Inside the strangest football stadiums in Europe including one beside Hitler's bunker and another with a STEAM TRAIN
FANCY WATCHING a game of football on the side of an active volcano?
Or maybe you would prefer the 90-minute experience of sitting high up a mountain pass, perched on a slender goat trail?
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The thing about new grounds these days is that while they cost billions of pounds to build, more often than not they all look the same and lack uniqueness or character.
There is something thrilling and wonderful about watching a match played in bizarre or strange surroundings – locations far removed from the pristine, copycat comfort of the Premier League.
Author Leon Gladwell went on a two-year voyage to discover and photograph 100 of Europe's wackiest and strangest venues, travelling more than 130,000 miles across 71 trips.
He has collected them all into a glossy new book European Football's Greatest Grounds.
And SunSport has put together 10 of the most remarkable, bucket-list places on the continent where you can go and watch the Beautiful Game.
Campo di Calcio Zuel (Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy)
The Trampolino Olimpico, a ski jumping hill in the Dolomites, was opened in 1923 and was used as a venue during the 1956 Winter Olympics.
The faded Olympic Rings are still visible from the bottom of the 49-metre high launch ramp.
Yet there is no chance of Eddie 'The Eagle' flying over the goalposts because the jump has been closed for 35 years.
During the summer months, when the snow has melted, the area below is used for junior football, thanks to the installation of a football pitch by Serie A giants AC Milan.
It also has a key place in movie history – it was the scene of a famous ski jump by James Bond in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only.
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Campo Gerini (Rome, Italy)
Italian stadiums might look old and rundown but that is part of their charm and romanticism.
Anyone who grew up watching the Italia '90 World Cup on TV will instantly recognise some of the famous yet tired arenas that hosted the world's best footballers 35 years ago.
One of the nation's quirkiest grounds can be located in its capital Rome, eleven kilometres south-east of the Colosseum, in the second-largest urban park in Europe.
Campo Gerini hosts various football factions seven days a week, from junior sides right through to senior matches in Italy's ninth tier.
Some of the pitches are located next to a decaying aqueduct built in 50 BC during the reign of Emperor Claudius.
Yet the future of the area is in doubt after 40 hectares of land (the equivalent of 60 football pitches) were sold to private individuals, including a supermarket entrepreneur, in 2023.
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Eriskay (Scotland)
Eriskay is a remote island in the Outer Hebrides and is barely four kilometres in length.
With a population of just 143, it is one of the smallest regions to support a football club.
And Barnet's old uphill slope is nothing compared to this imperfect playing surface.
The bumpy, bobbly Cnoc Na Monadh pitch, with his wobbly touchlines, has a 'wee hill in the corner' and as such, one of the corner flags is as high as the crossbar.
Occasionally, stray sheep might make a beeline for the centre circle and after every winter, groundstaff have to painstakingly remove all the local wildlife's POO.
Fifa's World Football Museum gave Eriskay worldwide recognition in 2015, branding it as one of the eight most remarkable places in the world to play football.
Post-match drinks can be enjoyed in the island's only pub, Am Politician, which is named after the celebrated shipwreck.
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Feldstrasse (Hamburg, Germany)
Hamburg's historic SC Hansa 11 club has a unique claim to fame – it is next door to a gargantuan Nazi-built Second World War BUNKER.
Two artificial pitches in this inner-city sports ground are flanked by the astonishing Flakturm IV.
This air raid shelter was built in the 1940s under orders from Adolf Hitler to protect the country from Allied air attack.
An anti-aircraft gun has long gone from the imposing concrete blockhouse tower and it has since been converted into a public rooftop terrace, which doubles up as a live music venue.
On the other side of the ground is the Millerntor-Stadion, which is home to Bundesliga side, FC St. Pauli, a must-see destination for all football hipsters.
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Grigoris Lambrakis Municipal Stadium (Athens, Greece)
The best stadiums are not really the ones located off a motorway, far out of town, next to a shopping centre, with ample parking spots.
The most interesting ones exist within a deprived community, perhaps next to a housing estate, in a hustling, bustling city, which has been dwarfed by the skyward creep of urbanisation.
Athens Kallithea FC's ground, known locally as El Paso, is one such neighbourhood spot and some lucky fans can watch action in Greece's top division from their apartment block windows.
Otherwise punters can perch on limestone cliffs that roll around half the pitch, standing behind coils of barbed wire and iron railings.
In the mid-1960s, Sergio Leone's spaghetti-western classic For a Few Dollars More, starring Clint Eastwood, was released in Greece under the name Duel in El Paso.
Kallithea used that nickname and to this day, they run on to the pitch to the dustbowl strains of Ennio Morricone's haunting score.
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Gryluvollur (Hveragerdi, Iceland)
There is no danger of flooding or soggy pitches for Iceland lower-league side FC Hamar.
That is because underneath their hillside ground are boiling underground rivers hot enough to cook an EGG.
Situated on the slopes of the Grændalur volcano, fumarole vents near the touchline and in neighbouring backyards belch plumes of sulphuric steam into the air.
A Gryla geyser lies dormant just 70 metres from the pitch and until the late 1990s, it would often shoot boiling jets of water up to 12 metres high during matches.
At least for those who live in this alien landscape in the little village of Hverageroi (which translates as 'hot spring garden'), players can use the gases to steam-dry their match-day kits.
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Janosovka (Cierny Balog, Slovakia)
Ideally, a football ground needs to have good, reliable transport links – but there is one in Slovakia which takes that concept to its extreme.
One slumberous village in Cierny Balog actually has a STEAM TRAIN that passes directly by, just metres from the pitch and only a few feet from one of the grandstands.
A busy logging railway used to haul timber up and down the valley for more than 80 miles of narrow gauge track for almost 75 years.
These days, it is a heritage railway for tourists but the line goes straight through the ground of this semi-professional club.
There are no confirmed accidents involving trains at the ground but the chairman often jokes that a few of his wingers should hop on and off to get them up the line a bit quicker.
Yet anyone planning a Rory Delap-style long run-up for their throw-ins might think again…
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Kvarlis Tsentraluri Stadioni (Kvareli, Georgia)
Kvareli Duruji FC in Georgia's fifth division play football inside the walls of a medieval CASTLE.
The rural 17th-century fortress, which has an iron-studded entrance gate, has wooden grandstands and can house up to 2,500 fans.
Legend has it that a player once went down headfirst into a sinkhole that emerged during one match in 1978.
That has since been filled in and bricked over but underneath the pitch are tunnels and rooms that were built to store earthenware vessels used for the fermentation and ageing of local wine.
When Gladwell went there, a special friendly match was arranged in his honour and his son Noah was allowed to play – even though he ended up missing a key penalty.
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Valloyran (Sandavagur, Faroe Islands)
Those who live in the Faroe Islands can get to church on time on a Sunday – and then, after their prayers, have a little kickabout next door.
One of the country's 26 grounds – in the seaside fishing village of Sandavagur – is overlooked by a beautiful red-roofed wooden church and cemetery.
There are so few seats that it is essentially standing room only around this tiny football field – but you could choose to watch from your car given how close you can park behind one of the goals.
The artificial pitch ensures few games are called off but spectators have to wrap up warm in the face of the fierce Faroese weather.
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Yenisehir Stadyumu (Gumushane, Turkey)
The city of Gumushane, which is 3,970ft above sea level, lies on the ancient Silk Road, the historic trade route from China to Turkey.
To reach their football club, you have to endure a hair-raising zig-zagging journey along the Zigana Pass in the Pontic Mountains.
Fans can either watch from the grandstands or, to avoid buying a ticket, find a spot up on the uphill goat paths.
Pity the poor groundsman who has to work with a pitch that sees little sunlight due to the towering walls of red rock that encircle the ground.
It is one of the most remote places to visit in Europe, several hours outside of Black Sea resort Trabzon, but also one of the most special.
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The massive recruitment programmes undergone by both would have been impossible without recouping through player disposals. The pressure on Arsenal, United, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle was also clear in the figures. Those clubs' relatively low sales left them with big net spends. Arsenal's gross outlay on players was only £50million more than City's over a five-year period, but their net spend was £480million more. The problems that stores up perhaps explain why City can now spend with abandon to help Guardiola rebuild while Arteta is still waiting for his striker. Everton were the only club to make a transfer profit from 2020-24, showing how selling was fundamental to the club's very survival during the stricken final years of Farhad Moshiri's ownership. But selling is not just about how much you make, it's about which goods you are willing to part with, and though City raised £499million by offloading players from 2022-24 it was a period where they parted with talents including Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, Liam Delap, James Trafford and Julián Alvarez. None look like wise disposals now. There are different ways of measuring how 'good' a player sale is. One is to compare at the price achieved to market value and, using Transfermarkt's calculations, the best business of last summer included Newcastle realising £22.2million more than market value when selling Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth achieving £20.8million more when selling Dominic Solanke to Tottenham and Wolves extracting £13.2million more for Max Kilman than the market said he was worth. However, another way is to look at the value of the player sold a year down the line. The blossoming of Anderson at Forest suggests Newcastle actually undervalued him. On the other hand the Kilman deal looks even better from Wolves' point of view — 12 months on he is now worth £19.2million less than West Ham paid for him. City selling Alvarez to Atletico Madrid for £64million seems a bad deal by both measures. The price was £13million below the Argentina forward's market value at the time and now it is £21.4million below his market value — albeit add-ons included in the deal may allow City to recoup up to £17million. United fare dreadfully in the analysis. They have made 14 significant sales in the past three seasons, 11 of whom now valued higher than the fees received for them, with Scott McTominay, Anthony Elanga and Álvaro Carreras worth a combined £63million more. To value players, Brighton use the unique information provided by Jamestown Analytics, an offshoot of Bloom's betting data company, Starlizard. They stick to those valuations and ignore distractions: back in January 2023, Caicedo agitated to go, even posting a plea to leave on Instagram. Brighton did not go to war with their asset but calmly asked him to stay away from training until the transfer window closed and then extended his contract, to further increase his value. Only selling when a replacement has been signed or lined up is also the Brighton way. Marc Cucurella was replaced by Pervis Estupiñán, Robert Sánchez by Bart Verbruggen and Leandro Trossard by João Pedro. Caicedo himself was the replacement for Yves Bissouma and on the same day he signed for Chelsea, Brighton entered talks with Lille for his replacement, Carlos Baleba. Now Baleba, 21, is projected to be a future £100million sale but a club who made gentle inquiries came away with the impression that Brighton are unlikely to let him go until next season, because his replacement has not been identified yet. Liverpool's headaches are eased by having Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes to oversee trading. Hughes sold well at Bournemouth and squeezing €10million from Real Madrid for the last month of Alexander-Arnold's contract was remarkable even by Edwards's standards. During the building phase of the modern Liverpool, as sporting director Edwards raised £396million from sales from 2014-17 — enabling the recruitment of Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah, Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, Joël Matip, Gini Wijnaldum, Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Joe Gomez and Robertson on a pretty much obscene £58million net spend. There were many coups, like persuading Bournemouth to spend a club record £15million on Jordon Ibe, and Leicester £12.5million on Danny Ward, but none beat getting Barcelona to not just lavish £142million on Philippe Coutinho but agree a clause meaning they would pay a €100million (then £89million) premium in addition to any transfer fee if they signed a Liverpool player over the next 2½ seasons. It would prove the deterrent to Barça targeting Salah and Van Dijk. Selling, like buying in the transfer market, depends on relationships with clubs, agents and players; on planning ahead and having the right handle on valuations. 'It's not rocket science,' said the senior recruiter. 'I just think it's a cultural psyche because nearly everyone in England sees winning as points but a handful of clubs like Brighton rightly see winning as selling.' 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Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
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EXCLUSIVE Revealed: Kris Jenner and boyfriend Corey Gamble's tense exchange at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's wedding
Kris Jenner was looking her best when she showed off her elegant black-and-white dress with her dapper boyfriend Corey Gamble on Friday at Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos ' opulent wedding with Lauren Sánchez. But despite plastering a broad grin on her shockingly youthful face in video showing her and Corey leaving the nuptials on a water taxi, the 69-year-old Kardashian–Jenner family matriarch appeared to have a tense conversation with her beau. And now expert lip-reader Nicola Hickling reveals that Kris appears appeared to be in a hurry to get back to her accommodations and didn't want to wait to share a water taxi with any other A-listers. has requested comment from Jenner's representative but hasn't yet received a response. At the start of the exchange, Kris — who secured her spot among the best-dressed stars at the wedding with her black-and-white ensemble — took what looked like a paper towel from a porter, possibly to dry off any water that might have splashed on her during the journey in the island city. 'Tell them I said thanks,' she appeared to say just before she descended into the docked boat. Kris Jenner, 69, and her boyfriend Corey Gamble, 44, appeared to have a tense conversation aboard a water taxi after Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez's Venice wedding on Friday Bezos and Sánchez have been an item going back to 2019, and it was revealed that they had already legally married prior to the ceremony; she's pictured in her wedding dress on the cover of Vogue Hickling — who also decoded numerous other celebrity exchanges at the wedding — noted that two male porters were then seen speaking to each other, before one turned to Kris and appeared to ask, 'You want to travel alone?' Kris could be seen responding, and her boyfriend Corey, 44, stepped down into the boat behind her. While it waited, she turned toward cameras on the other side of the canal and displayed a winning smile. Corey went on to tap a porter on the chest, and he appeared to tell him, 'We're happy to travel on our own. It's what Kris would like to do.' But he didn't appear to have resolved the situation and gotten them on the move fast enough for the momager's liking. Kris could be seen turning to Corey as she brusquely inquired, 'What are you doing? Do you need to talk?' She continued: 'I told you... for God's sake... I'd like to travel alone.' Corey seemed to do his best to accommodate his longtime partner and stepped out of the boat to speak to another man, apparently to confirm that he and Kris would be traveling alone in the boat. They seemed to get the picture, and shortly afterward, the water taxi began to sail away toward their destination. Surprisingly, Kris didn't even stick close to her celebrity daughters Kim and Khloé Kardashian and Kendall and Kylie Jenner, all of whom were attending the wedding. Other stars at the pricey nuptials included Tom Brady, a newly single Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio and his model girlfriend Vittoria Ceretti, Oprah Winfrey and her friend Gayle King, Bill Gates and his girlfriend, Usher, Tommy Hilfiger, Elle Goulding and Diane von Fürstenberg, among others. Bezos and Sánchez have been an item going back to 2019, and it was revealed that they had already legally married prior to the ceremony. Her elegant white wedding dress was featured on the cover of Vogue to celebrate the occasion. In the cover photo, the journalist beamed from ear to ear in the dress, which featured lacy floral sleeves and a figure-hugging bodice with a high neckline. It had a skirt with paisley and floral lace designs that was cut close over her hips before fanning out at the knee. It featured a long white train behind her, and her sheer veil also dragged behind her to create a second layer. Bezos and Sánchez tied the knot in an extravaganza that reportedly cost $20 million and involved the wedding party of more than 200 guests taking over the entire San Giorgio Maggiore island in Venice. Just minutes after saying 'I do' with Bezos, Sánchez took to Instagram to share a photo of herself and the groom, which she captioned with their wedding date. While he favored a more casual, summery suit on Thursday, Bezos opted for a classic black three-piece tuxedo for his wedding day.
