Monthly Archives: May 2009

A round one at the Oval

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 When Twenty20 Cricket was introduced some six years ago to English cricket.  It is now a worldwide cash cow with competitions being played in most cricketing countries, and a World Cup due to start in early June in England.  In the early days virtually every game was sold out although the number of games played was far less than today.  The introduction of the coloured kits, games played under floodlights, music, pitch side dugouts and pizzas and players with mics so that they could chat to the commentators was revolutionary and certainly upset a number of traditionalists.

However they became a great success with the fans, and with the concept of a finals day with the semi-finals and final being played at one ground on one day was a roaring success (although the Oval final in 2006 with a “live” performance from Girls Aloud was a damp squib).  My favourite incident was back in 2006 when in a televised game one county set up a sofa on the boundary for some lucky fans.  A huge hit from one of the batsmen was heading for the boundary but a fielder raced round to try and make the catch.  He jumped but it was just too high for him, but sofa man had anticipated this, run round the boundary and took a one handed diving catch!  Take a bow son!!!

With the Twenty20 World Cup taking up the normal slots in Mid June this years tournament was in two halves.  The weather in May is always hit and miss so it was with some trepidation that the games kicked (or bowled) off on Monday.  The South group had been dubbed the “Group of Death” as Surrey, Kent and Middlesex had been previous winners, and Essex and Hampshire are two of the best one day teams in the country.  The first two rounds of results had seen wins apiece for all of the teams (bar Essex) so the next set of games would be crucial.

Mr Grumble (Joel) was up for this one.  Mr Grumble has worked for me a couple of times and was always the model professional, but he loves a moan – he is a cross between a Carry on shop steward and a barrister – always smartly dressed andvery dapper but not afraid to go on strike (as his girlfriend Jemma told me once!).  He’s had a hard time recently, suffering from the downturn in the economy so it was my job to cheer him up. 

The weather didn’t look good but we were determined to have a good chat, a few beers andwatch a bit of frenetic cricket.  Surrey had a fantastic reputation in the competition, winning the first ever tournament with stars such as Ali Brown (who still holds the one day record score of 176 in a huge 496 for 4 in 50 overs!), Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash and runners up the following season to Leicestershire Foxes. 

Surrey Brown Caps 125-8 beat Hampshire Hawks 124-9 by 1 run – The Oval – Wednesday 27th May 2009
The fine weather from the weekend had headed south to the Med during Wednesday and left us with a cold and rain-threatening evening.  With the Champions League final taking place in Rome, and more importantly in most living rooms up and down the country it was hardly surprising that the crowd failed to break the 5,000 mark – very unusual for a Twenty20 game under the lights at the Oval.

Surrey won the toss and decided to make the most of the light by batting first.  However, their plan came undone on the third ball of the evening as Afzaal was out caught and bowled for zero after facing just two balls.  This coming just forty eight hours after he hit a magnificent 98 not out at Lords against Middlesex which included 8 fours and 2 sixes.  Ramprakash came to the wicket but never really got going, eeking out just eight runs including a huge six before he was smartly stumped.

After this everyone contributed double figures to the score, with Walters top scoringwith 30.  The pick of the wickets was undoubtably the two run outs of Elliott and Speigel but a total of just 125 never seemed enough.  Surrey simply did not findthe boundary enough, with just 52 coming in fours and sixes (7 x 4 and 4 x 6).  Each of the Surrey batsman almost hit a run a ball but that is simply not enough in the Twenty20 game and Hampshire must have fancied their chances despite the natural light fading.

The half time entertainment was the ropey (and cold looking) “Surreyettes” who wandered around the edge of the pitch lobbing T-shirts into the crowd.  They certainly could have auditioned for the old Hammerettes with their 10 pairs of American Tan tights to add “volume” to their skinny legs.  Most fans had disappeared at  this point to the warmth of the concourse where the football was on, and the beer flowed, although those on the Fosters were taking it back at regular intervals as it tasted “disgusting”. How can you differentiate what a good pint of Fosters takes like?  It always tastes disgusting!

With Man Utd 1-0 down in Rome, the sparse crowd cheered on Spriegel as he ran in to open the bowling, and with just his 2nd ball Wilson took a neat stumping to put Hampshire 0-1.   This brought Ervine to the crease and he set about the task at hand with a quick fire 25 off 20 balls to put them ahead of the game.  When Lamb went in the third over Chris Benham came to the crease and along with Carberry put on the first (andonly) fifty partnership of the game.  With half their overs to go Hampshire needed just 55 and had 7 wickets in hand and looked odds on for victory.

But Surrey weren’t finished just yet and Carberry, Benham and Dawson were all removed in a space of two overs for just 5 runs.  The incoming batsmen simply could not play themselves in and three more wickets fell in the next four overs for just 15 runs, meaning that Hampshire needed 16 runs to win with just one wicket left and 8 balls to go.  Anyone who had put money on Surrey at the 10 over mark would now be licking their lips at a very nice pay out.  But nobody told Riazuddin that the game was up and with six balls to go andfourteen needed he set about the task wih two boundaries in the last over.  So with one ball to go Hampshire required 4 runs to win.  It was one boundary too far for them as they could only it the ball to deep mid-wicket for two runs and so Surrey had won a nail bitter. 

It was hardly riveting stuff but the end did give the sparse crowd some warmth in the end.  With Man Utd losing two nil Joel and I headed off in our separate ways for differing nights of pleasure.  Always a pleasure on catching up with Mr Grumble, even if he does has the life of woe!

About the Oval
The first ground in Britain to host a Test Match in 1884 has changed significantly to the 23,000 all seater venue you see today.  The latest addition has been huge floodlights that mean day/night games can be held early and late in the season.  The most recent development saw the building of the huge Alec Stewart Conference Centre and the triple tier OCS Stand at the Vauxhall endof the ground.  The ground also hosted the first ever FA Cup final in 1872 when The Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers. 

It is a magnificent venue for watching cricket anddoesn’t have the same stuffiness as Lords.  When the stadium is full for Englandgames or the “local derby” in the Twenty20 games versus Kent the atmosphere is second to none.  The famous landmark on the west side, the Gasometer is due to be demolished in late 2009 andto be replaced witha new stand.

How to get to the Oval
The ground is located close to the centre of London and is well served by local transport.  The nearest tube is Oval on the Northern line which is 200 yards from the main entrance.  Vauxhall, both tube and train is a 5 minute walk to the north.  Buses run past the stadium from Victoria on a regular basis.

How to get a ticket for the Oval
Tickets will depend on the game being played.  For the vast majority of Surrey games you can pay on the door.  Normally a couple of Twenty20 games will sell out in advance (Middlesex and Kent).  Tickets for one day games are £20 and can be purchased from the online store.  Tickets for normal championship games start from £10.  For test matches and One day England games go on sale via ballot in the January before via the website as well although the prices start from £60.

Coming soon…..The End of Season TBIR Awards

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At the end of May the TBIR team will be sitting down and deciding on the winners of the coverted TBIR gongs.  This is the first year we have held the ceremony, likely to be at the Market Porter in Borough Market and excitement is at fever pitch.  The awards will be:-

Best (and Worst) Away Day in 2008/09
Morecambe, Napoli, Lewes and Stockholm could in the running for this one…

Best (and Worst) Home Support and Atmosphere in 2008/09
Some might say West Ham, some might say Alfreton Town.  Others would bet it was Grays….but for best or worst?

Best (and Worst) Away Support Atmosphere in 2008/09
AFC Wimbledon, Telford United, Wigan Athletic or Orebro….only the panel can decide!

Best (and Worst) New Stadium visited in 2008/09
We visited 50 new stadiums in 2008/09 so quite a choice on this one….

Funniest moment in 2008/09
This will be the hardest to chose….perhaps Upson’s striptease against Liverpool, or my toothache in Seville…..

 

 

Greed is good, but tackiness is better

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Football clubs – don’t you just love the way they try and squeeze every little penny out of their fans.  I am not going to drone on about the cost of tickets (£615 for my season ticket since you asked) or Programmes (£3.50 I think but I haven’t bought one for so long I cannot be sure) or the ridiculous cost of buying food and drink in the stadium (a coke and a bar of chocolate is £3.00!).  Oh no – I thought I would have a look at the subtle marketing –  The “Club Shop Effect”.  This principal is being adopted the world over, by football clubs big and small in an attempt to make fans feel that they are no “true fans” because they do not have the latest branded items.

West Ham have become a global player – no seriously.  Two seasons ago when they signed their kit deal with Umbro they make a decision not to sell any replica kit outside of the two official channels (the club shops or the internet) and thus increase the “scarcity” of the brand as they put it.  Of course they were concerned with the rising costs of the kits, and “would ensure that fans would be buying a quality product at affordable prices”.  Twelve months later they had changed both the home and the away kit.  West Ham claimed that they had always said this was their intention, but they had broke their own Customer Charter buy not clearing stating this was a kit for the 2007/08 season only.  I can take credit for getting this approach changed as in long discussions with the Finance Director, Nick Igoe, he agreed that the tagging of the shirts was not clear they were only a one season wonder.  So from July 2008 they launched a new home and away kit, clearly tagged as ONLY for the 2009/10 season.  So in less than a year they had launched 4 shirts.

Worse was to come in September 2008 when shirt sponsors XL went bust.  The club immediately stopped sporting the shirt with the XL logo and instead stuck a patch over the top of the old logo and then managed to get permission to play with a squad number in its place.  But not for the fans!  Oh no..according to Mr Igoe the “demand from the fans for the old shirt is still high” and so they continued to sell it at FULL PRICE whilst publically stating they were in active discussions with a new sponsor.  Two months later a deal had been done with an unheard of Asian betting company called SBOBET and their names adorned the new shirts.  However, in a pang of guilt the club realised that they couldn’t market a shirt with a betting company on to under 16′s and so they hastily did a deal with the Bobby Moore Cancer Trust charity for their logo.

The new away shirt

The new away shirt

Any fans who had bought the old shirt – tough.  You could always buy another one or simply look “outdated”.  In May 2009 the club leaked the new away shirt design.  Very fitting with Middlesborough’s impending relegation from the Premier League that we appear to have bought their old stock of shirts and simply “rebadged them”.  Rebadging now there is a thought….remember that the club refused to discount the old stock with XL on the front….well the reason being is that the current shirts with the SBOBET and Bobby Moore logos on are simply the old shirts with XL on with thick new logos on…brilliant marketing ploy!  So they could have simply sold the new sponsors logos as an iron on patch (which is after all all they do when they put them on) but instead sold a whole new kit – making it 6 kits in 18 months….and with the launch of 2 new kits this summer the total rises to 8 in 2 years.  Who ever said that football clubs were greedy!

Sunday was Lolly’s birthday.  It was also the final day of the Premier League season so I had agreed to let her spend some of her birthday money in the club shop.  Being West Ham mad is fine up until you visit the “megastore”.  I haven’t been here for a season or two and was shocked when I came back yesterday.  You now have to queue for 10 minutes to get in.  They have made the shop much bigger by getting rid of the museum which used to be a fascinating stroll through our history (and had a very scary animotronix talking Glenn Roeder head in it!) and putting in a queuing system Walt Disney would be proud of before you got to one of the fifteen tills (!).

I wandered around looking at some of the bizarre items that they had in there AND that people were actually buying.  So here for your reading pleasure are the top 10 naff items I saw on sale.  Feel free to click on the links for more details, or if you are tempted to buy:-

The toaster!

The toaster!

1. The West Ham United Official Toaster.  Designed to burn WHU on all of your toasting requirements.  Many thanks to Ben Drland for the picture….

2. The West Ham United Official Musical Beer Opener.  Plays a chorus of “Bubbles” when you open your beer;

3. The West Ham United Official “Grow Your Own Pitch”.  Yes for just £20 (or £19.99 if you buy online!) you gt a small tin, with a picture of the stand and some grass seed to grow your own patch of Upton Park;

4. The West Ham United Official Mini Gnome.  Perfect for your caravan;

5. The Official Freddie Ljunberg “Dynamic” Print.  1. It is horrible,  2. He left over a year ago, 3. He’s wearing a shirt branded XL and 4. It is against the trade descriptions act to put the words Ljunberg and dynamic in the same sentence!  All for just a £10!

6.  The Official West Ham United Sock Gift Set. Complete in a presentation box no less;

7.  The Official West Ham United Belly Button Body Bar. All the rage in Magaluf this year apparently;

8. The Official West Ham United sweet bag.  Due to its “perishable” nature only for sale in the club shop and only three times the price as those for sale in the shop 100 yards down the road.

9.  No list would be complete without the Official West Ham United Suspender and Garter Belt gift pack.  Unfortunately not available on the internet but only to personal callers.  Available in XL (of course) as well as a matching set of underwear saying that the lady in question as “Scored at Upton Park”.  No that is not a hard thing to do (unless you are Diego Tristan or David Di Michele) judging by the quality on show.

10. And finally, the West Ham United Official Doors.  You can only buy these in the shop itself so no link here I am afraid.  Yes for just £99 per door you can have the picture of James Collins, Mark Noble and Lucas Neill gurning at you in your bedroom or bathroom.  A truly world class item!

And who says football clubs are trying to fleece the fans?  Interestingly enough in the early days of our Icelandic take over, the club appointed a Director of Retail who was going to oversee the complete restructure of our operations.  Five years ago the club had shops at Lakeside, Bluewater, Southend, Chelmsford and two at West Ham but closed them as relegation hit.  Now the operation is a multi-million pound concern and long gone are the days of queuing in the portakabins in the West Stand car park to get your latest shirt.  Oh how we long for those commercial-free days.

West Ham United 2 Middlesborough 1 – Upton Park – Sunday 24th May 2009 4pm
The maths for the visitors were simple.  Win, and only then could they look at results elsewhere.  The maths for the home team were also simple(ish).  Win, score goals, hope Spurs lost and Liverpool scored goals and we might just sneak 8th on goal difference.  The signs were promising when the line ups were announced as we had Carlton Cole and Jack Collison back.  Twelve months ago the inclusion of Cole in the line up would have been greeted with moans.  Now it heralded the biggest cheers of the day, none more so than from Lolly as he is her favourite player.

West Ham started well and the inclusion of Collison (recently voted Wales’s 35th best looking man for all you ladies out there!) game the team some penetration.  But the star of the last month Boa Morte was the driving force.  Quite what Zola had said to him back in March is unknown but since then he has been magnificent and the watching Portuguese manager Carlos Quiroz can only have been impressed by what he saw.

It was only a matter of time before the first goal came.  Junior Stanislas (another academy youngster who has made his place on the left his own in recent weeks in Collison and Behrami’s absence) beat his man, pulled the ball across the six yard box and Carlton Cole smashed the ball home.  Surely an England recall (after all they owe him that as he was injured playing for them!) is a given now?

Boro’ did come out in the second half and make a fight of it with O’Niell’s carbon copy goal in the second half but West Ham always looked like winners and Stanislas capped off another impressive display with a low shot that Jones should have stopped but it ended up in the net to make it 2-1.  It was time to take off our two returning stars and bring on Hapless and Clueless aka Tristan and Di Michele.  If you ever wanted to know why West Ham’s Europa League challenge faded then here is the answer.  Tristan can occasionally produce something but with a turning circle as wide as a jumbo it is only the poorest of defences who are fooled (step forward Aston Villa and Stoke City).  The Italian meanwhile has been appalling since his one decent hour in a West Ham shirt against Newcastle in September when he scored two goals.  These two between them contributed just seven goals this season – nearly as many as Dean Ashton in his two hours of football.

So the final whistle blew and Middlesborough were down.  Some consolation is that they will be joined by Newcastle United but they can look at their away record with twelve consecutive defeats as the prime reason – not even Stoke could match that!

The final act of the season was the Player of the Year awards.  Goal of the Season came from Carlton Cole, a unanimous choice for his strike against Wigan Athletic (excuse the poor quality but available here to see). Most improved player was Junior Stanislas, Young Player of the Year was Jack Collison.  A special mention has to go to Tony Carr, the academy director who not only developed talent such as Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick but this season has seen James Tompkins, Jack Collison, Freddie Sears, Junior Stanislas, Zavron Hines, Kyel Ried, Josh Payne and of course Mark Noble all play a part in the first team set up – in fact in the game two weeks ago versus Liverpool we finished the game with 5 such under 21 players on the pitch – stand up and take a bow Mr Carr!

The Hammer of the Year is a great honour and is voted for by the fans.  The three previous winners have been Danny Gabbidon (still at West Ham apparently although he hasn’t played for nearly two years), Carlos Tevez (still owned by us if you believe Sheffield United fans) and Robert Green.  Green was one of the favourites again, although history was not on his side as it had been nearly twelve years since someone had won it in successive seasons (Julian Dicks won it four times including two consecutive seasons), along with Carlton Cole, Illunga and Behrami.  But its was our injured (surprise, surprise) midfield dynamo Scottie Parker who scooped the award, with Robert Green taking second spot.  Surely an England cap can’t be too far behind for Scott?  Or is Capello going to have one more go at putting Barry, Gerard and Lampard into the same midfield?

And that was it….the players walked around the pitch in T-Shirts with “Irons” on in honour of Scunthorpe’s victory over Millwall in the play offs I imagine.  We played the usual “who won’t be here next season game”, with Lucas Neill leading the race closely followed by Matthew Upson.  Results hadn’t gone our way on Merseyside and we finished 3 goals behind Spurs (I am sure they will still get the T-Shirts printed though of this great season where they were London’s 4th best team) but 9th was a good finish.  If only Ashton would have been fit….If only Zola would have started the season with us….If only Cole, Behrami and Collison wouldn’t have been injured in the space of a week and if only we would have not brought in Hapless and Clueless….Still there is always next year to listen to our Spurs friends talk up their Champions League aspirations and see them settle for mid-table mediocrity.

Boca’s, Barras and Bloody good fun….

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Paul Whitaker has provided another excellent article on his travels to Argentina.  Read the full article on our Guests page or by clicking here.

Why Watch Football in Argentina

For me three reasons automatically spring to mind …….Diego Armando Maradona……

1 Maradona 1982 Pannini

If  Maradona is still not reason enough to watch football matches in Argentina, then what about the fact that there are more football stadiums in Buenos Aires than any other city in the world?. Within a train , taxi or bus ride of your hostel/hotel in central Buenos Aires you have a choice of watching a match at twelve of Argentina’s major football clubs: Argentinos Juniors , Arsenal , Banfield , Boca Juniors , Huracan , Independiente , Lanus , Racing Club , River Plate , San Lorenzo , Tigre and Velez Sarsfield.

2 Maradona 1986 Pannini

Did you know that the television and football bodies in Argentina have conspired to assist football tourists wanting to attend as many matches in Buenos Aires as possible?. With Argentinian league fixtures spread out over the Friday , Saturday and Sunday, you have the opportunity of not only attending 2 to 3 football matches over a typical weekend, but with staggered kick -off times between 5-9pm, it is possible to attend two football matches in one day!. If live football on Friday , Saturday and Sunday is not enough for you, you can always check to see if any of the twelve clubs are playing any Copa Libertadores fixtures (South American Champions League!) between Tuesday to Thursday.

3 Maradona 1990 PanniniThe Argentinian Primera Division continues to showcase the latest batch of young players who have both the technical skill and natural flair to follow the likes of Carlos Tevez (Manchester United), Fernando Gago (Real Madrid) , Leo Messi (Barcelona) and Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli) to the promised land of European club football.

  

4 Maradona 1994 PanniniHave you ever been to the English Premier League’s showpiece stadiums like the Emirates or Old Trafford and come away disappointed with the atmosphere?. Then rediscover how football should be supported, by leaving your valuables at the hostel/hotel and diving (not literally) into a packed argentinian football terrace on matchdays. Any matches between the so-called ‘big five’ of Boca, Independiente , Racing , River and San Lorenzo can be classed as classicos. Also, keep an eye out for San Lorenzo v Huracan and Lanus v Banfield elsewhere in Buenos Aires and Newells Old Boys v Racing Central in Rosario (the best derby in the provinces). These fixtures apparently guarantee fire works on and off the pitch. Tickets to most of these matches begin at the distinctly un-english premiership price of £6-10. The cheap prices continue outside the stadium, where a post match steak dinner, away from tourist areas will set you back about £6-10. Try and match that in a European capital city!

Ny grund , samma historie

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For those of you who slept through O-Level Swedish (showing my age there – anyone under the age of 30 will assume O-levels are services offered by call girls and escorts)  you may not know that the above means “New ground, same story” and that sums up the history of Malmo FF in recent times.  Last season they looked like they may break the mid table mediocrity for a period in the summer, but in the end 6th place was a disappointment.  I had visited the lovely little town on the other side of the bridge from Copenhagen twice before (See my posts from last season here and there ) but since then they had built a spanking new stadium, and sold the naming rights accordingly.

The city is a favourite of mine and with the sun shining it was a perfect after work destination.  Paul Kilduff in his very funny book “Ruinair” (available from all good bookshops and Amazon) sums it up by saying “The Swedish Government must pay citizens to walk around their cities looking cool and attractive.  Everyone here strolls.  No one is in a hurry.  No one needs to wear a suit.  No one has a meeting to het to.  No one seems to work.  Many Swedes retire at the age of twenty five to work full time on their image and grooming.”

There is very little I can write about Malmo and the Swedes that hasn’t been mentioned before.  The Scandinavians as a whole are a great bunch but put them all together and they get a bit bitchy.  I asked my Facebook chums to give me some ideas for this post and why they like Sweden.  So I present to you the top 15 reasons for loving Sweden based on my circle of friends perceptions:-

1. They think that Ikea is their “home in the countryside” - but not on a weekend or bank holiday (also avoid the 99p breakfast as it is rank);

2. They wait for every red pedestrian crossing light to change to green even if there hasn’t been any cars passing for days, or the road has actually been closed;

3. They are racked with guilt for days if they put a bit of rubbish in the wrong recycling bin;

4. The Eurovision Song Contest is the nearest they get to armed combat and defeat to local neighbours (such as this year’s when Norway ran away with it) can topple governments;

5. They consider it normal to make a trip to a special government store that is only open in daylight hours (so essentially closed for 3 months of the year!) to buy a bottle of wine, and frown on those who go to supermarkets such as “Eastenders”;

6. They would never ever board any type of public transport without a valid ticket, even though the Government has made all ticket inspectors redundant because nobody ever flauts this rule;

7. There are less blondes who are really Swedes in Sweden than there is in Essex;

8. You consider it perfectly normal to get wasted and dance around a giant penis symbol in the ground every summer;

9. They have not got a clue what a Swedish Massage is.  If you ever end up in a situation where you are asked “what can I do for you?” never ask for one as it will almost certainly end in serious pain;

10. Apparently a direct translation of the word “vegetables” means “green things”;

11. The two political parties in the 18th century were called “hats” and the “beanies”…bet they didn’t fiddle their expenses!

12. Swedes used to drive on the left hand side of the road like us Brits until 5am on the 3rd September 1967…

13. The tallest residential building in the European Union can be found in Malmo (apparently) and is called the Turning Torso.  The apartments are the most sort after properties in Sweden simply because very few are ever put up for sale.

14. Is an apt number as there have been 14 different songs by Swedish artists that have reached number one in the UK single charts….Abba provided 9 so who provided the rest?  For the answer click here.

15. And finally, they do not understand the concept of “going for a quick beer”.  They either drink to get seriously drunk, or they are driving;

The Swedbank Stadion was constructed in the “back yard” of the old ground (quite literally) and opened to a great fanfar in April 2009 when the visitors were Orgryte.  The crowd that day was 23,347 proving that the club could still attract a decent support.  Since then, crowds have fallen back to the level they saw at the old stadium, which is a disappointment, and the team have yet to find their feet, coming into this game in 6th place some 5 points behind leaders Elfsborg.

Everyone seemed to be on their bike for this one.  Arriving at the Central Station with thirty minutes to go before kick off I expected hordes of Swedes on the beer waiting around for buses to the stadium.  Instead I found dozens of beautiful people stripped down and ready for a bit of sunbathing.  There was no football fans around, yet shuttle buses had been laid on.  It became apparent when the Green buses, both in terms of the actual colour and the environmental aspect (you can check your emissions for the journey on the Malmo transportations website and what you can do to offset it!) arrived at the old stadium and you were nearly run over by the thousands of bicycles descending on the ground.

And what a (building) site it was.  Nothing on the outside of the stadium has been finished.  With just three weeks until the start of the UEFA Under 21′s tournament when Sweden take on Belarus here there needs to be some serious work put in as well as major overtime to get the area around the stadium ready.  Holes, exposed cabling, bricks and sand all added to the impression of a South African World Cup stadium.

Inside it was a different story.  Everything was ready although the idea of having 1 person with a bar code scanner on a gate does leave them open for the “English 5 minutes before kick off rush”.  Inside I headed straight for the bar for a not so cheap but well deserved beer.  As you will remember from my previous visits you will know that the beer was unacoholic which was ok, but they had changed the rules to stop people drinking in sight of the pitch for some really strange reason.

The stadium has certainly been designed differently.  They could have gone to “Stadiums ‘r’ us” and bought the plans for St Mary’s, Walkers Stadium, The New Den etc but instead have gone for something a bit different.  The Arena was two tier on three sides, with the lower tier being much bigger than the upper version.  Behind the north goal was the terrace, and home of the Malmo hardcore fans.  Instead of two tiers there was one steep set of terrace steps, topped off by some offices that overlooked the pitch.  The fans congregated here, enjoying the warm evening sunshine.

Malmo FF 0 Orebro 0 – The Swedbank Stadion – Wednesday 20th May 2009 7pm

The Swedbank Stadion

The Swedbank Stadion

So what can I say?  The scoreline sums up the game and most of the 12,166 people in the stadium would have had a nice snooze in the sunshine by the time the referee blew for full time.  Chances were few and far between once the game kicked off and it had the feeling of a pre-season friendly.  So what could I tell you about the game?  Well for starters the game had the smallest linesman ever.  He was so small that the corner flags towered over him when he stood there.

The other interesting one was the sponsorship options displayed from Orebro.  On the bums of their shorts they had NA clearly displayed.  When I showed the picture to CMF later she immediately said “nice ass” although I am not sure she was referring to what the letters stood for or the actual players “assets”.

So there we go – a lovely sunny day, surrounded by lovely people spoilt by a dull game of football.  New ground, same story!

About the Swedbank Stadion
Built at a cost of 580SEK (around £48m) the new 24,000 seater Malmo stadium will proudly open and close the UEFA Under21′s championships this summer.  It looks very similar to the new Gamla Ullevi in Goteborg which in turn took its inspiration from the Brondby stadium across the water.   However, the unique feature is the single tier of terracing behind the north end where the Malmo fans congregate.  The concourses are wide and refreshments are available freely.

How to get to the Swedbank Stadion
The new stadium is located behind the old one in the south of the city.  Shuttle buses run from the station from two hours before the game, and wait outside after.  Alternatively it is a 30 minute walk through the park to the stadium, or Bus Line 3 which takes around 20 minutes.  Or of course you could do what the locals do and cycle!

Getting a ticket for the Swedbank Stadion
Tickets can be bought and printed at home fromTicnet which is the Swedish arm of Ticketmaster.  Ticket prices range from 80SEK (around £7) for a standing place on the Falcon terrace, 180SEK (£15) for a seat in the lower tiers of the PEAB and South stands to 250SEK (£21) for the best seat in the house in the upper tiers.  They can also be purchased on the day of the game from branches of Swedbank in and around Malmo and the ticket office at the stadium.  So far since opening the club have averaged 16,000 with a sell out in their first ever game here.  Therefore tickets for the majority of games are available on the door.

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