Tag Archives: Europe

An impressive new stadium cannot hide rotten core of Romanian football

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“The new Arena Nationala in Bucharest is magnificent. Its steep sides – the steepest permissible according to European law, apparently – are conducive to a good atmosphere, it’s near enough the centre of town to make access relatively simple and the early teething problems with the pitch have been sorted out. After all the problems over funding and all the delays, Romania has ended up with a national stadium to be proud of. Sitting in the press box for last week’s Europa League final – plug sockets and televisions aplenty, Ethernet cables at every seat – it was hard to believe this was the same city I first visited 11 years earlier.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson

Euro 2012: The Runners And Riders – Greece

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The Battle of Aboukir, Antoine-Jean Gros
“There is now less than a month to go until the European Championships kick off in Poland and Ukraine, and taking on the co-hosts in the opening match will be a nation that caused arguably the biggest surprise in the history of the competition: Greece. But with a new coach and having caused something of a surprise just to reach the last sixteen of this tournament, can Greece roll back the years to the summer of 2004?” twohundredpercent

Euro 2012: The Runners And Riders – Poland
“With slightly less than a month to go until the start of the 2012 European Championships, it’s time for us to kick off our previews of the sixteen nations that will be competing at this summer’s tournament in Poland and Ukraine. We’re doing this in order of the groups drawn, so we’ll start with everything you probably don’t need to know about one of this summer’s co-hosts, Poland.” twohundredpercent

Turkish Football’s Dirty War

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“Do you know what hate, in its essence and heart-wrenching ugliness, truly is? Not only the concept of genuinely disliking something with every fibre of your being, but the sensation of slowly falling into a black hole filled to its brink with unhealthy, dirty thoughts? It is a feeling that, when activated deep below our day-to-day, unextraordinary consciousness, completely robs us of our humanity and compassion. It brings out the worst in us. Basically, hatred is what keeps Turkish football in 2011-2012 alive.” Run of Play

Slav to the rhythm – A Balkan adventure – part 1

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“It’s 1am and the train’s grinding on the rough rails is keeping me awake. We are chugging somewhere between Zagreb and Belgrade. We could be in Croatia, we could we be in Serbia. But we actually have no idea at all where we are. Conversations have moved on from about how this train is like the one on ‘Hostel’ to ‘what happened if they had a Saw-esque sadist on this train’..all the kind of conversations you want to have when you are in one of the remotest places in Europe with no mobile phone signal. The single 5 watt bulb is too dim for me to read my latest inductee into my sportbook review section, an excellent book called Danger, Kids! by Alan Moore which tells the story of an ambitious plan to re-unite Europe through football, a mission the carriage carries as its mantra for the weekend.” The Ball is Round: Slav to the rhythm – A Balkan adventure – part 1, Part 2