Reuters Soccer Blog

New Juventus stadium unique in so many ways

Juventus are due to open their new stadium next month but so far there is no name and no big-name signing to grace it.

From the very start the stadium project was unique.

Juve will be the only Italian club to own their own stadium, something which English soccer fans in particular find very difficult to comprehend.

Inter and Milan only rent the San Siro from the city council while AS Roma and Lazio borrow the Stadio Olimpico from the Italian Olympic Committee.

Juve decided to break the trend and in turn ultimately boost revenue by knocking down the widely detested and council-owned Stadio Delle Alpi (then sharing with Torino for the past few years at the smaller Stadio Communale – also council-owned) and building a new stadium all their own where most of the income goes to the club and nowhere else.

More radical was the decision to only have around 40,000 seats despite being Italy’s most successful and best supported club (although admittedly many fans live in the south of Italy and never go to Turin).

A full arena has been deemed more atmospheric and helpful to the team than playing in a huge cavernous and souless half- full stadium which the Delle Alpi, which could hold more than 60,000, often was.  The San Siro and Rome’s Stadio Olimpico have capacities of around 80,00 but they are only ever full for derbies and big European nights.

Belgrade derby was full of nice not nasty surprises

I attended my first Belgrade derby on Saturday and all the preconceptions I might have had were happily blown away in the brisk Serbian wind.

The fixture is widely regarded as the most fiery and dangerous derby in world football but despite the game almost being a title decider, the sting was taken out of the occasion by Red Star ultras refusing to turn up at Partizan’s stadium.

Religious convictions had told them the game should not be played on Easter Saturday so they boycotted.

So there was no violence whatsoever, but that didn’t stop a huge number of riot police being there.

You wonder how the fans manage to cause trouble with the meanest-looking police unit imaginable. Massive men covered in thick riot gear which has led them to be nicknamed ‘Ninja Turtles’.

I also never realised how close Partizan’s ground was to Red Star’s stadium. There are almost as near as Anfield and Goodison Park.

Partizan’s home was smaller than I imagined, an open bowl with a running track, but the fans still made for a decent atmosphere despite the lack of Red Star supporters. There were a few flares and banners but nothing I had not seen in Italy or Marseille.

Soccer Break Tuesday

Short and sweet today with little news on Monday and plenty of action to look forward to this week.

Manchester United will look to stretch their Premier League lead against Newcastle United on Tuesday, though will their Wembley antics distract them? ‘A hole lot of trouble for United’ read one headline.

The week’s big game, big being an understatement, is Real Madrid v Barcelona in the Spanish King’s Cup final. Jose Mourinho, silent before last Saturday’s ‘clasico’ which prompted a walkout by media in protest, has a tactical dilemma. Play with caution and risk the wrath of former club great Alfredo Di Stefano or attack and risk a hammering from Barcelona’s slick forwards.

What would you suggest the Portuguese coach does?

A recap of the past few days looks at Villarreal’s push for Champions League football next season in La Liga after Monday’s 1-0 win over Real Zaragoza, and the usually dogged Stoke City’s five, yes five, goal FA Cup semi-final win on Sunday against Bolton Wanderers who are enjoying a great season in the Premier League.

To round off the best of Tuesday’s reads, Toronto is being hailed as the new ‘epicentre’ of Canadian soccer and click here for a debate on developing youth talent.

Finally, which is your favourite stadium? Browse this site for venue reviews and post your thoughts on grounds you have visited. The Nou Camp in Barcelona does pretty well.

from Africa News blog:

Searching for it — not quite feeling it — in Polokwane

The soccer fan fest sounded like a wild party with the vuvuzela horns booming through the empty streets of Polokwane town, one of the smallest of 10 venues for the first World Cup on African soil.

Everyone must be there, we thought as there was little happening on a Saturday night in the northern South African town centre.

But on closer inspection the soccer fan fest -- loud as it was -- was also pretty deserted. Soccer fever had yet to reach Polokwane.

A sleepy town of just 500,000 people, it was hard to imagine Polokwane, which means place of safety, would host its first World Cup soccer match in less than 24 hours. In Johannesburg or Cape Town you could definitely "feel it". Here we weren't so sure.

Driving through the town's eerily deserted streets searching for a restaurant where we could eat and watch the soccer, we discovered that was not an easy find. Even the local Nandos restaurant on the main street shut by 8 p.m.

It was also hard to imagine what long-term benefit the town would see from being a host city. While for the four matches to be played in Polokwane the few hotels on offer for tourists were full, otherwise there were plenty of rooms at the inn.

No team was staying there which would bring with it the adoring fans or news-hungry media and the associated business. Those playing were flown in for pre-match training, again the day of the match and ferried back straight after.

Community Blog: Fan parks not for the fainthearted

I have decided that the World Cup fan parks are not my cup of tea. I am a bit of a football snob who prefers to either watch the game at the stadium or in front of the telly where I can follow the proceedings closely.

So, after much hustling and trying to purchase a ticket to the opening match of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, I ended up at the Sandton Fan Park at Innisfree Park.

There was no shortage of yellow shirt clad Bafana Bafana supporters armed with their vuvuzelas. The mood was festive, the sun had come out, and the tension ahead of the game could be felt throughout the park. And as the moment drew closer, the park filled.

The queues at the beer tent and the food court never seemed to get shorter, but that did not dampen the mood at the Fan Park. There were armies of police all around keeping the peace. The atmosphere was awesome and people seemed to be having a good old time.

But in a space like that it is hard to follow the game. You are either to far from the screen or too short because as soon as you perch on what seems to be the highest point in the field, someone in front of you will decide that they prefer to stand and let you watch their back instead. You join the masses in watching the game on your feet for the entire ninety minutes, then your neighbour starts puffing away and merrily sharing their ciggie smoke (stadiums are no smoking zones) with you.

The  enthusiasm  for the  fan parks seems to have mellowed since the opening game. But, maybe things will get better and the mood will pick up as the games wind down.

This blog was written by a community blogger  chosen  to write  on their community’s experience of the  World Cup.

End of St James’ Park is ultimate sell-out for Newcastle fans

Newcastle United fans have put up with a lot over the years but selling “naming rights” for James’ Park might be the final straw for some fans.

At 10pm on Tuesday the club announced that Chris Hughton would be made full-time manager and that owner Mike Ashley would no longer be selling and instead would inject 20 million pounds this week.

Slipped in among the back-slapping was the news that the club would welcome bids for the naming rights of the ground the club has occupied with pride since 1892.

Newcastle fans have had years of fun abusing Sunderland for what they consider the pretentious “Stadium of Light” which replaced Roker Park 12 years ago and now their fiercest rivals are poised to return the favour when one of the most famous and atmospheric grounds in the country becomes an advert.

Supporters have become less sensitive about names of new or rebuilt stadiums since the days when Millwall’s Den was imaginatively named “The New Den” and selling the naming rights to a new ground, such as the Emirates Stadium, is no longer that controversial.

Slapping a new name on an established ground, however, is another matter entirely.

So fans need instructions on scarf-waving now?

Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium gleamed in the sunshine on Saturday as the north London side produced an exhilarating display to beat Portsmouth 4-1 in the Premier League.

The impressive structure, wedged into a densely populated part of the capital, is one of England’s finest club grounds but many of the 60,000 fans sat on their comfy plastic seats would have pined for the old Highbury ground just across the road.

Highbury, like Goodison Park, White Hart Lane, Anfield and the old Maine Road, was born in an era when football was the traditional “working class” escape from a hard week’s labour.

Just being at the ground, watching your favourite players, was enough reason to raise the voice and wave the scarf. Things were spontaneous, sons followed fathers as the terrace folklore was passed down from one generation to the next.

Old-school football fans are watching the Saturday afternoon traditions die.

So it is that the image gurus at Arsenal are busy devising ways to re-create what the march of money, live TV, expensive tickets and millionaire players has eroded.

‘A Rose Bowl by any other name would smell as sweet’

The Miami Dolphins used to play at Dolphin Stadium. It was not, it has to be said, a particularly imaginative moniker for the venue but nonetheless it carried a certain logic. But the days of Dolphin Stadium are over: when the Fins kick off the new NFL season in August, they will be performing at Land Shark Stadium.

Land Shark is a not particularly well-known beer marketed by Jimmy Buffett, a singer-songwriter and Dolphins fan who is the owner of the Margaritaville chain of bars and restaurants.

While the idea of the Dolphins playing among sharks has caused some mirth among Miami fans, they should perhaps be relieved that Buffett didn’t choose to name the venue after one of his restaurant chains, (also one of his songs) “Cheeseburger in Paradise“.

Mind you, if you think ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise Park’ would be a, erm, rather cheesy name for a sports venue, then spare a thought for the fans of the Cleveland City Stars soccer team, whose USL side actually play at the Middlefield Cheese Stadium.

Or what about FC Dallas of Major League Soccer who play at Pizza Hut Park? Or Dick’s Sporting Goods Park – home to the Colorado Rapids. The list goes on. Current Super Bowl champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers play at Heinz Field but there are many more than 57 varieties of sponsored stadium names in U.S sport.

There is, refreshingly but incongruously, no jersey sponsorship in the NFL, the NBA or Major League Baseball, but when it comes to venue-naming, there is no such purity.

One of the few exceptions at the moment is the new home to the Dallas Cowboys, which will debut next season and which at the moment has the gloriously unimaginative name Dallas Cowboys New Stadium. I bet that doesn’t last long.

World Cup could fall flat if South Africa carry on losing

South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup is supposed to be a watershed for the world game and the African continent, an opportunity to emphasise the international flavour of the game and at the same time give an under privileged continent a chance to prove its potential and bask in the world spotlight.

To that end South Africa is a flurry of construction as new stadiums go up along with hotels, rail and road projects and a myriad of other infrastructure improvements.

But the most important building project should be the country’s football team, who have been to two previous World Cups but have never shown the ability to be truly considered among Africa’s real soccer superpowers.

South Africa won the African Nations Cup 12 years ago, when they hosted the tournament, reached the final two years later and were third in 2000. But it has been a downhill spiral ever since and on Saturday the team were effectively eliminated from the qualifiers for the 2010 Nations Cup finals in Angola.

A home loss to Nigeria left Bafana Bafana with four points from five matches in their group and all but mathematically out of contention. It will end a run of appearances at seven successive Nations Cup tournaments.

It is a massive embarrassment for the country that in the year in which they host the World Cup, they will not be among the 16 best African sides in the Nations Cup fields.

What’s your least favourite stadium?

Juventus have decided to redevelop the moth-balled Stadio delle Alpi, one of the most unloved stadiums in the world.

Built for the 1990 World Cup, most Juve fans have always hated the Turin stadium because a running track kept them too far from the pitch and the acoustics were terrible. The 69,000 capacity ground was also hardly ever full. The Serie A side are currently sharing the smaller Stadio Olimpico with Torino.

What’s your least favourite stadium? The old Wembley had history, but that was part of the problem as it decayed before our eyes. The new version is great, but the trip home through congested north London remains a pain.

Barcelona’s Nou Camp is special, but I once watched a boring 2-0 win over Alaves from the very top tier in January. I could hardly tell which player was which and I was freezing cold. You also wouldn’t believe how uncomfortable the ‘seats’ are at Milan’s San Siro.

The new breed of stadiums in England, like Middlesbrough’s Riverside and Derby’s Pride Park, are clean and well-planned but they all look exactly the same and lack soul. I guess they are better than the cow sheds of the lower divisions, though.

Let us know your views in the comments.