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23 things to do to stave off football boredom

Surviving football boredom - a football fans' guide

Millions of us are in lockdown and almost every league in the world is suspended indefinitely. With no football matches to go to and even none to watch on TV, the boredom is quickly setting in.

Luckily for you, we've come up with a list of things which you can do to pass the time. Read on to find out how to survive self isolation...

  1. Make a map of the grounds you've been to
  2. Track your 92 Club progress on your wall
  3. Write reviews of the grounds you've been to
  4. Upload your photos
  5. Add grounds to your wish list
  6. Research the grounds which are close to you
  7. Compare your grounds to your friends
  8. Check out the biggest attendances ever recorded
  9. Track your progress towards the 92 Club
  10. Research your next trip to Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon or Paris
  11. Keep up-to-date with the latest news
  12. Plan the stadiums you need to visit before it's too late
  13. Check out Brickstand
  14. Build Old Trafford out of Lego
  15. Download FotMob
  16. Learn more about the non-League pyramid
  17. Subscribe to Premier Sports
  18. Watch live football with MyCujoo
  19. Catch up on some great football documentaries
  20. Get your bets in order
  21. Build a Minecraft stadium
  22. Lead your team to glory in your favourite video game
  23. Feel like you're back in the stadium by watching Groundhopping YouTubers

1. Make a map of the grounds you've been to

It's the main reason this site exists, so of course this is our first recommendation. Once you've signed up for a free account, you can start adding grounds to your map and creating your profile. All it takes is a simple tick next to each ground you've visited.

With almost 20,000 grounds on the site from all over the world, you can probably tick off every ground you've ever been to. And if there is a ground we don't have, simply drop us an email and we'll add it for you.

If you're already a member and your map is up-to-date, we have a couple of other options...


2. Track your 92 Club progress on your wall

Why not show off your progress to the 92 Club with our exclusive 92 Club wall poster? The large A1 size poster features the latest kits for all of this season's teams and allows you to physically "tick off" the grounds you've been to, and display your progress on your wall. A detailed stats panel also show vital information including the stadium, capacity, year it was opened, record attendance and % of fans who have been there.

The high quality poster is double-sided featuring all 68 stadiums from the National League on the reverse. The poster is available to buy on our website.


 

3. Write reviews of the grounds you've been to

Each and every ground on our site can be reviewed and rated. It's these ratings which populate the data in our comprehensive Stats section. Reviews can be as long or short as you want and focus on 5 key areas:

Rate each of these out of 5 stars and write as little or as much about your experience.

To get started, simply search for a ground you've visited and click on the review button.


 

4. Upload your photos

As well as having a database of almost 20,000 grounds, we also have over 21,000 photos which have been uploaded by our users. Latest photos feature on each ground page and it's great to see stadiums from different angles, both inside and out.

So go through your phone, or even your old printed photos and upload them to the website - it's a sure fire way to pass some time! And if you upload enough, you might even make the leaderboard.


5. Add grounds to your wish list

One of our most underused features is the ability to create a wishlist of the grounds you'd like to visit. These might be your local non-League teams, the grounds you have left in the 92 Club or once in a lifetime must-visits like La Bombonera or Signal Igunda Park.


 

6. Research the grounds which are close to you

You probably already know where your nearest Premier League or EFL stadium is, but do you know which is the closest to where you live or where you go to work or where you were born? Check out our Nearest Grounds page to find out.

Here you can enter any address and search for what's close to you. We'll give you a run-down of the essential stats including average rating, how many have already visited it and how far away it is. You could even add some to your wish list to visit when the football is back on again.


 

7. Compare your grounds to your friends

Another cool, but underused feature is the ability to compare your ground count with your friends on the site. Simply search for their name, username or email address and hit the "Add Friend" button. You can then visit the Friends page which will rank you against your peers in terms of: number of grounds visited; number of 92 Club grounds visited; and miles travelled.


8. Check out the biggest attendances ever recorded

We're used to big crowds nowadays - 50,000, 60,000 and 70,000+ attendances are weekly occurrences across the globe. However, today's all-seater stadiums produce tiny attendances compared to the 20th Century when everybody stood and health and safety wasn't a thing.

Check out our article about the world's biggest football attendances including Hampden Park's unique history and the largest attendance ever recorded for a football match.


 

9. Track your progress towards the 92 Club

The 92 Club is English football's Holy Grail which many fans aspire to join. Luckily, we have a great section on the 92 Club, allowing you to track your progress.

Registered users can see which grounds they ticked off as well on stats of which they have left to do, including:

If that's not enough, our friends over at 92club.co.uk have a great selection of stats and features all about the 92 Club including tips on how to complete it, stats on how far each team's fans travel and a brief history of the 92 Club.


10. Research your next trip to Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon or Paris

The travel ban won't last forever and there's plenty of great places for you to visit when the world is back on its feet. Our growing Groundhopping Guide section gives you a run down of all the best stadiums to visit in 4 of Europe's biggest cities - Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and Lisbon.

Here you'll find a guide and maps relating to the biggest and best grounds in each city as well as some of the smaller lower league and non-League gems to look out for.


 

11. Keep up-to-date with the latest news

Our News section is one to keep an eye on too - showing all of the latest news from the world of football stadiums. Large or small, UK or abroad, we'll add all of the latest news here for you.


12. Plan the stadiums you need to visit before it's too late

There's a number of grounds around the world whose time is nearly up. New stadiums are under construction meaning that you've only have a limited amount of time left to tick them off, before they're flattened and (most likely) turned into housing or a supermarket.

Start planning now by checking out our guide to grounds to visit whilst you still can.


13. Check out Brickstand

If you're a fan of Lego, this website is for you! Manchester-based Chris Smith has started a project to build all 92 Club stadiums out of Lego - and his creations look amazing! Not content with the 92 Club, Chris has also built numerous non-League grounds as well as several from Scotland and old grounds which are no longer with us.

Check out Brickstand for more info and some great pictures of Chris' creations.


14. Build Old Trafford out of Lego

If Brickstand has inspired you, check out the official Lego Old Trafford set which allows you to build your very own Lego model of Old Trafford.

It may cost £250, but at almost 4,000 pieces, it'll help pass away the hours until the football starts again.


15. Download FotMob

You probably already have a football results app on your phone. Well, our advice is to delete that and install FotMob. It covers hundreds of leagues around the world, giving you updates on tens of thousands of matches.

If the sheer number of games isn't enough for you to switch, the app also allows you to set favourite teams, leagues and players and will notify you of significant updates: goals, yellow cards, postponements etc. It's great if you want to keep up-to-date with the latest happenings for your favourite teams at home and abroad.


 

16. Learn more about the non-League pyramid

Many fans support their local "big" team - it's how many of us are brought up, following them around the country and charting our progress toward joining the 92 Club. Doing this is a brilliant feeling and one of the joys of being a loyal supporter.

But what do you do if your team isn't playing? Or if you can't get a ticket? Many of us will sit at home and watch Jeff Stelling reading out the results. As entertaining as this may be, there's probably some live football within a few miles of your front door.

The non-League experience in England is brilliant, with many well-supported teams and some excellent and unique grounds to visit, including the oldest football ground in the world and stadiums with a fantastic view of the London skyline.

There's much more to football than just the Premier League and EFL - give your local non-League side a try next time you can.


17. Subscribe to Premier Sports

You might already be paying a small fortune to Sky and BT for their sports channels. However, there is a way to get your football fix at a fraction of the cost...

Premier Sports has the rights to a number of major football leagues around the world, including:

These are televised on their 2 pay channels (Premier Sports 1 and 2), with many matches also broadcast on their sister station, FreeSports. As the name suggests, FreeSports is entirely free on Freeview (channel 64), Sky (422), BT (64) and Virgin (553). If you decide to pay for Premier Sports, it's available at a very reasonable £9.99 a month.


18. Watch live football with MyCujoo

If Premier Sports doesn't give you enough football to watch, then MyCujoo will. The service live-streams hundreds of different football matches every week from all around the globe.

You won't find the big European leagues on MyCujoo, but you will find a massive selection of live and recorded games, with particularly good coverage from Asia and South America. And best of all, it's totally free to use!


19. Catch up on some great football documentaries

There are a number of very good football documentary series available to watch on streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix.

These documentaries go inside the day-to-day running of clubs and reveal interesting details such as how the transfer deadline day unfolds and how club staff are affected by the team's results on the pitch. Many are multi-part and cover some very big clubs - a great way to get an insight into football's inner workings. Series include:


 

20. Get your bets in order

It may feel like a long way away, but football will resume at some point! And when it does, you need to be on your game to get the maximum return on your bets.

Now is the best time to be doing your research and finding the best odds to place your bets on how the season will finish.

Obviously Liverpool will win the Premier League, but who will occupy the 3 remaining Champions League spots? Norwich look odds on to be relegated, but who will join them in the Championship next season?

Now is the time to be doing the research on each team's form, their opponents for the last few games as well as looking round for the best odds available on your chosen bet(s).


21. Build a Minecraft stadium

Minecraft is an awesome game, allowing you to build pretty much anything you can think of. Around the world, people have already made virtual recreations of many major stadiums. Will the prospect of a lot of time on your hands, now could be the perfect time to start building your own stadium. Just don't ask me for any tips - I'm useless!


22. Lead your team to glory in your favourite video game

Staying on the video game theme, there's a number of brilliant football games available to help pass the time.

FIFA 20 is the top seller, but PES 20 is also a very good game. Both are available on most major formats including Xbox One, PS4, Switch and PC.

If you prefer a bit more detail, Football Manager for PC is the ultimate football management sim, allowing you to take charge of any club in the world and lead them to glory.

If you don't own them already, I'd recommend ordering from 365games.co.uk - they provide free delivery and great service.


 

23. Feel like you're back in the stadium by watching Groundhopping YouTubers

One of the great things about YouTube is that it allows you to see other people's experiences at football and virtually visit grounds you've not been to, or re-live your favourites from different perspectives.

There's a number of high quality YouTubers out there with thousands of hours worth of videos between them, here's just a few of our favourites:


Football will be back soon

Football will be back

So, there you have it - a comprehensive list of things to do to pass the time until the football is back. We hope some of the things on this list are useful. If you have any other ideas, let us know in the comment or contact us.


About the Author: Rob Clarkson

Rob is the owner of footballgroundmap.com. A Sheffield United fan and father of two, Rob loves nothing more than a good game of football whether that's watching the Blades or one his local non-League teams. He's somewhat of a traditionalist, preferring the older grounds to newer purpose-built ones.

Away from footballgroundmap.com, Rob works as an Ecommerce Development Project Manager for one of the UK's largest clothing retailers. He also owns and runs kick22.com, a system which allows junior and non-League clubs to create their own low cost website.

Sheffield United supporter • 107 grounds visited • 57/92



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