Football at the extremes
For Cards fans Gateshead was the most distant point of our football lives. In The Highlands, Ross County’s Victoria Park is the northern most professional ground in the UK.
But for truly extreme football Greenland is the place.
T’is grim oop North / Going Southbound
With over 100 registered teams, but no roads between any of Greenland’s towns, matches are first played locally. Eight sides then emerge from regional qualifiers to contest the National Championship, converging on one town for the tournament. The northern most club can come from from around Qaannaaq, (Thule) as in 1971 when “Tupillakken 71” took the title back with them above the 77th parallel, over 700 miles inside the Arctic Circle (just 950 miles from the North Pole) to make them the most northerly club in the world to win a National Championship.
Most recently G-44 from Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn) on the island of Disko, were the 2009 hosts, reaching the final against FC Malamuk of Uummanaqq from the far north. Manager Gunnar Zeeb named his 4 sons in the team. Nepotism? Hardly, his side ran out 3-0 winners to take the title for the first time. Hans-Jorgen, and Zakorat scoring the goals, Johan-Frederik keeping a clean sheet as goalkeeper while Nuknnguaq lifted the trophy as captain. Of the 800 population of Qeqertarsuaq 600 turned out for the final.
Check out film of the match highlights, a game certainly not for the faint hearted and also the impressive iceberg action during the national song at.…
http://sermitsiaq.gl/tv/article93983.ece
Players travelling to Disko were aware that it was the scene of Greenland football’s greatest tragedy.
In August 2004, Karl Olsen, Martin Larsen, and Kristian Davidsen left Aasiaat by boat for a veterans’ game in Qeqertarsuaq. The trip only takes an hour but Disko Bay is littered with smaller islands and returning home, the trio got lost. An air and sea search could not locate them and was called off a week later. In June 2005 the three players were found on Hareoe Island, where their boat had got stuck.
They had written SOS in stones on a beach and built a driftwood shelter but had little chance of surviving the Arctic winter and froze to death - all for a game of football.
At the other extreme, Buenos Aries, one of the world’s most southerly capitals hosted the World Cup Final. But true extreme football is to be found on Tierra del Fuego, the very tip of South America. Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city and just a short hop from
Antarctica, is growing fast thanks to tourism.
Los Cuervos (Ravens) + celeb fanFor Cards fans Gateshead was the most distant point of our football lives. In The Highlands, Ross County’s Victoria Park is the northern most professional ground in the UK.
But for truly extreme football Greenland is the place.
T’is grim oop North / Going Southbound
With over 100 registered teams, but no roads between any of Greenland’s towns, matches are first played locally. Eight sides then emerge from regional qualifiers to contest the National Championship, converging on one town for the tournament. The northern most club can come from from around Qaannaaq, (Thule) as in 1971 when “Tupillakken 71” took the title back with them above the 77th parallel, over 700 miles inside the Arctic Circle (just 950 miles from the North Pole) to make them the most northerly club in the world to win a National Championship.
Most recently G-44 from Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn) on the island of Disko, were the 2009 hosts, reaching the final against FC Malamuk of Uummanaqq from the far north. Manager Gunnar Zeeb named his 4 sons in the team. Nepotism? Hardly, his side ran out 3-0 winners to take the title for the first time. Hans-Jorgen, and Zakorat scoring the goals, Johan-Frederik keeping a clean sheet as goalkeeper while Nuknnguaq lifted the trophy as captain. Of the 800 population of Qeqertarsuaq 600 turned out for the final.
Check out film of the match highlights, a game certainly not for the faint hearted and also the impressive iceberg action during the national song at.…
http://sermitsiaq.gl/tv/article93983.ece
Players travelling to Disko were aware that it was the scene of Greenland football’s greatest tragedy.
In August 2004, Karl Olsen, Martin Larsen, and Kristian Davidsen left Aasiaat by boat for a veterans’ game in Qeqertarsuaq. The trip only takes an hour but Disko Bay is littered with smaller islands and returning home, the trio got lost. An air and sea search could not locate them and was called off a week later. In June 2005 the three players were found on Hareoe Island, where their boat had got stuck.
They had written SOS in stones on a beach and built a driftwood shelter but had little chance of surviving the Arctic winter and froze to death - all for a game of football.
At the other extreme, Buenos Aries, one of the world’s most southerly capitals hosted the World Cup Final. But true extreme football is to be found on Tierra del Fuego, the very tip of South America. Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city and just a short hop from
Antarctica, is growing fast thanks to tourism.
As often happens, football flourishes in tandem with the community, and the Ushuaian league champions Los Cuervos del Fin del Mundo this year became the first team from the region to take part in the Argentine FA’s Torneo del Interior. This mammoth tournament involves 267 teams from around Argentina, with the prize of promotion to Argentino B. It resembles non-league football with part-time players, modest stadia and crowds from around 600 up to 3-4,000. The Ravens won their regional group to reach the last 64, then defeated Deportivo Jupiter of Piedra Buena over two legs to progress to the next round, but missed out on making the last 16 losing to Boca of Rio Gallegos 3-2 on aggregate.
Can we play you every week?
At the other end of the scale from Argentino C, The Isles of Scilly has the world’s smallest league with just two teams. In the 1920’s the Lyonnesse Inter-Island Cup between St Marys, Tresco, St Martins, Bryher, and St Agnes, was initiated. But by the 1950s, with outward migration for employment, and the lack of schooling for over 16’s, only two clubs remained - the Rangers and the Rovers. In 1984 the teams, using two landmarks close by St Mary’s only football pitch changed their names to Garrison Gunners and Woolpack Wanderers.
At the start of each season, officials of the two teams and the players meet in a pub, and the squads are picked - school playground style.
The season is made up of 17 games comprising 14 league fixtures, The Foredeck Cup (over 2 legs) The Wholesalers Cup, – and of course the season starts with The Charity Shield.
Highs and Lows.
Did you know that Woking’s finest hour took place at the highest top level football ground in the UK – the Hawthorns altitude 551ft – but that is unlikely to change, and is dwarfed by the real extremes.
FIFA recently said no Internationals above 8200ft (2500m.) Most affected was La Paz, Bolivia, at 11,932ft and the Ecuadorian capital Quito at 9,350ft. It would be interesting to know how FIFA decided on 2,500m. There may be health risks above this altitude, but it also neatly excludes little Bolivia while sparing the politically powerful Mexico, the Azteca Stadium is a mere 2,200m above sea level, also leaving clubs free to play anywhere, even up to the Daniel Alcides Carrión stadium in Cerro de Pasco, Peru. It is 13,973 ft above sea level and home to Union Minas who came close to winning the Peruvian “Conference “ and going pro. Unsurprisingly most teams hate to play there, as they are severely handicapped by the lack of oxygen.
Take a deep breath ladsIncredibly Cerro de Pasco has another claim to fame. The struggling 1st Division team from Huancayo, (pronounced; hoo–ank-eye-yo) re-located to the home of Union Minas. It was an attempt to avoid relegation by making rivals play in the testing conditions, of the thin air and cold. It didn’t work and they dropped out Peru’s top division, incurring the wrath of the Peru’s FA, but curiously selling 1,000s of replica shirts in the UK, why? The team carried their own name on the shirt…Deportivo Wanka (honest!)
Chile’s Cobreloa at 7,900ft have a combination of the altitude and wealthy copper mining connections to thank for their record of 8 league titles in just over 30 years since they were founded, making them the highest club to achieve domestic success in a major football nation.
In January 2010, as part of FIFA’s effort to integrate the nascent Palestinian state, Dynamo Moscow were due to take on Palestine in Jericho. This would mean the game took place about 850 ft below sea level, not far from the banks of The Dead Sea and therefore is about as low as football can go – no UEFA, Blatter, Henri jokes please.
Early start for the away trip this week lads
We all know that Notts Forest and Notts County, or the two Dundees are a Rory Delap throw from each other - but spare a thought for Vladivostok, on the eastern end of the Trans Siberia Railway, a city whose ‘Lord of the East’ nickname cannot be applied to their football club, the hapless Luch – Vladivostok.
Never a true member of Russia’s footballing aristocracy, Luch have spent only 3 years in the Russian Premier League in their history. Though in one respect they are peerless, the major Russian clubs are concentrated in the west, but Vladivostok isn’t much more than a Ross Worner goal kick away from the North Korean border. (They won’t get their ball back from over that fence.) Luch Vladivostok are miles – thousands of miles – away from their opponents. Only SKA-Energiya Khabarovsk of their current 1st division rivals are remotely near Vladivostok.
So, just the 1,000 mile round trip for the local derby this season then.
So away games mean long-haul flights across several time zones. Luch unsurprisingly accrue most of their points against jeg-lagged opponents at their decrepit Dynamo Stadium. On their travels they manage to accumulate…….. well mostly air miles.
One match this season in particular would tax even the most devoted fan. The trip to Baltika Kaliningrad, from the eponymous Russian enclave on the Baltic coast, is a mere 4,575 miles as the Tupolev 204 flies. Or, a week on the Trans Siberian Railway gets you as far as Moscow – 5771 miles, as the train crawls, just another 660 miles to go.
In January 2010, as part of FIFA’s effort to integrate the nascent Palestinian state, Dynamo Moscow were due to take on Palestine in Jericho. This would mean the game took place about 850 ft below sea level, not far from the banks of The Dead Sea and therefore is about as low as football can go – no UEFA, Blatter, Henri jokes please.
Early start for the away trip this week lads
We all know that Notts Forest and Notts County, or the two Dundees are a Rory Delap throw from each other - but spare a thought for Vladivostok, on the eastern end of the Trans Siberia Railway, a city whose ‘Lord of the East’ nickname cannot be applied to their football club, the hapless Luch – Vladivostok.
Never a true member of Russia’s footballing aristocracy, Luch have spent only 3 years in the Russian Premier League in their history. Though in one respect they are peerless, the major Russian clubs are concentrated in the west, but Vladivostok isn’t much more than a Ross Worner goal kick away from the North Korean border. (They won’t get their ball back from over that fence.) Luch Vladivostok are miles – thousands of miles – away from their opponents. Only SKA-Energiya Khabarovsk of their current 1st division rivals are remotely near Vladivostok.
So, just the 1,000 mile round trip for the local derby this season then.
So away games mean long-haul flights across several time zones. Luch unsurprisingly accrue most of their points against jeg-lagged opponents at their decrepit Dynamo Stadium. On their travels they manage to accumulate…….. well mostly air miles.
One match this season in particular would tax even the most devoted fan. The trip to Baltika Kaliningrad, from the eponymous Russian enclave on the Baltic coast, is a mere 4,575 miles as the Tupolev 204 flies. Or, a week on the Trans Siberian Railway gets you as far as Moscow – 5771 miles, as the train crawls, just another 660 miles to go.
Honorable mention should also go to;
MLS – Seattle and Houston - 3782miles
Brazil - Porto Alegre and Fortaleza - 2641 miles
Australia - Perth Glory and Brisbane - 2321 miles
I promise I will never moan about Altrincham on
a wet Tuesday night again
MLS – Seattle and Houston - 3782miles
Brazil - Porto Alegre and Fortaleza - 2641 miles
Australia - Perth Glory and Brisbane - 2321 miles
I promise I will never moan about Altrincham on
a wet Tuesday night again
