Monthly Archives: February 2009

Down in the valley(s)…

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Right – confession time….I am technically not a member of the 92 club anymore! I know, I know that I continue to talk about my expert knowledge of football stadiums but according to the official rules laid down in the last century my membership ceased to be valid in 2006. The reason for that is that I had yet to see a first class game in the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. I sort of gave up trying to meet the criteria at this point and technically I am in breach of the rules for not going back to visit Dagenham and Redbridge, Hereford United and even Carlisle United for a competitive game (despite the fact of seeing Dagenham play West Ham in a pre-season game in front of their highest crowd for over a decade), and shock horror, I had still not managed to shoehorn a visit into Morecambe. But as I own the domain name (92club.co.uk – go on try it and see where you end up!) I set the rules now and so as I have been to the old Vetch Field then I am still a member – so there!

Anyway, based on my own standards I could not say I had been to every club until the Liberty was ticked off and out of the blue an opportunity popped out. Sometimes situations come together like a rare eclipse, in this case:-

1. CMF wanting to go away with her chums in early March meaning I was “owed” a boys weekend away;

2. West Ham having to move their game versus Man City to Sunday as the poor (!) City players couldn’t cope with 2 games in 48 hours;

3. (In)Active Matt planning on following Charlton Athletic down to South Wales, and staying at his house;

So I could go, with the blessing of CMF, in the chauffer driven company of Matt and Tony the beard, stay in the comfort of a house AND get to see a game – a perfect set of conditions.

Swansea and me go back quite a few years. I had spent some wondeful years in and around the Gower due to a number of events. As a child I used to holiday with the big Fuller’s every year (the same week, the same place – you know what it was like growing up in the 80′s) in St Ives. Another family did the same and I got to know their son, Nick really well over the years. They came from Bridgend and as we moved into our middle teens, we used to meet up a couple of times a year for a bit of Welsh mayhem in and around the night clubs of Port Talbot and Swansea. He taught me a few valuable lessons in life – “Never ever go outside with a girl who says she is from Maestag” was one (he was so true as I would find out to my cost a few years later whilst working in Kos), “Never go near a girl in a club who says her brother is in the club” and finally “Never mention to a girl you meet from Wales that she has a moustache”.

When I was 17 I met my first long term girlfriend – Lynne. She was the daughter of one of my form teachers at school and was a year older and taking a year out. She lived across the road from the school and so in my free periods, where I knew where Mrs Lynne was I used to sneak across the role for a some additional tuition. And the relevance here? Well, she hailed from Swansea and a couple of times a year we would head down to the family home for a weekend of…well lets just leave it there.

I also spent a few weeks in and around the area in the run up to my A-Level Geography, carrying out a number of surveys on the “ring Donut” effect amongst other things.

Finally, there was the legendary FA Cup final weekend in May 2006. West Ham v Liverpool was one of the most entertaining finals in living memory and the whole weekend was one long eventful time. There was a group of 7 of us including Football Jo, and we saw it all on the Saturday night in Swansea. Wind Street is the place to be as it seems the whole cross section of society descends on for in the space of 3 Saturday night hours we saw (in no particular order):-

2 arrested for fighting (different fights) and one female
5 people being sick
3 people walking into the same phone box (you know the ones – big, red and very visible!)
2 girls streak down the street
2 couples having oral sex in said phone box above

But the best moment was when a rather chubby girl dressed in a tiny top dropped her phone on the floor. She then bent down to pick it up giving us all a rather unpleasant view of the fact she had gone commando. She then fell forward as she was so pissed and managed to kick her phone into the gutter. Stretching further to retrieve it her top rolled down exposing her charlies, but she was completely unaware of this and got up and carried on walking down the road, top around her midrift! Classy girl!

Anyway, enough of the memories – this was going to be a good trip – full of deep thinking football chat in the company of two die hard Charlton fans who were in the middle of the worst season in the club’s history, and destined to be playing the likes of Brentford, Leyton Orient and Colchester in local derbies next season. I had a half day and our plan was to get down to Swansea in time for the Wales v France game in the 6 nations, football and beer on the Saturday and then back into London in time (I hoped) for the Bellamy abuse to start at West Ham against Man City.

We travelled down on Friday afternoon and got to the house just after tea time. A swift trip to Tesco was our first job to stock up on Brains beer for our rock ‘n’ roll evening, then onto the Indian for our culinary treat. Whilst waiting for our typical local fayre we headed down the road for a swift half. The pub was rammed with locals gearing up for the rugby. However, with a few minutes until kick off they were showing the England test match. A few seconds later they switched coverage and we demanded that they switched it back – after all we were English and guests in their land….Well, we wanted to ask to switch it back but valued our assets a bit too much.

A few cups of tea, Welsh cakes and Jonathan Ross later our hedonistic night came to an end – well we are all nearly the big 40 and so nights out aren’t exactly what they used to be….”When we were your age…..”

On Saturday morning we headed down to the Gower peninsula for a bit of beach action. Oxwych Bay is one of the most famous beaches in the area and on a grey Saturday morning in February it was empty . Even the offer of watersports (watersports4all.com for more details) could not bring out the tourists and so after a fruitful search for a simple cup of tea (see I told you we know how to live it up!) before heading east through the lovely settlements of Townhill and Mayhill to the Liberty Stadium.

I’d heard good reports about the Liberty Stadium, opened in 2005 as a replacement for the ancient and crumbling Vetch Field. The 20,350 seater stadium is owned by the local council and is shared with the Ospreys rugby team, and has hosted a couple of international matches so far. Since opening the club have gone from strength to strength. Under the management of Roberto Martinez the club were promoted at a canter from Division One and have settled themselves into the running for a play off place with a brand of short passing and creative midfield play. Their recent FA Cup run had put them firmly on the map and I was looking forward to see them take on a Charlton team desperately low on confidence. Swansea hadn’t been in the top division since those almost dreamlike days of the early 1980′s when John Toshack’s team actually topped the old Division One before falling down the leagues to a point where they were within 90 minutes of losing their league status.

We had a wander around the stadium, stopping for Matt to acquaint himself with his “uncle” Ivor Allchurch (it appears that as a child Matt used to play with a girl whose Dad once cleaned Ivor’s cousins windows and so in true older generation style he became “uncle Ivor”).

Charlton’s woes have been written about at length here (see post) but since the “do or die” game with Nottingham Forest things had got marginally better. Whilst they were still propping up the league, they had managed two wins and a draw in their last five games to at least give the 600 travelling fans some hope.

Swansea City 1 Charlton Athletic 1 – The Liberty Stadium – Saturday 28th February 2009

Another late chance goes begging

Another late chance goes begging

We all expected more from the game in truth. We were sat in the middle of the silent majority of Swans fans. The crowd had been boosted by the offer of kids for a quid and a fancy dress competition where it appeared only two people had bothered to enter and one of them was dressed as a flower. Swansea started nervously, trying to pass their way into the Charlton net, but the Londoners were having none of it. The tackles flew in thick and fast and they picked up four yellow cards in the first thirty minutes.

Despite a couple of poor free kicks, Swansea’s play was all huff and puff. However, they did eventually take the lead in the 43rd minute when Nathan Dyer got a lucky bounce in the penalty area and calmly slotted the ball home to send the home team in at the break 1-0 up.

Halftime brought a ridiculous penalty competition with a bear mascot in goal and a free for all amongst the mascots. Spurred on by the performance of their sole mascot in the match above, Charlton came out, with a game plan that was basically shit or bust And the difference was noticable and they stifled the Swansea passing game, and continued to push for an equalizer. And on 55 minutes they got their lucky break as Nick Bailey’s shot from the edge of the area took a wicked deflection and nestled in the back of the net.

Despite the frustration from the crowd and the reluctance of the visitors to push on for a winner, Swansea simply ran out of ideas. a point in the end was useless for both teams based on results elsewhere, but it was a third unbeaten game in a row for the Addicks.

To continue our wild weekend we headed back to the house for fish and chips, Brains SA beer and another turgid performance from our rugby team in Dublin. Who said we lose the ability to party when we got married and had kids!

About the Liberty Stadium
After spending 93 years at their former Vetch Field home, Swansea have moved into the 21st Century, with a new stadium near to the former site of the Morfa Athletics Stadium on the West side of the River Tawe. The stadium was christened White Rock by the Swansea residents, but is now called the Liberty Stadium under a 10 year corporate sponsorship deal.

Built by Interserve for a cost of around £27m, the stadium saw its first game in July 2005. Although fairly conservative in its design, the stadium is still impressive. It is completely enclosed with all four corners filled with seating. Each of the four stands is two tiered and three are of the same height. The West Stand at one side of the pitch is slightly taller, having a row of 28 corporate hospitality boxes, situated above the upper tier. The Club’s offices are also located behind this stand. An unusual feature is the great use of transparent roofing towards the South End of the stadium. This allows more natural light into this area, making for an interesting effect. Both ends have an electric scoreboard situated on the front of their roofs, although for some reason the scoreboard at the North End is larger than the one at the South End. Outside the stadium at the South West corner is a statue of former Swansea legend Ivor Allchurch. The stadium is shared with Ospreys Rugby Union Club.

Thanks to Duncan Adam’s – Football Ground Guide for the above information.

How to get to the Liberty Stadium
Swansea Station is the nearest railway station to the ground and is about two miles from the stadium. Regular local bus services (every fifteen minutes on lines 4, 4a, 120, 122, 125, 132) run to the stadium or a taxi will cost less than a £5.

If you fancy a walk then allow yourself at least 30 minutes. Turn right out of the station and follow the High Street. At the traffic lights turn right into Neath Road. Go straight along Neath Road and you will eventually reach the stadium on your right.

Getting a ticket for the Liberty Stadium
With their promotion into the Championship, more games are classed as high profile and tickets may not be sold on the day. However, they can be easily booked online from the website. Tickets range in price from £20 for a place in the East Stand, and £23 elsewhere in the stadium. The Family Stand offers a £28 for an adult and 2 children. Views are excellent from everywhere in the ground.


The real home of sex, drugs and roll n’ roll…..well 1 out of 3 ain’t bad!

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The first half of the 2008/09 Bundesliga season undoubtably belonged to the miracle team from the small village of Hoffenheim, who upset the whole form book by going into the winter break at the top of the league. This in itself was a surprise as their form in the last few matches was far from impressive, and the “game of the season” against Bayern Munich on the penultimate set of fixtures saw the team from Bavaria come out on top and close the gap to a single point.If their form in December was worrying, the first two games of the restarted season in late January were a serious cause for concern. An easy looking game away at bottom of the table Borussia Monchengladbach resulted in a hard earnt draw, and in their first game at the new Rhein-Neckar Arena, built with the millions of Euro’s from our friend Dietmar Hopp, against Bayer Leverkusen they were two nil down before the opening ribbon had fallen to the floor. Leverkusen went on to record a 4-1 win to complete an impressive double (they beat 1899 earlier in the season 5-2 in Nordrhein) to really open up the Bundesliga title race. Hertha Berlin’s defeat of Bayern Munich just over 24 hours later sent the team from the capital to the top of the Bundesliga for the first time in over a decade. It also allowed HSV Hamburg to jump into the top three to possibly create the most competitive season in decades with five teams (1899, TSV, Hertha, Bayern and Leverkusen) all in with a shout of glory.

With so many teams competing for top spot, big clashes would be occuring almost every week, and so seven days after Hertha went top, Bayer Leverkusen were due to take on TSV Hamburg, not at their intimate Bayer Arena, but at the 50,000 plus all seater LTU Arena in Dusseldorf.

Bayer had been one of the German teams of the early part of the decade, fighting for the title right up to the last day on a couple of occasions and reaching the 2002 Champions League Final in Glasgow where they lost to Real Madrid. They have one of the best attendance records in European football with their 22,500 capacity stadium sold out for more than 100 consecutive Bundesliga games. Plans had been in place for a number of seasons to redevelop the Bayer Arena to make it fit for their next assault on domestic glory but finances were never in place.

At last at the start of this season a decision was made to start on the necessary redevelopments to increase the capacity to over 30,000. However, this work would mean the stadium would have to be closed for a period of at least 6 months and so arrangements were put in place to move a few miles down the road to Dusseldorf for the second half of the season. Leverkusen as a town is essentially a suburb of Cologne, hanging on the end of the S-Bahn line. It is really only famous for one thing – Bayer AG. The giant pharmaceutical company was founded in the region over one hundred and forty years ago and has now grown to be the third biggest in the world with revenues of over £30billion and employing over 100,000 people. Their most famous brand is Aspirin but few people actually know that they used to market Heroin as a product that was a “sedative for coughs”. The company formed a sports club in 1904 that eventually became the club we know today as Bayer Leverkusen.

So why was a 50,000+ seater stadium just sitting ready and waiting so close? Well let’s go back five years to 2003 when Germany was given the 2006 FIFA World Cup. At that point a number of cities raised their eyebrows and thought – I’d like a bit of that action. The organising committee had a tough choice drawing up a final list of 12 cities and stadiums, so they set stringent criteria, one of which was that a 40,000+ seater stadium had to be either in place or under construction at the time of the bid. Cities such as Stuttgart, Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin were laughing but surprise packages such as Leipzig and Kaiserslautern were given the nod above the likes of Monchengladbach and Dusseldorf who had spent millions building brand new state of the art venues.

The main problem they faced in the choice for suitabel venues was not down to facilities, or even politics. It was simply one of location. Travel less than 20 minutes south from Dusseldorf and you arrive on the doorstep of the 50,0000 capacity RheinEnergie stadium in Cologne. Head just a bit further to the east and you will stumble across the impressive 60,000 seater indoor Veltins Arena, home to Schalke 04 and the awesome 80,000 plus home of Borussia Dortmund, thus underlining the claim in these parts that this is the heart and soul of European Football.

At least Monchengladbach had a relatively successful team who could play in their new stadium. The new arena there co-incided with a return to the Bundesliga and they have since filled it almost to the brim on every occasion. The same cannot be said for Dusseldorf as the club side their, Fortuna, regularly attract crowds of less than 5,000 in a huge stadium modelled on the Millennium Stadium, complete with multi-coloured seats and a retractable roof.

So, when Bayer Leverkusen rang Fortuna and asked if they could come and play every so often, the club were only too keen to agree. The LTU Arena is a superb one for football, having hosted the annual DFB Pokal Cup (the German equivilant of the Community Shield although featuring a few more teams) for the past few seasons.

I had been invited to a supplier workshop in Cologne, to co-incide with one of the major events in the Cologne carnival. I used to live almost on the Notting Hill carnival route so I was used to the incessant whistling noise created by the crowds and sound of tin cans being kicked across the street for two days but the Cologne one is something else. It actually starts on the 11th November at 11.11am, and carries on right through to the end of February each year, with the last biggest hurrah being the last Monday of the month where apparently the Germans get a bit “crazy” which is called Rosenmontag. I have seen German “crazy” before and it is not a pretty sight. Any football fan remembers the awful scene of the German Euro96 winners singing “It’s coming home” on the balcony in Berlin will know what I mean. So everything tied in very well. I got a trip out to Germany, the Bundesliga fixtures kindly delivered a top of the table game near to Cologne in a stadium that I had never been to, and I got to go wild and crazy wearing a silly outfit for a couple of hours. Marvellous. The only down side was Bayer’s flat refusal to issue me a press pass as they only issued them to “full time journalists from Germany”…I tried reasoning but some clubs think that they are more important than they really are…so step forward Bayer Leverkusen for winning the Jobsworth award for 2009 (so far).My plan for the day actually included initially a visit to the MSV Arena to catch Duisburg play at 2pm before I headed down the road to Dusseldorf. This really is an amazing area for football – An hour on an (albeit very fast train) could see you at any one of eight top division teams, and a further six second level ones. However, not for the first time this week I encountered “technical” issues on my plane and so Ryanair had to put their fanfare music on hold for a few more days as we touched down in Weeze an hour behind schedule, and more importantly, putting pay to my game at MSV.

I headed direct to Dusseldorf to take in the sights and sounds of their carnival Sunday, with all sorts of characters wandering around pissed early in the afternoon. My favourite was the Britney (the “Oops I did it again” phase) handcuffed to an angel who had no more on that a towel – a marvellous sight and one to stir the interest in the Cologne carnival I would be attending in less than 24 hours.

The fans making their way to the stadium had got into the spirit of things by dressing up as well, There was no actual theme, with characters such as Batman, Pink Panther, Spice Girls and Sir Alan Sugar (well it my just have been a grumpy middle aged man) making an appearance. The other noticable thing was the number of away fans who had made the three hour journey from Hamburg mingling with the Leverkusen fans. A fifteen minute U-Bahn trip deposited me at the awesome LTU Arena, and after a swift body search by a lovely hands on female steward I was tucking into a currywurst and a Alt beer.

Hamburg certainly had brought a fair number of fans, congrogated behind the north goal, and for most of the build up to the match outsinging the home fans. Hamburg, under Martin Jol had come into the game in third place, but knowing that a win would take them top. This is the team managed by the so-called Spurs reject Martin Jol (interesting that the two best leagues in Europe apart from the English is the Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga. And the two best coaches based on current form are? Mr Jol and the man who replaced him at Spurs Juande Ramos, now in charge at Real Madrid), who had also sold their best two midfielders in the first half of the season to Manchester City – Nigel De Jong and Vincent Kompany. DeJong’s transfer was laughable as City paid nearly £17m for his services, yet the release clause in his contract due to kick in in June 2009 would see him available for less than £3m.

Bayer Leverkusen 1 HSV Hamburg 2 – LTU Arena, Dusseldorf, Sunday 22nd February 2009

The LTU Arena

The LTU Arena

The game started with a heavy drizzle settling over the stadium, causing a number of early passes to go astray. Hamburg deployed a 4-4-1-1 formation that caused the Leverkusen back four problems from the first few minutes. The first goal, unsurprisingly came from the visitors as a pull back across the penalty area from Guerro was missed by the Croat Olic, and Jansen took one touch before drilling the ball home from the edge of the penalty area with 19 minutes on the clock. A few minutes later Jensen should have added a second when he pulled his shot wide from a similar position.

There was an undercurrent of nastiness on the pitch that led to a number of yellow cards but on the half hour mark a late challenge by Fredericks from Leverksuen went unchallenged and his low cross was brilliantly turned in by Helmes to level the scores. With time running out in the half, the home team at last started taking the game to Hamburg an where a decent centre forward away form going in in the lead.

At half time I headed down onto the concourse to do my bit for the environment by recycling my beer glass and trying to understand the thinking behind some of the customes people had on. A bear outfit – ok…A seventies outfit complete with huge afro – nice touch…A Boris Becker outfit complete with tennis racket – amusing….A Rudi Voller outfit (turned out it actually was Rudi)…and a Ruud Guillet – complete with blacked up face….Is this racist? even if it isn’t, it was a very strange choice of outfit.

The second half started slowly with few chances in the first fifteen minutes until a Leverkusen freekick flashed just wide on the 55th minute mark. A few minutes later it was the visitors turn to nearly take the lead when Olic took the ball around the keeper but his shot was cleared off the line. Five minutes later they did get their goal when Jensen found himself eiht yards out with the ball falling in front of him and he volleyed in to score his second.

Much as Leverkusen toiled they were no match for the hard working Hamburg team. Even when the visitors were reduced to ten men when Jerome Boeteng was sent off for a second yellow Leverkusen could not create a chance.

So with Hamburg sitting top of the pile, and becoming the fourth team to lead the Bundesliga in 2009 I headed back into Koln for a night of relaxation before those crazy Germans got their hands on me on Monday morning.

Anyone who knows me knows that I do not do wacky. I abhore any event that draws attention to myself in any way apart from a professional light. So anyone walking into the offices of a certain German software company at 9.30am on Monday 23rd February would not believe what they say. Mr Stuart Fuller dressed as a clown, complete with clown make up and a big bowtie. I did however have my second Kölsch beer of the day that was a sweetner to this enforced embarrassment. We had reserved seats at the carnival and arrived there just before midday. The streets were full of every conceivable fancy dress, and it was very good to see the young ladies of the city had really made an effort, and the almost artic conditions meant nothing to them based on the amount of flesh on display. Every few minutes a small glass of Kölsch would appear in my hand, a toast would go up and another beer would slip smoothly down. The parade started at one pm with a marching band and a float, on which middle aged men threw chocolate down on the crowd….Fast forward four fours and the last float drifted past, with a brass band and a middle age man throwing chocolate down – a bit of variation wouldn’t go a miss.

The Germans wanted to party harder and the opening bars of “Hey Baby” in the hospitality tent were enough to send them into raptures, and me back to the hotel, grabbing my kisses (If you have a heart on your cheek that means you want a kiss – I had 2!!) as I went. I counted up my sweets – enough to keep the Little Fuller’s happy, and a bonus 3 bottles of Jägermeifter for my nightcap…I am sure Swansea on Saturday will be just as welcoming to us English.

About the LTU Arena
The futuristic home of little Fortuna Dusseldorf has been built on the site of the historic old Rheinstadion, which was used during Euro88. It actually held nearly 56,000 fans and became synonymous not with soccer but American Football as it was home to one of the success stories of the new defunct World League of American Football. The new stadium was constructed initially with a view to becoming a host venue for the 2006 World Cup in 2002, and opened its doors in May 2004 after a €240m rebuild.

It is certainly futuristic with the multi-coloured seats offering an almost perfect view of the action, a retractable roof and heating below the seats to keep everyone’s legs warm. The stadium inside is very similar to the Millennium stadium although it only has two tiers, separated by a line of executive boxes. The stadium has hosted the national team on a number of occasions the last being in February when Norway were the visitors, as well as the annual pre-season Bundesliga tournament – the DFB Pokal. It is also a favourite for some of the biggest names in music in the world such as Coldplay and Oasis who are playing there this year.

How to get to the LTU Arena
The arena is located in the north west area of the city, on the banks of the River Rhine. The easiest way to get there is to take U-Bahn 78 from the Hauptbahnhof which runs every 10 minutes and takes around 15 minutes. The stadium is located just outside the main doors to the arena and travel is free for match ticket holders 3 hours before and after the game. If you are driving then the stadium is well signposted and parking is plentiful.

How to get a ticket for the LTU Arena
For Bayer Leverkusen matches, tickets can be purchased from their online portal via their home page http://www.bayer04.de or by phone on +41 1805 040404. Alternatively you can buy them from http://www.seatwave.com. Tickets start from €22 for a place in the standing area behind the goal to €42 for a top of the range seat. It is not clear yet what sort of attendances Bayer will get in the bigger arena.