A row of trees line the space between the stand and running track.
“On the 39th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, The Athletic’s Richard Sutcliffe recalls a visit to the nearby town of Pripyat, once home to a proud and ambitious football club, who in 1986 were about to open a brand new stadium… … The scene of the most catastrophic nuclear accident in history may not be everyone’s idea of a holiday destination, but having long been fascinated by the old Eastern Bloc and particularly an episode many believe hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union, a few days in Kyiv couldn’t be allowed to pass without making the two-hour drive north towards the border with Belarus. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
The crumbling walls around what was once the players’ tunnel at Stadium Avanhard.
Visiting the football stadium left in ruins after the Chernobyl disaster
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“Last weekend, Pep Guardiola spent 15 minutes standing on the Goodison Park turf, long before his Manchester City players came out for their pre-game warm-up. ‘I remember when I was a little boy,’ he said later of Goodison, ahead of Everton’s move to their new home at Bramley-Moore Dock this summer. ‘Today, I watched the (stadium big) screen with goals from Gary Lineker and said, ‘Wow, this is English football’.’ In Spanish, Guardiola might be known as a ‘mitomano’ — somebody quick to idolise, generally, a person. In his case, it is footballers, but also stadiums and competitions. He would watch English football on television when he was a youngster in the Catalan town of Santpedor. Not that many games were available on television in the 1970s and 1980s, but he obviously saw enough for some core memories to form. …”
“Newcastle United’s long wait for a trophy ended under Wembley’s arch just as evening was descending, the sun disappearing and, with it, 70 years of domestic strife. Mid-March’s victory over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final marked the end of seven trophyless decades on Tyneside (the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup excluded) and, with it, perhaps, the beginning of something else. As black-and-whites on the pitch and in the stands celebrated the end of an unwanted era, one emblem of their new era stood front and centre. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, club chairman, made his way onto the pitch and held up the trophy. He is also the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Newcastle’s majority shareholder. …”
Scissors Kick 