It's not just us who go on European Football Weekends, you're all at it! Send us your EFW photos and we'll publish them here - simple. Click on any photo to enlarge the image
Other European Countries:
Now this is a trip I really would love to have been on. EFW starlet Stephane Lievens went with 10 or so Belgian fans to the Bosnia-Herzegovina v Belgium at the Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica.
The match was not great (Belgium lost 2-1) but the trip was superb. Sound familiar!?
Lievens remembered the EFW floodlight obsession despite the fact that because there were so few Belgian fans at the game, the police just stuck them in with the home fans. Health and safety not high on the Bosnia-Herzegovina agenda obviously.
Our man also took the opportunity to see the sights eg the Grbavica stadium, home to FK Zeljeznicar in Sarajevo....
....which has a couple of fantastic old (partly wooden) stands. But that's not the best thing is it!? Oh no.......
....because they have a locomotive that stands proudly on the terraces of the Grbavica! (There is a God - Ed). Zeljeznicar means "railway workers" and the club was founded by...railway workers!
And Stephane got onto the pitch in true EFW tradition. Full marks there lad.
He didn't declare there. On he went to Sarajevo's Olympic Stadium, or Koseva Stadium, or Asim Ferhatovic-Hase Stadium seen here from the new gigantic cemetery with the graves of many victims of the 92-95 war...
...which is the home of FK Sarajevo...
...whose pitch Lievens got onto. Fantastic stuff mate and next time invite the EFW team will you!? For more photos of his trip, check out the photo section on the
EFW Facebook site.
EFW regular Stephan Harris sports a cheeky grin that says "three games of football in Turkey for me thanks very much". Here he is at Fenerbache....
....and surviving another 'visit to hell' at Besiktas.
Harris then completed his Turkish hatrick with a trip out the suburbs to the Mimar Yahya Bas Stadi to see Gungoren Beladiye Spor v Adanaspor in the Turkish Lig 1.
More Greek action from our Italian/Greek friends Giorgio &
Iraklis. Action from the
Levadiakos v
PAOK match which took place on Valentines Day - looks like some of the lads treated their wives to a nice day out eh!?
PAOK won 3-0 and the two photos above show their away following which is nothing other than really impressive.
You can read more about the
Levadia Stadium
here and in fact there a rather splendid website on all Greek
Stadia here.
Hotter than Greece! These have just arrived at
EFW Towers courtesy of
Iraklis and Giorgio. They are from the
PAOK v
Xanthi match (13/12/08).
Not sure about you but I'm booking flights soon.
PAOK won 1-0 in the
Toumba Stadium. According to a recent survey, 9% of all active football fans in Greece support
PAOK. I'd like to have conducted that survey.
It's derby time in Istanbul. These photos have just arrived from Alain who is a Royal Antwerp fan from Belgium.
Alain was lucky enough to see
Fenerbahce thrash
Galatasaray 4-1 (09:11:08). The atmosphere was "relentless".
The visiting
Galatasary fans in the top right hand corner.
Here's Alain (left) with his mate.
Brighton fan Mark standing outside the
Dinamo Stadion, Minsk prior to the World Cup qualifier between Belarus and England (15:10:08). Promising floodlights, lets take a closer look.
Who wouldn't want to be the first one in the ground when you've got those beauties to stare at all afternoon!?
nb the
floodies not Mark.
The ground is home to Dynamo Minsk.
Oh my God!
For the first time ever, I'm almost speechless. If you've seen better floodlights than these, please let me know.
Just to round it all off, they have a brilliant scoreboard. Oh and England won 3-1.
Our first Greek offering was worth waiting for. The
Diagoras Stadium home to Greek Division 3 club
Rodos FC sent in by Giorgio &
Spiros. A great effort by the fans here, nice deep nets and a quality floodlight. Ticks all my boxes.
Are all Greek Divsion Three games like this!? I jolly well hope so.
PGN 'in amongst the action' in Stockholm (Solna) for Sweden's World Cup qualifier with Portugal. I am loving that picture mate!
Andy went to Skopje in Macedonia to see Scotland get beaten. He had to sneak into the home end.
As usual the Tartan Army turned out in force, made friends with everybody and many of them are no doubt are still out there running bars etc etc
This photos comes in from the delightfully named Patrick Van
Puyenbroeck (Royal Antwerp fan from Belgium). He has been to over 100 games abroad and this was his best. The
Wisla Krakow v
Cracovia local derby at the
Wisla Stadium.
Scenes outside the
Viktoria Stadion in Prague ahead of the
Viktoria Zizkov v
Hralec Kralove fixture in March 2007. A scrabble players dream.
Step forwards and take a bow
Anorthosis Famagusta FC of Cyprus for this beauty of a stand and hats at a jaunty angle to 'Simple
Pieman' who saw Spurs play there in the
UEFA Cup (Oct 07).
Simple
Pieman also saw Spurs away to SC
Braga in Portugal at the
Estadio AXA. Those fans behind the goal look rock hard. (Yellow card for that comment - Ed).
Malcolm from
Horley went to see
Msida v
Tarxien at the National Stadium, Malta (Aug 08). All ten Premier League teams in Malta play at this stadium. It's a
groundhoppers nightmare.
There is a small light at the end of the tunnel. Opposite the new ground is the old 'Centenary Stadium' and occasionally when it's wet they pop across and play here.
Inside the National Stadium and
Msida v
Tarxien has clearly caught the imagination of the Maltese public.
They play one game on Friday and two each on both Saturday and Sunday. It'll set you back just 8 Euros to see two games in a day. Good old European football eh!?
Hello to you! Three knocks on the back door and (allegedly) you are through to the Maltese FA headquarters. This my friends, constitutes a 'magic door' and you'll find all stadiums have them. Inside, Narnia type delights and adventures often occur.
Besiktas v
FC Kosice in the
UEFA Cup anyone!? Yes please! Thanks to Mark (Brighton fan) who attended this game in his flares.
Grant (Brighton fan) braved the Bosnia v Croatia International in Sarajevo in September and took these images on his mobile phone.
The match
finished 5-3 to Croatia but was unfortunately marred by fighting before, during and after the match. It's always the games you least expect.
Part 1 of a Stuart Fuller trilogy. Stuart regularly travels to see B
rondby and he took this photo of their fans engaging in some serious flag action at the woefully named B
rondby Stadium.
Part 2 - The M
aksimir Stadium, home of D
inamo Zagreb. Taken in Oct 06 during the Croatia v England European Championships qualifying match.
Part 3 - Our man Fuller appears to have sneaked into a F
erencvaros training session in Budapest at the S
tadion Albert Florian. Mental note to self; if through on goal in one on one situation away to F
erencvaros, slip ball through keepers legs.
Our Swedish friend Per-G
unnar nipped across the border into Denmark for the B
rondy v F
C Copenhagen grudge match (Aug 08). Fair play to local derbies in D
enners - a non stop barrage of noise according to the PG m
eister.
Dutch fans in stadium with fancy skyline - tick. Stuart Fuller (West Ham fan) took this masterpiece at the Stade de Suisse, Berne during Holland 3 Italy 0 at Euro 2008.
Another Fuller original - a splendid photo of the ghastly named 'Red Bull Arena' in Salzburg. Taken in June during the Greece 0 Sweden 2 Euro 2008 funfest.
Roland from Belgium (Royal Antwerp fan) and his mate outside the Idrottsparken Stadium, about to indulge themselves in the IFK Norrkoping v GAIS Gothenburg fixture. Roland regularly travels from Belgium to Sweden for EFWs.
Martin & Andy Green (Brighton fans) look a little sheepish minutes after playing one of our all time
EFW favourite games 'lets see if we can get on the pitch' at The Stadium of Light,
Benfica.
Wolves fan Tim's picture of the FC Zurich fans at the UEFA Cup tie in the Spartan Stadium, home to Sparta Prague (Oct 2007).
Motherwell fan Andy took this one of the Tartan Army in Prague.
He also followed his team to the market town of
Abtenau near
Salzburg, Austria for some
pre-season action.
The
Motherwell fans had their very own executive box.
Fully '
scarved up' at Austria v Scotland in Vienna.
The
Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz before Liechtenstein v Sweden.
Asian Football Weekends anyone!? Our mate Pat from Belgium did just that - well more of a Asian Football Month really. He kicked off at Kapten i Wayan Dipta Stadium in Gianyar Bali, Indonesia.
It was the home to Bali Persegi FC but they've since gone bankrupt and have stopped playing. Shame.
He then popped into the Shah Alam Stadium 15 miles outside of Kuala Lumpur. It is home to the Sengalor FA and was opened in 1994 when a Senglaor FA selection team attracted the might of Dundee United over for the opening. I guess Motherwell were fully booked up that night!?
Here's our man! This time at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur. It holds just the 100,000 and is the 8th largest stadium in the world.
The Malaysian national team play here and so of course did Gwen Stefani on her 'The Sweet Escape Tour' - what a night that must have been.
Pat then went to a Malaysian Division 1 match (Mmm...). He saw the delightfully named My Team FC lose 0-1 to Pahang FA in front of 300 lucky punters.
You could hear the sound of the local mosque echoing around the stands.
It was played at the Stadium MBPJ Petaling Jaya. I'll be asking questions later so I hope you are jotting all this down!?
Lastly, (boo - Ed) Pat headed to a match in the Malaysian Division 2. He saw Felda Utd lose to Johor in front of around 200 fans at the Bola Sepak Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.
Thanks for sharing your Asian Football adventures with us Pat! You can see and read more at Pat's Football and Travel blog.
Stephen Harris is another chap who's had the Buenos Aires football experience. It has to be the world's number 1 city for football!?
Stephen attended the Huracan v San Lorenzo match which was actually played at Boca Juniors ground. The crowd was restricted to 23,000 because of security risks which also meant there was a staggering 1,100 police on duty for the match. As it was the game got abandoned not because of crowd trouble but due to a heavy downpour.
The post match scenes. Have you ever seen owt like it our kid!?
Here's our man posing with the Boca Juniors.
Not strictly speaking European but who gives a rats when it's Boca Juniors v River Plate!? Click on the above image to enlarge it and take note of the trillion fans packed in behind the goal.
These photos were sent in by Tom (Brighton fan) who used some of the following to describe his match day experience at the Estadio Alberto J Aramando "Amazing, stunning, crazy, best ever".
Without too much care for his own personal safety, Tom opted to go in the 'away end' with the River Plate fans.
Here is Tom. We salute you sir! Boca Juniors v River Plate should be on everyone's CV.
Post match scenes outside the stadium. I for one was shocked to see Che Guevara make an appearance.
Forget Europe - Bristol City fan Dave took his wife to the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. Does life get any better!? (no - Ed)
Dave again the Home Depot Centre, Carson City, Los Angeles for the LA Galaxy v Columbus Crew game in July 2007. It was just prior to the arrival of our Becks.
