The journey to the stadium takes around 15 mins. If there are more than 2 of you travelling, it is cheaper to buy a group travel card which allows up to 5 people to travel on the one ticket. Having a beer in public seems to be common in Germany (and is to be encouraged!) so you will see blokes carrying crates of lager on to the tram or metro on the way to the game, most unlike the London Underground.
The game wasn’t a sell out and Eintracht will post your tickets to the UK. The ground is unique in that once you get through the turnstile; there is still a 10 minute walk to the stadium as it appears to be located in the middle of a forest/park. A UK style programme was available outside of the ground (but inside of the entrance) for 2 Euro; there were also a couple of fanzine sellers. The stadium is superb and for 40 Euros I had an upper tier seat over looking the halfway line. In Germany they don’t seem too worried about segregation so I was surrounded by Borussia fans unfortunately, not all of them managed to remain silent for the one minutes silence for Enke. The atmosphere after this unfortunate incident was superb but again, the football in the first half was severely lacking in quality. The 2nd half livened up considerably, Borussia were 2-1 winners.
The highlight of the trip was the sausage stall who was offering ½ metre long sausages, my idea of heaven.
After the game there was time for a couple of more beers and a bite to eat before the journey home started. In my haste to get a decent fare, I’d booked a late night return from Frankfurt with Ryanair and it was only in the days leading up to the trip that I spotted my mistake. Frankfurt Hahn airport is bloody miles from Frankfurt and it has no train station. Ryanair do lay on an hourly bus service for 12Euros but the journey takes 90mins. Apparently there are 3 other airports closer to Frankfurt than the one Ryanair use. In their defence, I don’t ever recall having a bad Ryanair experience. The flight home arrived at 1130pm and the following day it was off to WHL for Spurs v Wigan….which is a tale in its own right"
Another trip from one of our readers - this time Kevin Morris's trip to Germany....over to you Kevin..
"For the European football traveller who doesn't want to miss too many of his own teams domestic games, the Champions League and UEFA Cup scheduling is an ideal opportunity for an overseas trip or two during the season. It is announced far in advance and it doesn't tend to move at short notice on a TV company’s demand. This time last week, I was off to Germany again for three new grounds for me.
Tuesday started with a trip to Stuttgart. Armed with the best of European stadium literature (European Football - A Fans Guide by an chance - ED), we boarded an early morning flight from Stansted with the stereotypically efficient Germanwings. They are fast becoming my favourite airline, they never seem to be too busy, they are incredibly reliable, pleasant and comfortable and they are always reasonably priced (£35 single). With time on our side, we took the easy to navigate local rail service from the Airport to the central station and then a local tram to our hotel near the Gottlieb Daimler Stadion. The stadium is undergoing renovations which will see the end of the running track so it is only 3 sided at present. This made tickets difficult to get hold of, but not impossible. What was more troublesome was that Stuttgart had Glasgow Rangers in their group so the club would not sell tickets to UK residents until after the Rangers game had passed. We also experienced something similar to this at Wolfsburg. It was inconvenient for a traveller trying to arrange flights etc in advance but tickets eventually became available on the official website, as well as on eBay.de and Seatwave. When we arrived at the ground, they were also available on the night.
After a few beers in the City, we made our way closer to the stadium and there were a couple of reasonable sized bars, well populated, near the club shop and Porsche Arena. The match programme was free and piled up on the floor inside the stadium. Our seats cost 35 Euro and were in the back row of the upper tier, about level with the goal line. As one side of the stadium was completely open, it was about now that we first spotted the temperature difference between Germany and UK, it was a touch chilly. As for the game, Seville ran out easy 3-1 winners and it featured some comedy goal keeping from Jens Lehman.
A reasonably early start was needed on Wed am as we had a train to catch to Wolfsburg for our 2nd game, VFL Wolfsburg v Besiktas. German trains are superb but they are not cheap, this journey took 3 ½ hours (1 change) and cost £60 single. On arriving in Wolfsburg, there appeared to be a vast number of Besiktas fans displaying their colours proudly. A quiet afternoon in the bars kept us out of the dropping temperatures. In one bar, we got talking with a couple of locals who couldn't quite believe what we were doing there and were even more surprised when I told them that European football travelling is popular in the UK and people go to more obscure games than I had chosen. These gents showed us where to get the bus to the ground from, although the ground was only a 20 min walk from the train station.
As mentioned earlier, tickets for this game were not easy to get hold of, it was Wolfsburg’s first ever season in the Champions League, the stadium only held 30,000 and they had a well supported Turkish team and Manchester United in their group. This meant Wolfsburg were only selling tickets in packages for all three games and initially, they would not issue tickets to a UK address or someone without a booking history. Again, they eventually relented on this, once tickets went on sale for individual matches and they realised that we didn't want tickets for the United game.
The game itself was pretty terrible. I had been looking forward to this one as I'd seen a fair bit of Wolfsburg on TV last season and they had a great centre forward pairing (Dzeko and Grafite) but Grafite is currently off form and got himself sent off. The game finished 0-0. Much more entertaining were the Besiktas supporters, I had been fortunate to visit their stadium with Tottenham in the UEFA Cup and it was a superb experience. You end up watching them as much as you do the action on the pitch, (this wasn't so much of a problem today!), they had travelled in good numbers and were prominent in 3 of the stands with no hint of trouble. Their vocal backing is excellent.The match programme cost 1 Euro and was available from vendors outside of the stadium.
Thursday, it was back on the train to Berlin for a couple of days. Hertha Berlin were at home to Heerenveen in the Europa League. Berlin was an excellent venue, easy to get around and obviously plenty of history to keep you busy, the Olympic site itself was enough to take up the best part of a day, I'd recommend a visit up the Bell Tower. Berlin has a vibrant nightlife in the East and you are never going to be short of a midnight kebab. It was really, really cold though. Tickets for this game were easy to come by on Hertha’s official website although they would not send tickets to the UK so we had to collect them on the match day.
There is a U-Bahn and a S-Bahn station at the Olympic Stadium. If you use the S-Bahn as you leave the station, on your left, there is a programme vendor selling a vast array of programmes from many clubs and dates, this is something you very rarely see in the UK nowadays. There is also a huge bar in front of you and you have to cross Jesse Owens Strasse. If you use the U-Bahn, the route to the stadium is more photographic as it brings you up on an approach where the Olympic rings are displayed.
The ground obviously has a running track and due to the low attendance, the upper tiers were not open. The game finished 1-0 to the visitors, Hertha are not having a good season with just 2 points and being bottom of the table at present. The stadium does present some excellent photo opportunities. There was a programme available but it was in the form of a free 8 page miniature card, it was disappointing.
I very much enjoy my visits to Germany, I find the people hospitable and the diet of sausages and lager is much to my liking. The atmosphere the supporters generate is better than anything you will experience in the Premier League. I'll be back over in November for Fortuna Dusseldorf v Energie Cottbus and Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach."
Our second submission comes from Paul Whitaker and his tour of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina....Check out all of the details on the pages for Argentina.
The introduction to his piece is below:-
I know many football supporters (myself included) are
prone to spinning yarns when regaling friends and family with stories
from their latest football trip abroad. The local constabulary were
'baton-happy' in Rome. The hostel in Barcelona was so rough I could
have been paid for my room by the hour. So when I told my partner I had
finally discovered my football utopia, she rolled her eyes, shook her
head and sighed "didn't you say that after Istanbul"?. OK maybe I did,
but this time I really mean it. I've have just returned from a
city......
.......... where twelve, yes that right twelve of
this major football country's top football clubs are all located within
a train, taxi, or bus ride of my hostel. The football clubs’ close
proximities to each other ensures a large number of "local derbies"
will be played during any typical weekend fixture
............
where television's influence on football there is a force for good for
the visiting football traveller. With the league fixture spread out
over the Friday , Saturday and Sunday, you had the opportunity of not
only attending 2 to 3 football matches over the weekend, but with
staggered kick -off times varying from 5pm to 9pm, it was possible to
attend two football matches in one day!. If live football three nights
a week is not enough for you, why not check to see if any of these
twelve clubs here are playing any Copa Libertadores or Copa
Sudamericana fixtures between Tuesday to Thursday?
...........
where many of the young players on show in the football league there
have both the technical skill and natural flair that will eventually
propel them to the promised lands of the Camp Nou, San Siro and
errrrrrr Eastlands
...........where you can stand in a packed
football terrace participating in some of the world's most passionate
match atmosphere and all for the distinctly un-english premiership
price starting from £6-10. The cheap prices continue outside the
stadium, where a post-match steak dinner, away from tourist areas will
set you back about £6.
............where even if you arrive to
find its football league fixtures have been suspended due to
hooliganism (well I told you they were a lively lot over there!), you
have choice of at least two other countries in this part of the world
who can boast as many exciting football fixtures and an equally rich
football history, great players, famous clubs, iconic stadiums and
charmingly lunatic supporters.
Well such a football utopia does
exist, although you may know them better as the great South American
cities of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Montevideo (Uruguay) and Rio de
Janeiro (Brazil). In Buenos Aires depending on the fixtures you are
spoilt for choice in watching a football match at any of Argentinos
Juniors , Arsenal , Banfield , Boca Juniors , Huracan , Independiente ,
Lanus , Racing Club , River Plate , San Lorenzo , Tigre or Velez
Sarsfield. Just 3 hours ferry journey across the Rio Plata from Buenos
Aires is Montevideo, home to Uruguay's top three football clubs of
Danubio , Nacional, Penarol who regularly fill the Estadio Centenario.
Finally three hours flight from Argentina is Rio de Janeiro, where
everyone you meet supports and has an opinion on any of the local clubs
in Botafogo , Flamengo , Fluminense or Vasco da Gama. Like Montevideo,
Rio has one iconic stadium although in typical Brazilian fashion, it
also happens to be the worlds most famous in the Maracana.
Mirroring the European section of ' www.budgetairlinefootball.co.uk
', I hope this South American Football Traveller’s Club (current
membership, 1) will be packed full of handy tips if you are currently
planning to watch football matches there on a budget and without the
expensive service of local tour operators. I want to start the ball
rolling with lessons learnt from a recent ‘football jolly’ to the
aforementioned Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro. Whilst
researching for this trip, I soon noticed the absence of a decent
reference website detailing forthcoming fixtures, locations of stadiums
and ticket booths, club shops, useful vocabulary, fan culture etc. I
thought I had done my homework for the journey, but it would have great
to have found a website that advised where I could have a got a taxi or
bus back to Buenos Aires city centre after a match at River Plate's
Estadio Monumental. Instead, we got separated from the crowds, took a
wrong turn and found ourselves walking through the Buenos Aires
red-light area. I also wish I could have read somewhere that the Museo
del Futbol at the Estadio Centenario, Montevideo did open on the Monday
I turned up there and no amount of pesos would persuade the
'Generalisimo' at the museum entrance, to allow me in to glimpse the
two Jules Rimet trophies on display. Still, despite these setbacks, me
and a mate did manage to squeeze into 12 days the following:
DAY 3 - Buenos Aires Argentina Boca Juniors v Newells Old Boys. Premiera Division match Cost of ticket: £6 in “popular” terrace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q0yUDTW2Ag
DAY 4 - Montevideo, Uruguay Nacional v Danubio. Uruguay's championship play-off match Cost of ticket £7 for top seats in Tribune America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw4xjcHzWTE
DAY 6 - Buenos Aires , Argentina Boca Juniors v Cuenca. Copa Libertadores 2009 (South America's champions league) Cost of ticket £26 for platea media seat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_6pFfFMcsU
DAY 8 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Stadium tours to Flamengo and Fluminese . Museum and stadium tour to Maracana
DAY 10 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Flamengo v Resende. Taca Guanabara 2009 (Rio State Championship match) Cost of ticket. £10 for good seat in Maracana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zotjkp1-Yl4
DAY 11 - Buenos Aires Argentina MATCH 1 Argentinos Juniors v San Martin. Premiera Division Cost of ticket £8 for seats in Platea Norte Alta. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YNzdjJOU0g
DAY 12 - Buenos Aires Argentina Stadium and museum tour around La Bombonera, home to Boca Juniors
We are pleased to add a new page to our blogs for our reader's trips. To kick off, Kevin Morris has written the review below of his weekend in Germany in early April.
The first game was on Friday, Arminia Bielefeld v Schalke. Tickets were easily purchased online although there is no English translation, the website is self explanatory in many places. They will not send tickets to a UK address so I had to pick them up on the day. Tickets are easy to come by too, the ground holds 28,000 and last season the attendances were around 20,000. This season they are a bit higher, with the majority of crowds about 24,000. Tickets in the terraces are £10 and the seats go from £19 to £44. Expect to pay between £5 more for seats when a big club is in town.
To get to and from the ground, I used an alternative to that listed on your site, the locals recommended going on line 3 to Wittekindstasse, this was about 5 mins walk from the ground and not as busy as line 4. From the station, turn left, walk through the residential street and once you get to the main road, turn right and then 2nd left onto Melanchthonstrasse. The ground is on the right. Be warned though, although it is easy to get to, the location of a combination of a public park, a sporting complex and a residential area means that the entrances are few and far between meaning that once at the ground, you could still have a lengthy 15-20 min walk around to find the few entrances that will let you enter!
For the programme collector, there is a 72 page programme freely available at every game in a similar format to that at an English ground.
There are a few large restaurant bars to the north east of the ground along Schlosshof and there are a lot of temporary stalls selling beer and food but I'd recommend drinking in the Altermarkt rather than the shopping precinct or around the train station. There are many bars in this excellent pedestrians area, Carpe Diem being amongst the best. From the Altermarkt, there is a Stadtbahn station called Rathaus where you can pick up lines 3 + 4 to go to the ground.
Despite Arminia being in relegation trouble and a smaller club, their support was excellent vocally, easily the best of the weekend. Schalke, despite having big numbers, seemed a little more expectant and harder to please.
Saturday I went to Bochum v Stuttgart. Tickets were again easily purchased online although there is no English translation, They too will not send tickets to a UK address so I had to pick them up on the day. Tickets are easy to come by too if you are prepared in advance, the ground holds 31,300 and because of bochum's location, they seem to have higher attendances for the teams "locally£ such as Monchengladbach, Cologne, Bayern & Schalke. I paid £30 but this was a seat on the half way line, you could've got in for much cheaper.
There was one excellent bar outside the S-Bann station which had a mix of fans of all ages in there. It had a huge beer garden. For the programme collector, there is a 60 page A5 programme freely available at every game.
The atmosphere here was disappointing once the game got underway. I did see some of the most ridiculous half time entertainment which involved people dressed as coke bottles trying to dribble a football from the half way line.
Sunday was Cologne v Leverkusen. Tickets for this were a bit more difficult to get hold of, initially the club were only selling to members and there was no non members sale scheduled as it was a high risk game. I used a local contact to sort mine out but they were available on ebay, seatwave and also several spares were available outside of the stadium from fans with spares rather than touts. The ground only holds 50,000, I say only as it looks so impressive and huge, I was surprised the capacity was so "low". It has sold out on 8 of 11 occasions this season thought and two of the other games haven't been far away from full houses.
The local trams run frequently (line 308) but are short in length and subsequently packed so leave plenty of time or get on the train at the start or around the Neumarket. There were two pubs either side of the road but these seemed to be populated by the more boisterous element of the cologne support. Once in the ground, you need to get a Justpay card as none of the refreshment bars will accept cash. This isn't ideal for the occasional visitor and I was told I can claim the 2euros card cost and any unused credit after the game but I couldn't find from where this was supposed to happen. Although beer was sold at all 3 games, this is the only one where is it alcohol free. this was due to it being a high risk game.
The cologne support was pretty impressive, I would advise anyone to get to the ground at least 20 mins early to witness the passion which the two club anthems were bellowed out, this was the highlight of the weekend. Even during the game, the support was loud and it was only once they started getting the rough end of the decisions that it turned into one of abuse rather than support. Bayer again, for a bigger team like Schalke, were much more subdued, failing to sell out their allocation despite it being the local derby.
For the programme collector, there was something to be aware of.... there were 2 programmes. The first is an A5 sheet given away outside the ground and folded into 8 A5 pages. The 2nd is a 92 page A5 magazine which was given away but in smaller quantities, I got mine from the official fan store, none of the temporary or caravan stores had any before the match
An excellent weekend, one which I play to make again. The quality of football isn't as good as the premiership but the fans seem to have much more fun!
Sunday arrived and I pitched up at Krakow Glowny train station about 15 minutes before the "football special" train was due to leave and could see which platform I had to be on by the mass of noisy Wisla fans gathered there. This dirty old train turned up, looked like it had done many years service and they all piled on. My Polish is pretty poor so I latched on to Monika and Mariucz who spoke some English and told me to sit with them. They trust a bottle of “Tyskie” beer into my hand and explained that there was a "whip round" going through the carriage “for a Wisla hooligan who has just gone to prison….unjustly”. Well looking at the three skinheads with the collection bag I thought it made sense to contribute, they also had noticed my Tottenham badge and didn’t seem very happy, although this was countered with my Wisla Krakow badge just underneath (plus just in case, I had my new Cracovia badge in my pocket).
The second half started and I went for a hot dog, avoiding the half time crowds who were continuing their running battle with the police. Typical, the only goal of the dull game arrived whilst I am downstairs munching on a bit of Polish fat. The choreography continued, interspersed with singing and more poor football. So I took the time to have a look around and the demographics of the crowd - very few women and children but in this very male, hostile and intimidating atmosphere I would not expect anything else otherwise.
Tuesday 27th October 2009
Friday 30th October 2009
"It was back to Germany again last week, my 4th trip this year and again, it was a great visit. Friday was Fortuna Dusseldorf v Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga equivalent of the Championship. A cheapo Ryanair special saw 3 of us arriving in Dusseldorf early on Friday morning. Weeze airport is not too close to Düsseldorf but it is a straight forward journey and given the time we arrived in Germany, we had a fair bit of time to play with. From the airport there was a 10 min bus ride to the nearest train station followed by an hours train journey into Dusseldorf. Neither journey was particularly cheap (4 Euros for the bus and 14 Euros for the train), public transport does seem expensive at present. Once in Dusseldorf, we had to collect our match tickets from the Tourist Information office which seemed to be in completely the opposite direct to that which the sign posts were pointing and then onto the hotel. Düsseldorf is a great City; it is full of bars and restaurants so we spent a pleasant afternoon by the Rheine having a few beers before going on to the game.
We took the easy route and got a taxi but there is a metro line and a station right next to the ground. Match tickets were booked on Fortuna’s website but they wouldn’t deliver the tickets to England. We paid £16 for a seat in the lower tier, along the side, about level with the penalty spot. The ground is impressive, it is a two tier symmetrical stadium, the concourse was remarkably clean and you could walk almost around the entire stadium with the exception of the blocked access for the visitors’ enclosure. A tabloid newspaper sized programme was available inside the stadium only and this cost 1Euro.
On Saturday morning we took the train to Frankfurt for Eintracht v Borussia Monchengladbach. The train took just under 90 mins and cost approx £20. Frankfurt Station isn’t my favourite place in the world; the area is seedy and populated by beggars or drunks. We got the tram over to the Cathedral and had a few beers around here. Tram line 21 will take you directly to the stadium and they seem to run a stadium special on line 20, I’ve no idea where this starts from but you could pick it up around the church and the train station. The journey to the stadium takes around 15 mins. If there are more than 2 of you travelling, it is cheaper to buy a group travel card which allows up to 5 people to travel on the one ticket. Having a beer in public seems to be common in Germany (and is to be encouraged!) so you will see blokes carrying crates of lager on to the tram or metro on the way to the game, most unlike the London Underground.
The game wasn’t a sell out and Eintracht will post your tickets to the UK. The ground is unique in that once you get through the turnstile; there is still a 10 minute walk to the stadium as it appears to be located in the middle of a forest/park. A UK style programme was available outside of the ground (but inside of the entrance) for 2 Euro; there were also a couple of fanzine sellers. The stadium is superb and for 40 Euros I had an upper tier seat over looking the halfway line. In Germany they don’t seem too worried about segregation so I was surrounded by Borussia fans unfortunately, not all of them managed to remain silent for the one minutes silence for Enke. The atmosphere after this unfortunate incident was superb but again, the football in the first half was severely lacking in quality. The 2nd half livened up considerably, Borussia were 2-1 winners.
After the game there was time for a couple of more beers and a bite to eat before the journey home started. In my haste to get a decent fare, I’d booked a late night return from Frankfurt with Ryanair and it was only in the days leading up to the trip that I spotted my mistake. Frankfurt Hahn airport is bloody miles from Frankfurt and it has no train station. Ryanair do lay on an hourly bus service for 12Euros but the journey takes 90mins. Apparently there are 3 other airports closer to Frankfurt than the one Ryanair use. In their defence, I don’t ever recall having a bad Ryanair experience. The flight home arrived at 1130pm and the following day it was off to WHL for Spurs v Wigan….which is a tale in its own right"
Tuesday started with a trip to Stuttgart. Armed with the best of European stadium literature (
After a few beers in the City, we made our way closer to the stadium and there were a couple of reasonable sized bars, well populated, near the club shop and Porsche Arena. The match programme was free and piled up on the floor inside the stadium. Our seats cost 35 Euro and were in the back row of the upper tier, about level with the goal line. As one side of the stadium was completely open, it was about now that we first spotted the temperature difference between Germany and UK, it was a touch chilly. As for the game, Seville ran out easy 3-1 winners and it featured some comedy goal keeping from Jens Lehman.
A reasonably early start was needed on Wed am as we had a train to catch to Wolfsburg for our 2nd game, VFL Wolfsburg v Besiktas. German trains are superb but they are not cheap, this journey took 3 ½ hours (1 change) and cost £60 single. On arriving in Wolfsburg, there appeared to be a vast number of Besiktas fans displaying their colours proudly. A quiet afternoon in the bars kept us out of the dropping temperatures. In one bar, we got talking with a couple of locals who couldn't quite believe what we were doing there and were even more surprised when I told them that European football travelling is popular in the UK and people go to more obscure games than I had chosen. These gents showed us where to get the bus to the ground from, although the ground was only a 20 min walk from the train station.
As mentioned earlier, tickets for this game were not easy to get hold of, it was Wolfsburg’s first ever season in the Champions League, the stadium only held 30,000 and they had a well supported Turkish team and Manchester United in their group. This meant Wolfsburg were only selling tickets in packages for all three games and initially, they would not issue tickets to a UK address or someone without a booking history. Again, they eventually relented on this, once tickets went on sale for individual matches and they realised that we didn't want tickets for the United game.
The game itself was pretty terrible. I had been looking forward to this one as I'd seen a fair bit of Wolfsburg on TV last season and they had a great centre forward pairing (Dzeko and Grafite) but Grafite is currently off form and got himself sent off. The game finished 0-0. Much more entertaining were the Besiktas supporters, I had been fortunate to visit their stadium with Tottenham in the UEFA Cup and it was a superb experience. You end up watching them as much as you do the action on the pitch, (this wasn't so much of a problem today!), they had travelled in good numbers and were prominent in 3 of the stands with no hint of trouble. Their vocal backing is excellent.The match programme cost 1 Euro and was available from vendors outside of the stadium.
Thursday, it was back on the train to Berlin for a couple of days. Hertha Berlin were at home to Heerenveen in the Europa League. Berlin was an excellent venue, easy to get around and obviously plenty of history to keep you busy, the Olympic site itself was enough to take up the best part of a day, I'd recommend a visit up the Bell Tower. Berlin has a vibrant nightlife in the East and you are never going to be short of a midnight kebab. It was really, really cold though. Tickets for this game were easy to come by on Hertha’s official website although they would not send tickets to the UK so we had to collect them on the match day.
There is a U-Bahn and a S-Bahn station at the Olympic Stadium. If you use the S-Bahn as you leave the station, on your left, there is a programme vendor selling a vast array of programmes from many clubs and dates, this is something you very rarely see in the UK nowadays. There is also a huge bar in front of you and you have to cross Jesse Owens Strasse. If you use the U-Bahn, the route to the stadium is more photographic as it brings you up on an approach where the Olympic rings are displayed.
The ground obviously has a running track and due to the low attendance, the upper tiers were not open. The game finished 1-0 to the visitors, Hertha are not having a good season with just 2 points and being bottom of the table at present. The stadium does present some excellent photo opportunities. There was a programme available but it was in the form of a free 8 page miniature card, it was disappointing.
The first game was on Friday, Arminia Bielefeld v Schalke. Tickets were easily purchased online although there is no English translation, the website is self explanatory in many places. They will not send tickets to a UK address so I had to pick them up on the day. Tickets are easy to come by too, the ground holds 28,000 and last season the attendances were around 20,000. This season they are a bit higher, with the majority of crowds about 24,000. Tickets in the terraces are £10 and the seats go from £19 to £44. Expect to pay between £5 more for seats when a big club is in town.
Saturday I went to Bochum v Stuttgart. Tickets were again easily purchased online although there is no English translation, They too will not send tickets to a UK address so I had to pick them up on the day. Tickets are easy to come by too if you are prepared in advance, the ground holds 31,300 and because of bochum's location, they seem to have higher attendances for the teams "locally£ such as Monchengladbach, Cologne, Bayern & Schalke. I paid £30 but this was a seat on the half way line, you could've got in for much cheaper.
Sunday was Cologne v Leverkusen. Tickets for this were a bit more difficult to get hold of, initially the club were only selling to members and there was no non members sale scheduled as it was a high risk game. I used a local contact to sort mine out but they were available on ebay, seatwave and also several spares were available outside of the stadium from fans with spares rather than touts. The ground only holds 50,000, I say only as it looks so impressive and huge, I was surprised the capacity was so "low". It has sold out on 8 of 11 occasions this season thought and two of the other games haven't been far away from full houses.