05 THE BOOK Remarkable Football Grounds

A NEW VOLUME GIVES

‘THE BEAUTIFUL GAME’ NEW MEANING

Words: Anna Solomon

VØLLURIN Í HÓLMANUM, FAROE ISLANDS

EB/Streymur’s ground, located in the village of Eiði, can fit its hometown’s population of less than 700 twice over. International eyes turned on EB/Streymur in 2008 when Manchester City faced the side in a UEFA Cup qualifying round; due to pitch regulations, the match had to be played at Tórsvøllur, the Faroe Islands’ national stadium, where City won 2-0.

Only in the wildest dreams of Eriskay FC, the football team of the Outer Hebrides island of Eriskay, was it acknowledged by FIFA. With a population of less than 150, it’s almost a case of ‘if you live on Eriskay, you play for Eriskay’. Nevertheless, the team has gained notoriety – not, to be fair, for winning trophies, but rather thanks to its ground, which has been named ‘one of the eight most remarkable places to play football in the world’ by the Fédération Internationale.

The pitch may not be flat, exactly, and suffers regular invasions from sheep, but the views from, and of, this remote spit of land are incredible. Eriskay’s idiosyncrasies have made it the subject of a new book: Remarkable Football Grounds by British journalist Ryan Herman. In it, he dives into the world of ‘groundhoppers’, a niche of people that like to visit far-flung stadiums – the more beautiful and bizarre the better.

Remarkable Football Grounds also documents the Alfheim Stadion in Norway, which lies in the shadow of Arctic mountains; the Amahoro in Rwanda, which became a refuge centre during the genocide of 1994; and the Avanhard in Ukraine, which was rendered radioactive for the next 3,000 years by the Chernobyl disaster. In Dundee, the Tannadice and Dens Park grounds are just 183 metres apart, and in Norway’s Lofoten Islands, where flat land is at a premium, the pitch sides are used for drying fish.

STADE LOUIS II, MONACO

It’s a wonder that the home of AS Monaco exists at all, given that the whole principality of Monaco is squeezed onto a tiny slither of land between the sea and cliffs. The football ground eats up three of the 33 hectares that make up Monaco’s Fontvieille district; fortunately, architect Henry Pottier came up with an ingenious solution to the space problem – Stade Louis II is merely the tip of an architectural iceberg that also includes underground sports halls, offices, four-storey car parks and an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It is also remarkable for its ability to blend with the surrounding architecture; from ground level, the stadium could simply be another of Monaco’s cubiform apartment blocks – not to mention the artful arches at one end yielding views towards the yacht-filled harbour.

IGRALIŠTE BATARIJA, CROATIA

Croatia is famous for its jaw-dropping Game of Thrones filming locations. So inundated is the nation with beautiful, medieval structures, in fact, that apparently it barely has room for things like football stadiums. Igralište Batarija is the home ground of HNK Trogir, and is sandwiched between two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the 15th century Kamerlengo Castle and St. Mark’s Fortress.

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