Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
For decades now, football clubs and international governing bodies have been racing to build bigger and more technologically advanced stadiums that will draw throngs of fans.
This has left some football enthusiasts and players bemoaning the loss of atmosphere that tightly packed and atmospheric old grounds used to have.
In this article, we take a look at the other end of the scale, for pitches and stadiums that shunned the mainstream and decided instead to pop up in some unlikely locations.
Here are some of the world's most remote and wacky football stadiums and pitches.
The days of stadiums being imposing places for visiting teams and fans is largely over, as clubs and national teams try their best to attract a broad range of fans to their games, meaning away results are more difficult for football tipsters to predict these days.
However, some grounds are daunting places to visit just because of where they are situated. Svangaskaro Stadium in the Faroe Islands is certainly a case in point, marooned as it is on the island of Toftir, somewhere out in the ocean wilds between Iceland and Scotland.
Any player who has set foot on the pitch knows about the exposure they sense there. That is probably why it has been the scene of some almighty international game upsets, often being a place where form guides and regular football tips go out the window.
Although the Faroe Islands now play their games at the more welcoming Torsvollur Stadium, they do now and again still treat visiting teams to a haunting ninety minutes at the Svangaskaro. When this happens, it leaves football punters looking to the experts in the field for their tips on how the pitch and its wild surroundings will impact the wary opposition.
Ottmar Hitzfeld is one of the most decorated players and managers in German football history, being part of the elite club of managers who have won the Champions League (or European Cup, as it used to be known) with two separate clubs.
Having coached in the Bundesliga for most of his career, Hitzfeld spent his later years leading the Swiss national side.
Upon retiring, his adopted country built a special football pitch in his honor, at an incredible 2,000m above sea level in the Swiss Alps.
FC Gspon is the local team who ply their trade there and there is even a cable car that gives players and training staff access to the pitch.
Thailand is a magical place, and so it makes sense that it plays host to one of the most incredible football pitches ever designed.
The floating football pitch at Koh Panyee is where Panyee FC play their home games, on a field that is literally floating on the sea.
The pitch was dreamed up by locals who were tired of not having enough flat land to build a playing field on, and so took things into their own hands.
You would think that Koh Panyee's pitch was unique, but alas it is not, because the pitch known as The Float in Singapore takes aquatic footy fields to the next level.
This pitch's artificial turf floats on the waters at Marina Bay, but spectators can take in all the action from stands, which have been erected on the nearby dock.
This makes for one of the most dramatic football settings to be found anywhere and gives a sense of remoteness despite being bang in the heart of a buzzing metropolis.
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My daughter's first ever football match - Orlando City v Atlanta United, August 2019. Written for Izzy to read when she gets old enough. Vamos Orlando
