TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Oar chasing Kewell's footsteps Brisbane Roar's Tommy Oar could become the youngest player to debut for Australia since Harry Kewell in 1996 if he gets a start against Kuwait in the Asian Cup qualifier on January 6. foxsports.com.au |
Roberto Mancini dismisses Manchester City's link to defender Simon Kjaer • We have other transfer targets in mind, says Roberto Mancini• Manchester United reportedly interested in Denmark defenderManchester City's new manager, Roberto Mancini, says he is not interested in signing the Palermo defender Simon Kjaer.There has been speculation that City and rivals Manchester United are set to do battle for the Denmark international. But Mancini claims a bid for Kjaer, who is under contract at Palermo until 2013, is not in his plans."At the moment we are in training and I have to think about other things," he told Mediterraneonline.it. "Could the Dane interest us? At the moment we have other targets. We're not thinking about Kjaer."City have something of a defensive injury crisis with Nedum Onuoha, Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge all out, while Kolo Touré will be absent for a month due to his involvement in the Ivory Coast's African Nations Cup campaign.Manchester CityTransfer windowPalermoEuropean footballguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Emmanuel Adebayor describes the attack on the Togo team bus Emmanuel Adebayor describes the attack on the Togo team bus which left two players injured and their driver dead guardian.co.uk |
Stadiums too big for their own good We track down the world's most disproportionately large grounds; plus Leeds players wearing different strips for a final"After checking out your guide to England's proposed venues for the 2018 World Cup, I noticed that Plymouth are planning a 45,000 capacity stadium for a population of 252,800, meaning 18% of the city could attend a game if they desired. Then I noticed Sunderland has 49,000 seats for 178,000 people (28%)," writes Mark Ireland. "Is there a ground which has a higher capacity than the location it is based in, so that 100% of the population could fit into the ground if they really wanted? If not, who has the highest percentage?"Given the torrent of emails received in response to Mark's question we had little choice but to turn this into another Knowledge special. Among the many difficulties answering such a question is the fact that populations have a way of changing over time and not all towns can provide an up-to-date census. While efforts have been made to ensure that calculations are as accurate as possible, therefore, the percentages given are indicative, rather than precise figures.55% Michael Haughey kicks us off, starting his search in an eminently sensible manner by looking at little towns and finding out if they had a football team. "The smallest town in the UK to have a senior side is Brechin, with a population of 7,199 according to the UK census," he says. "Glebe Park, their wonderful ground with a hedge along one side of the pitch, holds a comparatively whopping 3,960. That's 55% of the town you could fit in for a game."80% That, though, was never going to be hard to top. Georg Meovold pointed us in the direction of Norwegian side Sogndal Fotbal's Fosshaugane Campus home, which has a capacity of 5,402 and can hence accommodate more than 80% of the municipality's 6,700 souls.86% Hoffenheim's 30,164 capacity Rhein-Neckar Arena is based in Hoffenheim, which was a village in its own right but formally became a suburb of the neighbouring Sinsheim in 1972. The population of Hoffenheim itself is just under 3,300, giving the stadium more than nine seats to each resident. The population of Sinsheim, however, is over 35,000, meaning the stadium could only hold roughly 86% of residents of the city in which it is officially based.101% Benjamin Mendel was the first reader to smash the 100% barrier. "Sporting Clube Campomaiorense, for whom Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink briefly starred, made it all the way to the top tier of Portuguese football in 1995 and played there until 2001. They played in the town of Campo Maior, with has a population of 7,900, but their stadium, the Estádio Capitão César Correia, had a capacity of 8,000. Sadly the team have since folded, but the stadium remains."114% Moving over to France, Patrick Bruce was one of a number of readers to note that Lens's Stade Félix Bollaert has a capacity of 41,233, while Lens itself had a population of just 36,257 according to the 2008 census. "I make that it would hold 100% of the population and 4,976 of their cousins Nicole," chortles Patrick.118% Those of you who have read Joe McGinniss's thoroughly enjoyable book about the team's 1996-97 season in Italy's Serie B will already know that the expansion of Castel di Sangro's stadium was no straightforward affair, but one way or another the Stadio Teofilo Patini can now hold 7,220 fans. The town had a population of 6,109 at the time of the 2008 census.126% We can do better than all the examples listed above, however, without even leaving the UK. "Ross County's Victoria Park, which has a capacity of 6,310, could easily accommodate every resident of the town of Dingwall in which it is located," points out Jay Mansfield. "Dingwall's population was 5,026 at the time of the 2001 census, giving it a percentage of more than 125%."153% "The obvious place to look is Liechtenstein," declares Liam McGuigan. "The national Rheinpark Stadion has a capacity of 7,838, whilst its home city of Vaduz has merely 5,109 inhabitants, meaning that an excellent 153% of its population could go to see the game. Among the other stadiums in Liechtenstein is Eschen's 6,000 capacity Sportpark Eschen-Mauren. Eschen has a population of about 4,000, meaning a percentage of 150% to rival its near neighbour."224% Heading back to France, Alexander Britton noted Guingamp's unnecessarily large Stade de Roudourou, which boasts a capacity of 18,040 - over twice the population of Guingamp itself (8,040).256% While the obvious approach to a problem such as this might be to seek out large stadiums in relatively small towns, Philip Mayall apparently set out looking for small stadiums in really small towns. "FK Chmel Blsany of the Czech Republic, who played in the Gambrinus Liga from 1998 to 2006 but now languish in the fourth tier, have a stadium capacity of 2,300 at the Stadion FK Chmel BlÅ¡any," he explains. The village they play in, Blsany, has a population of just 900.296% "Estadio El Cobre in the town of El Salvador, Chile is host to Cobresal football club," explains Iain Pearson. "When they reached the Copa Libertadores in 1986 they chose to upgrade the stadium to reach the required minimum for the competition and as a result they now have a capacity of 20,752. Since the heady days of the mid-80s, however, the copper mine that justified the town has closed down and the population has now declined to around 7,000."304% Our winner, for now at least, is the unimaginatively named Drnovice stadium in, you guessed it, the Czech town Drnovice. "With a population of around 2,300 and a seating capacity of 7,000, the stadium provides over three seats for every man, woman and child in town," offers Tim Dockery. "The stadium saw top-flight football in the 1990s and 2000s with my beloved FC Gera Drnovice [who have since folded] and has hosted the national side's friendlies on occasion."The ones that didn't quite make the cutAs many of you pointed out, Mark's question was not as straightforward as it first appeared. Where a city or town begins and ends is often not clear-cut, and plenty of larger cities have simply absorbed what used to be smaller towns into their suburbs as they expanded over time. Several of you made the case for teams such as Aston Villa and Everton being included, arguing that the capacity of their grounds dwarf the populations of the wards in which they are based, but in the end that just didn't seem to be in the spirit of the question.Similarly, Paul Lees made the case for Wembley Stadium, arguing that: "Within Greater London (population several millions), lies the borough of Brent with a population of 270,600. Within the borough of Brent is the town of Wembley. Unfortunately I can't find any reliable figures for the population of Wembley but I'm willing to wager it is significantly less than the 90,000 capacity of the stadium." Again, however, we took the view that Wembley is part of London and, in that context, the percentage would of course be quite puny.Even less straightforward was the case of Bolton Wanderers, whose Reebok Stadium is based in Horwich, which is considered both a town in its own right and a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. Ultimately we excluded it, but with a capacity of 28,723 and Horwich's population totalling just 19,312, it would have a percentage of 149%.A couple of you argued that Port Vale should be included, on the grounds that there is no such place (the name appeared on maps in the late 19th century), but to allow that would be to misread the question: Vale Park is based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, a place that definitely does exist.Besides, Liam McGuigan gave a far better example here by highlighting Plymouth of Montserrat. "The city was evacuated following the eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano and has an official population of zero. The still-standing Blakes Estate Stadium in the city has a capacity of around 4,000, and is still occasionally used, the last international match played there being in 2004 when Montserrat lost 7-0 to crash out of the World Cup unfortunately early." Dividing by zero, however, does not work, however, unless you happen to be a particularly adept mathematician. We aren't.Finally, we'd just like to give a quick mention to the numerous examples of non-football stadiums with capacities greater than the towns in which they are based. Michigan Stadium, which holds 106,201 and is based in Ann Arbor, population 114,000, and Giants Stadium, which holds 80,200 and is based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, population 10,000, were among the most popular submissions.Our favourite, however, was this from Michael Haughey. "The biggest disproportion is in the realm of Gaelic Football where since 1970, security concerns meant the Ulster finals had to be played in one of three Ulster counties within the republic. As a result the town of Clones, population 321, has seen its GAA stadium St Tiernach's Park grow to be the sixth biggest in Ireland with a capacity of 36,000. That's 112 times the town's population."Any more for any more? You know what to do.KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE"When recently watching highlights of the 1973 FA Cup final, I noticed both Billy Bremner and Mick Jones wearing the crew-neck version of Leeds United's 'Cup final' kit, yet the rest of the team that day wore the then-fashionable collared version," said Brett back in 2008. "Why?"Well, Brett, the wearing of 'V' or crew-necked collars - like short or long-sleeved shirts - was, and remains, a matter of player choice. However, Revie-era Leeds was apparently a hotbed of revelatory replica strip innovations. Dave Moor informs us, "this was the 'Super Leeds' period when no gimmick was considered too silly. The players wore number tags attached to their socks and threw these to the fans at the end of each game, for example." (You can see said socks with detachable tags right here)."After the Cup final," continues Dave, "Leeds introduced the first branded kit, featuring the Admiral logo, a development that marked the beginning of the replica kit market."For thousands more questions answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive.Can you help?"Have any players either injured themselves or provoked opponents to injure them - much like Kerlon - with an act of showboating?" muses Ronan Brennan."I read that Rotherham haven't played a game since 12 December," begins Jeremy Fitch. "What is the longest period a team hasn't played a competitive game within a football season?""Who is the winningmost football club president or chairman in history?" wonders Peter Jeffries."We are so used these days to seeing all the Premier League goals on the box, but which was the last top-flight goal not to be caught on camera?" asks David Hope."Barcelona have currently gone a season and a half without losing by more than one goal in all competitions," notes Ignacio Prado. "What is the longest streak of this kind?"Send your questions and answers to the lovely people at knowledge@guardian.co.uk.Paolo Bandiniguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Arsenal favourites to sign teenage sensation Victor Moses from Crystal Palace Manchester City have been trying to sign Palace forward but player would prefer to move to the Emirates, says sources. telegraph.co.uk |