Baku: 2020 vision
In September, along with Wembley, Baku was chosen as a venue for Euro 2020. That’s Baku, capital of Azerbajian. Oil-rich Baku is building a new 68,000-capacity stadium – just as it built a new arena to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012. But beyond the petrodollars, Baku has a footnote in football history – […]
U’s and Blues
Having recently regained League status, Cambridge United host Oxford this Saturday. In footballing terms, the Varsity cities have little rivalry. Beyond the Boat Race and rugby, sporting encounters between their universities lack profile. But 166 years ago, Cambridge students drafted the first rules of football and played by them on Parker’s Piece, a park by […]
Que sera, sera
The Matthews final, Wembley and the white horse, what could be more English than the FA Cup, football’s oldest competition? But among the amateur hopefuls battling in this Saturday’s first qualifying round is a team with a difference. As their name suggests, FC Romania comprise ex-pat Romanians based in Britain. Peterjon Cresswell meets their founder and […]
Curtains up!
This Sunday Chelsea visit Budapest for the prestigious opening of the Groupama Arena, new home of Ferencváros. Peterjon Cresswell takes in the new arena – and provides the background to its €40-million plus construction. On Sunday, the most significant football stadium to be built in Hungary for 60 years officially opens its doors. With […]
Anton’s Angels
Peterjon Cresswell visits Trnava, home of Spartak, a legendary European name of the 1970s. Celebrated at the Central Pub opposite their stadium currently being rebuilt, this Spartak side once took on Cruyff’s Ajax in a European semi-final. On Thursday, Spartak host St Johnstone at Zlate Moravce, a Europa League tie that could lead to best-ever […]
Rebels in arms
Cult football club St Pauli from Hamburg’s Red Light district host Celtic on Saturday. For this friendliest of friendlies, Peterjon Cresswell looks at the relationship between the two sets of fans, built up since the heady days of the early 1990s. As you walk the short distance from Hamburg’s notorious Reeperbahn to the streets […]
Sixty years of hurt
It was 60 years ago this week that Hungary’s Golden Team of Puskás, Bozsik and Kocsis lost the World Cup Final everyone expected them to win. Peterjon Cresswell looks back at the Miracle of Berne, West Germany’s shock 3-2 defeat of the Mighty Magyars in 1954 – and meets historian Tibor Takács, whose recent book […]
Belo Horizonte blues
On Tuesday, England take on Costa Rica in Belo Horizonte. The setting has a certain resonance, for it was in this regional capital of south-eastern Brazil that England suffered their most ignominious defeat the last time the World Cup was held here. Their 1-0 defeat by the USA in 1950 is arguably the biggest shock […]
Blue is the colour
‘Forza Azzurri’ will be the chant ringing round Italy late on Saturday night when Gianluigi Buffon leads out Pirlo, Balotelli and the boys in blue against England. As well as the match, the kit itself will be another focus for collectors such as Emiliano Foglia, whose rare Italian shirts from pre- and post-war World Cups […]