“Do any clubs have a stand named after someone who is not a former player, manager or owner?” Andy Palmer wonders.
The somewhat surprising answer to this question is yes, loads. We’ll start with this impressively detailed email from Tim Hoult. “France is a good place to start,” he writes. “Nice’s Allianz Riviera has a stand named after the Italian politician Giuseppe Garibaldi. It is also possible that the hierarchy of the club really loved the cakes, especially considering the city where they play. Saint EtienneStade Geoffrey Guichard has stands named after the former player, chairman and two key people involved in the club’s history, Henri Point and Charles Paret, though not as managers or owners.LensStade Bollaert-Delelis has stands named after Elie Delacourt, former president of the supporters club, and Max Lepagnot, who was the club’s secretary as they transitioned from amateur to professional status. Toulouse they renamed the East Stand in 2015 in honor of Brice Taton, a fan who died from injuries sustained in an attack in a Belgrade bar before a Europa League match. Bastia they recently had to shut down the Jojo-Petrignani stand after fan violence marred their match against Lyon. The stand was named after another outstanding supporter. Lyons‘s Stade Gerland has a stand named after Jean Bouin, the 1912 Olympian who also lent his name to the Stade Français rugby stadium in Paris and previously Angers’ home.
“That’s also worth looking at Lewes FC and their wonderfully named Dripping Pan.
One of their stands is the Philcox Stand, opened in 2003. It is named after a local construction company, but the name has been associated with the club for many years – SJ Philcox was honorary secretary as far back as 1910-11 and there have been at least two players with the same name on the team this season.
This is David Leggott. “A story with a tragic beginning: The Stacey-West Stand is located on the Sincil Bank grounds in Lincoln City,” he writes. “The stand was named in memory of two longtime Imps supporters (Bill Stacey and Jim West) who, along with 54 Bradford City fans, died in the Valley Parade fire disaster in May 1985.”
Rich Jones rightly points this out “There is a stadium there BakuAzerbaijan named after football referee Tofik Bahramovwho was the linesman in the 1966 world cup final (yes, that linesman).”
Phew. Who’s next? “Let’s start with the old ‘Jessica Ennis Stand’ on Bramall Lane, home Sheffield United”, notes Dermot Wickham, among others. “The city of Ipswichoddly enough, held a mid-season competition a few years ago. The prize was that the winner named the North Stand after him for the rest of the season. It was therefore called the Sandra Cunningham Stand for a few months before being named the Sir Bobby Robson Stand. There are many more, so it’s time to switch to list mode:
SV Darmstadt 98 renamed their stadium in honor of Jonathan Heimes, a fan who died after a long battle with cancer. (Thanks to Kristof in Berlin.)
Gillingham have a Brian Moore booth on their grounds in Priestfield, a tribute to the great ITV growler. Moore was a supporter and was a director of the club. (Thanks to Michael Pilcher.)
Raith Rovers’ the ground, Stark’s Park, includes the McDermid stand, named in honor crime writer Val McDermid – her father was also a scout of the club. (Credits to Rhuaraidh Fleming.)
Northampton town boast the Alwyn Hargrave Stand, a tribute to the former councilman who helped push the stadium through. (Thanks to Nick Jones.)
Chesterfield The Karen Child Stand is a nod to the lottery winner who funded it. (Thanks to Mike Pollitt.)
Homes away from homes
Last week, we checked which team pitches are furthest from the city center. We missed a few…
“The new English MLS revolution is playing in Foxborough, Massachusetts, 20 miles from downtown Boston,” begins Glenn Harmon. “If you calculate their location relative to the geographic center of the six New England states they represent (Dunbarton, New Hampshire), they are 72 miles apart.”
Next? This is Ken Kwadwo Amaniampong: “Bolga All Stars was originally based in Bolgatanga, the capital of the Upper East region of Ghana. They play their home matches at the FC Utretch Park stadium in Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region of Ghana. The distance between Bolgatanga and Tamale is 168 km, and that’s because the league board deemed their home, the Bolgatanga Sports Stadium, unsuitable for hosting Premier League matches.
Sam Watt offers ‘Qarabag FC in Azerbaijan, named after the region of Karabakh where their original hometown of Agdam is located. Azerbaijan and Armenia started the Karabakh War in the 1990s and Agdam is now under Armenian control along with the entire Karabakh region. Qarabag now plays in Baku which is about 230 miles from Agdam by road. For similar reasons, Shakhtar Donetsk currently plays in Kharkiv, 188 miles from Donetsk, but they have only recently moved there, having previously played in Lviv, which is more than 760 miles from their home.” Watch out for the last one here.
“During the 2011-12 Serie A season, the Stadio Sant’Elia in Cagliari was deemed unsafe,” writes Joe Wilson. “After a brief stint at another dangerous local stadium, they ended up at Stadio Nereo Rocco in Trieste. Several “home” matches were played there, 1066 miles from their actual home in Sardinia.” And Kasper Ługowski gives one more example, mentioning that “for one season in the second or third league Piotrcovia Piotrków played home matches on the former Pogoń Szczecin pitch thanks to the actions of the owner Aleksander Ptak. It was as much as 327 miles to travel for a home game from home.
Great siblings
“When Barnet played Wycombe at home last month, their team consisted of two brothers on the pitch at the same time – Jack and Harry Taylor started the match alongside John Akinde, with John’s brother Sam coming on in the 85th minute.” . says Will Evans. “Can any other site compare to this?”
“Look at the examples of Kolo and Yaya Touré and André and Jordan Ayew Ivory Coast defeated Ghana 3-1,” writes Brendan Chapman. On to Sweden. “When IFK Göteborg under Sven-Göran Eriksson won the UEFA Cup in 1981-82, two pairs of brothers – twins Conny and Jerry Karlsson and Tord and Tommy Holmgren – started in both legs of the final against Hamburg,” recalls Nils Henrik Smith. “I wonder if the two siblings have ever won a more prestigious trophy together?”
Laurence Wright has another international example. “Two brothers have represented British international teams at least twice,” he writes. “April 20, 1955, Wales featured John and Mel Charles and Ivor and Len Allchurch when they beat Northern Ireland 3-2 at Windsor Park (with the great John Charles scoring all three Welsh goals). A few years earlier, on 3 February 1883, Wales had lost 5-0 at Kennington Oval to an England team consisting of Arthur and Charles Bambridge and Arthur and Harry Cursham. Read more about Cambridges here.
Knowledge archive
“What is the most prestigious match that has been decided by a coin toss?” asked Paul Miller in 2002.
The most important coin toss in football history took place in the semi-final of the dull 1968 European Championship, Paul. After a 0-0 draw with the Soviet Union, Italy (led by Inter Internazionale’s defensive legend and crowd-pleasing Giacinto Facchetti) advanced to the final after a thrilling coin toss.
Yugoslavia meanwhile beat England 1-0, thus securing the possibility of being robbed by the Italians in the final. Losing 1-0 with 10 minutes left, Angelo Domenghini was able to take a free-kick against the Yugoslavs while retreating for the full 10 yards. Goal and draw 1:1. Italy won the replay 2–0; not exciting.
The next biggest match decided by a coin toss came in the quarter-finals of the 1964–65 European Cup, after Liverpool and Cologne played out two dismal 0–0 draws, then a 2–2 after the play-offs in Amsterdam. Ron Yeats guessed right in the middle circle as befits a man who has won more 50-50 than most. You’ll never walk around Cologne? Liverpool were then controversially sent off 4-3 on aggregate in the semi-final by Inter, again led by this man Facchetti.
But no unlucky story is complete without Spain [this was written in 2002, when Spain were rubbish – Knowledge Ed]: Lost a place in the 1954 World Cup final after defeating Turkey in the two-legged qualifying qualifiers 4-2 on aggregate. Unfortunately, total scores didn’t count in those days, and after winning and losing, teams played each other. After an inevitable draw (2-2), the draw belonged to a blind Italian boy; even he saw what was about to happen.
You can help?
“Players are suspended from the pitch due to disciplinary issues, and more than a few have been disqualified from driving for various reasons,” writes Vince Ely. “What are the most unusual things players have been banned from doing outside of football?”
“Has there ever been a related player and umpire in a professional game?” Chris Ross muses. “Or was the judge really forced to resign because of the involvement of a family member?”
“Just watching West Ham lose to Liverpool at their new stadium, I couldn’t help but notice the huge space between the supporters and the pitch on the opposite side of the stadium from the broadcast side,” sighs Jonny Foster. “Where are the two most distant dugouts in the earth, and how far apart are they? Are there any on opposite sides of the playing field?”
“While looking at the records of the Chichester City Ladies FC team that dominated this season (P22 Z21 R1 L0 F120 A8), I noticed that one of their scores was a 5-4 win over Plymouth Ladies,” explains Andy Brook. “There is still one game left to play, but that means 50% of the goals conceded throughout the season have come in one game. Are there more cases where 90 minutes gives such a high percentage of goals scored/conceded by a team during a season?
“In 1984-85 John Still ran Dartford as they finished third in the Gola League (now known as the National League),” says Andy Boyd. “This season his Dagenham and Redbridge team were only one place lower on the same level. Has any other manager led different clubs to nearly identical finishes more than 30 years apart?
James Mason wants to know: “What is the origin of the song “Wherever we go, wherever we go, we are [club name] boys, making all the noise wherever we go…? This is driving me crazy. If you can’t help, I’ll have to release a single with the same tune and wait for someone to sue.”
Comments are closed.