“With Syria drawing against Iran to book a place in the World Cup qualifying play-offs against Australia on 5 October and their home fixtures scheduled to take place at the Hang Jebat Stadium, Malaysia (roughly 7,660km from Damascus as the crow flies) where they have already played some qualifiers, I was wondering has any team played a home fixture further away from their natural home?” asks Chris Allen.
Well Chris, the first team that sprung to mind was Shakhtar Donetsk who, after the 2014 conflict in east Ukraine, were forced into exile, playing their home fixtures many miles away in Lviv. But a quick calculation of that distance has it at a paltry 1,062km. Mind you, for a club with a healthy local following, that’s a fair old schlep. There are international teams who have played home games further from home (which we’ll get on to in a bit) but there is a club who have travelled further for a competitive “home” match. Step forward Anzhi Makhachkala who, while being bankrolled by billionaire Suleyman Kerimov in 2013, played competitive games 1,554km away at Saturn Stadium, in Ramenskoye, on the outskirts of Moscow after Uefa banned the club from hosting European fixtures in Dagestan because of political turmoil. Can any club side beat that? Do let us know.
If we’re sticking with international football, it’s also worth noting that Syria have played World Cup qualifiers in Seeb, Oman but at 2,884km from Damascus it doesn’t surpass the Hang Jebat Stadium in Malaysia in distance. But the World Cup qualifying underdogs would need to collect even more air miles to beat a couple of east Asian contenders for the far-flung ‘home’ game crown.
Here’s Andre Zlotkowski to take up the story: “During the 1978 World Cup qualifiers, Taiwan gave up the right to play at home and ended up playing both matches against New Zealand in Auckland. The match on 23 March 1977 was the designated ‘home’ fixture for Taiwan and they lost 6-0. (The first match, played three days before also ended up being a 6-0 win for New Zealand). The distance from Taipei to Auckland is 8,845km. Sadly, Taipei missed out on setting a record here by only 13 days. On 10 March 1977 Japan played their ‘home’ fixture against Israel in Ramat Gan, located 9,151km from Tokyo. Japan ended up losing 2-0 in both matches at this venue in four days.”
So far, so good … but not good (or far) enough. It’s no surprise that Brazil, perhaps the most marketable team in international football, have put more miles on the clock than any other team to play a “home” fixture. “In recent years Scotland have played two away friendlies in London, one against Nigeria (2014, Craven Cottage) and the other Brazil (2011, Emirates Stadium),” writes Jamie Harrold. “By my calculations Lagos to London is 5,018km as the crow flies, so not far enough away, but Rio to London is 9,287km.” But the Seleção have ventured further. Here’s Neil Golightly: “If we assume Brazilian football’s home is Rio, they have in recent years played friendlies (as the notional home team) against Argentina in Melbourne (13,221 km) and Japan in Singapore (15,743 km) but the furthest flung appears to be the 15 October 2013 game between Brazil and Zambia in Beijing, 17,343km from Rio. The furthest possible point on Earth from Rio is 20,020km away but since that’s somewhere in the middle of the Philippine Sea it’s unlikely the Seleção will be playing there any time soon.”
Widely shared stadiums
“I recently found myself perusing this page (come on, we’ve all been there) and noticed that 13 out of the 28 teams in Malta’s top two divisions all play at the same stadium (the Victor Tedesco),” notes Michael St John-McAlister. “That’s 46.43% of teams. And in Malta’s Division 2 (their third tier), seven out of 13 teams play at the Sirens stadium (that’s 53.8461538461538%, but I’ll let you off with 53.8%). Can any other leagues or divisions match that for teams sharing a stadium? (And let’s say a division has to have a minimum of 12 teams or a two-tier league has to have a minimum of 28 teams – none of those tiny islands with two teams and one stadium).”
“It is well worth noting that only a handful of clubs own their stadium outright in Malta, and that there is no such thing as a ‘home’ stadium here in the traditional sense of the word,” notes Mark Muscat. “For each of Maltese football’s four tiers (and both of the sister island Gozo’s two tiers), there are three to four stadiums used in each competition. Matches are then assigned to different stadiums depending on big-match or big-team status and they are usually played back-to-back at the same stadium and concurrently in separate stadiums if need be. You could have two ‘home’ games in a row at Stadium A, followed by three ‘home’ games at Stadium B, and multiple variations thereof. For example, see the fixtures for the next two weeks in the second tier. Sirens will have had three games in a row at the Victor Tedesco Stadium, one of which is at home and two are away. Qrendi will have played three games in a row at the Centenary, one of which they were at home and one away, and followed by a home game at the Centenary. And so on and so forth. There is no such thing in Maltese football as a ‘home’ stadium, just a ‘home’ team in the sense of them being placed on the left of the match details.”
Harry Catharell-Hargreaves moves us along to Gibraltar, but … “while it doesn’t quite meet your criteria, from memory every team in the top two tiers of the Gibraltar pyramid (19 teams and therefore every team recognised by the GFA) play at the originally named Victoria Stadium just off Winston Churchill Avenue,” he emails. “I went there when I was a kid and the shared club shop was quite a sight.”
The answer, it would seem, lies further afield in Macau. “With a population of nearly 650,000 living on a land area of a bit more than 30 square kilometres, it is the most densely populated territory in the world,” writes Kári Tulinius. “As you can guess, land for full-size football pitches is at a premium. That doesn’t mean the sport is unpopular; in fact, more than 100 clubs take part in a league with a four-level pyramid structure. They all play in just two stadiums: the Macau Olympic Complex and the Macau University of Science and Technology Sports Field. As far as I can tell all teams play some games in both, and so all teams share the two same home grounds.”
Knowledge archive
“Have the four English professional divisions ever had four champions beginning with the same letter in the same season,” pondered Gregg Bakowski in 2014 for no reason other than it popped into his head when he was cycling to work.
“The quick answer is no,” began Peter Tomlin. “In the days when there were only two divisions, it happened twice: 1892-93 (Sunderland won the first division and Small Heath won the second division) and 1906–07 when Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest won the two respective divisions.
“In a four-division season, the closest there has been to having all four champions beginning with the same letter was 1954–55. Birmingham City were second division champions, Barnsley won the Third Division (North) and Bristol City won the Third Division (South). Chelsea were the spoilsports, winning their first First Division title that year. The highest placed team beginning with ‘B’ in the top division were Burnley who finished 10th – nine points behind Chelsea.”
Can you help?
“While randomly scouring the internet I stumbled across a Wikipedia entry suggesting that scouse Brit-pop four-piece Cast once played a gig at La Bombonera, Boca Juniors’ atmospheric home ground in Buenos Aires,” writes George Jones. “It seems an unlikely happening. Not that I’m doubting Wikipedia, but can any readers tell me if this is true? And if so, which other bands have played unlikely gigs at football grounds? I don’t suppose The Bluetones played the Maracanã, have they?”
“My manager at work follows six different teams in the UK for various reasons,” begins Mark Bolger. “He’s been following them for the best part of 30 years and in all that time he doesn’t think all six team have ever won on the same day/weekend. Can you settle this bet and tell us if Celtic, Fulham, Crewe, Gillingham, Leeds and Luton have ever won on the same day/weekend?”
“What is the largest financial difference between a club’s record signing and record sell-on fee?” ponders Jack Hart.
“Has any person managed three different national teams in the same calendar year?” tweets Pablo Miguez. “Edgardo Bauza will if Saudi Arabia play any friendlies in 2017 …”
Has anyone ever scored a hattrick of goals that should have all been disallowed?
— Mitchell Stirling (@MitchellSt) September 19, 2017
Are there any better combinations of scorers than when Eggen Chippo scored for Norway in France '98? pic.twitter.com/syGfuiJgcy
— Scott Sumner (@sasumner) September 19, 2017
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