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    Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
    the Qemal Stafa has been demolished, etc.
    Only very recently though. I'll fly the (black eagle on a red background flag) for the Qemal Stafa, and claim 14 in all competitions.

    EC/CL
    KF Tirana, Partizani, 17 Nentori, Dinamo Tirana, Vllaznia
    UEFA/EL
    Skenderbeu, Tomori, Besa, Kukes, Tueta Durres, Bylis Ballsh
    ECWC
    KF Apolonia Fier, Flamutari Vlore, Albpetrol Patos

    Comment


      This "all competitions" thing is going to make Alex very cross

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        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
        This "all competitions" thing is going to make Alex very cross
        Hey, he's the one still punting the London XI. I should get some credit for drawing the line at the Intertoto.

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          As long as no-one mentions the Super Cup we can all have a nice day.

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            Plus you know my London XI thing is a registered disability, Walt. That's really insensitive ...

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              We have a Personal Addiction thread for that kind of thing

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                Cheers ursus - I'd visit but I'm addicted to this thread. And bagging European finalists. Why did they have to reach the final, ursus? Why? Why did the London XI do that to me?

                I don't mind that they had select sides in the Fairs Cup. That's fine. That's interesting. But how the fuck am I, sixty years on, supposed to see one that reached the final? Eh??!! The London select side played in one edition of the competition, reached the final - then disbanded. How can I, someone born eleven years after their last match, score them off my "finalist clubs seen in the flesh" list?

                Everyone else gets a hobby they can enjoy. They can have hobbies which they can either finish or which isn't about finishing. You can watch every Star Wars film ever or you can go fishing, safe in the knowledge there's always plenty more fish in the sea. So there's no pressure.

                What about me though? I'm stuck right in the fucking middle. By it's very nature my hobby is completist. Despite UEFA's best efforts new clubs do still reach European club finals but there's a minimum of 11 months every year where everyone on the planet knows the finite list of European club finalists to be bagged.

                Right now there's been 102 European finalists and I've seen 68 of them. But there's one I can never properly see. There's even a trainspotting freak who was allowed into Redcar British Steel station so he could say he'd spotted a train at every station in Britain. What am I supposed to do? Ask UEFA to disband their secondary competition and then tell the European community to start up trades fairs again??!! That's as likely as - oh, I dunno - Britain withdrawing from the European Union. It just can't happen.

                Plenty more fish in the sea. No-one's actually invented a phrase about my hobby - a phrase in every day usage - which lets me off the hook (See! There's another one!) if I don't bag every European club finalist before I die then I've failed and everyone will know it. I've tried slipping "Well, seeing eleven London clubs is as good as seeing the London XI" into everyday conversations but no-one's buying it. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's costing me people to converse with.

                Old women who've never watched a football match in their lives are sneering at me on the street. "Calls himself a European finalist bagger ... pah! How's he gonnae bag the London XI then, Senga? Answer me that."

                "He cannae, Marjory, can he. The London XI wiz a wan aff. What a prick."

                "Aye - whit a useless prick"

                It's embarrassing. I have to bag them all. But how?

                I can nip down to Anfield, having already seen Liverpool years ago, to see Benfica and Bordeaux - easy. I can miss an Old Firm derby to dash over to North Rhine Westphalia the one weekend Fortuna Dusseldorf host Carl Zeiss Jena in the regional third division and score two losing CWC finalists in one fell swoop.

                I can get to the point where I am now. I can get to the point where I can say, over the last forty years, I've bagged, ticked-off, seen, breathed-the-same-air-as, paid to watch - collected two-thirds of the clubs to have played in a European final. BUT.

                But. But I can see Charlton, Brentford, QPR - the lot. I can see all XI London clubs who provided all the players for the London XI but I can NEVER SEE THE LONDON XI ... can NEVER PROPERLY GET THEM OFF MY LIST ... let's be honest - right now I'm telling myself I've seen 68 and 8/11ths of the total number of European finalists - that I've "not got" 33 and 3/11ths. BUT THIS IS A DELUSION!!! YOU CAN'T SPLIT A FINALIST INTO FRACTIONS??!! No-one catches "three-fifths" of a fish, walks out "half-way" through a Star Wars movie or spots "two carriages of a three-carriage train" ... no - wait a minute ... do they? ...

                Anyway - WHY DID THE LONDON XI HAVE TO REACH THE FUCKING FINAL??!! OH, WHYYYY ... etc.

                Aye - so - anyway. Looks like Walt's winning this one:

                Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                Only very recently though. I'll fly the (black eagle on a red background flag) for the Qemal Stafa, and claim 14 in all competitions.

                EC/CL
                KF Tirana, Partizani, 17 Nentori, Dinamo Tirana, Vllaznia
                UEFA/EL
                Skenderbeu, Tomori, Besa, Kukes, Tueta Durres, Bylis Ballsh
                ECWC
                KF Apolonia Fier, Flamutari Vlore, Albpetrol Patos
                Some spot, Walt. Nice.
                Last edited by Alex Anderson; 13-03-2018, 15:51. Reason: I've seen 8 out of the 11 London clubs. Deliberately saving Charlton til the very end - mark of respect to Eddie Firmani.

                Comment


                  Originally posted by Alex Anderson View Post
                  Some spot, Walt. Nice.
                  I can't even guarantee that there aren't some name changes amongst that lot, so could actually be less than 14. Anyway it was all just a ruse so I could point out that not only did I attend one of those - Kukes v Trabzonspor in the Europa League play off round - but the day before, while buying the tickets, I added the Qemal Stafa to my list of grounds that I had 'entered unofficially', and got as far as taking photos of my son and daughter sitting in the dugouts, before we got a chase off the janny, having first tried the innocent routine of 'just looking for the ticket office mate, someone said it was through here?'

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                    Entirely innocent Fairs Cup question. How many clubs were disallowed entry because the town/city in which they played didn't have a fair?

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                      Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                      I can't even guarantee that there aren't some name changes amongst that lot, so could actually be less than 14. Anyway it was all just a ruse so I could point out that not only did I attend one of those - Kukes v Trabzonspor in the Europa League play off round - but the day before, while buying the tickets, I added the Qemal Stafa to my list of grounds that I had 'entered unofficially', and got as far as taking photos of my son and daughter sitting in the dugouts, before we got a chase off the janny, having first tried the innocent routine of 'just looking for the ticket office mate, someone said it was through here?'
                      Now I'm just jealous. Spent a lifetime waiting for Scotland to draw Albania in something - so that's why I'm the one man in Europe who already loves the UEFA Nations League - but seeing them from the terrible sightlines and over the running track at Hampden in September is still the closest I'll ever have been to Albania (I used to take a pocketful of Rangers pin badges with me when I knew I'd be on a campaign of sneaking into grounds in any city I was visiting - but the look of disappointment on the groundsman's faces when they realised it wasn't money you were slipping them convinced me against continuing with this practice).
                      Last edited by Alex Anderson; 13-03-2018, 14:58. Reason: ... or maybe they'd just hoped it would be a Celtic badge. Natch.

                      Comment


                        Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                        Entirely innocent Fairs Cup question. How many clubs were disallowed entry because the town/city in which they played didn't have a fair?
                        Should be all of them. Supposed to be the only way you could get in. So they ended up disallowing the Fairs Cup and invented the UEFA Cup to replace it.

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                          Quite.

                          It wasn't so much a question of being "disallowed entry" as it was not being eligible in the first place. League position was irrelevant.

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                            Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                            Wrexham presumably could clock up a few?

                            Not all EC/CL in either case of course.
                            Off the top of my head: us, TNS, Bangor, Airbus, Druids...

                            Thing is these days, most of the north and mid-Wales teams that qualify for Europe tend to use Belle Vue (as it's cheaper) so Rhyl's got a claim too.

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                              Lest we forget the page number ...



                              ... okay, carry on.

                              Milan have played at least one European Cup home game at the nearby civic arena - the place built by Napoleon - instead of the San Siro, because the first leg, away, was won so convincingly against relative no-marks, that there was no financial justification in them opening up the Giuseppe Meazza.

                              It was Rangers - yes, okay, it was fucking Rangers.

                              The irony being we've played Inter at the San Siro in the Champions League in front of an even smaller crowd.
                              Last edited by Alex Anderson; 13-03-2018, 16:02. Reason: Or maybe there was a trades fair on at the San Siro that night ...

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                                As to the Albanian clubs:

                                KF Tirana - second tier
                                Partizani - first tier
                                17 Nentori - same club as KF Tirana, played as 17 Nentori upon orders of the Politburo
                                Dinamo Tirana - second tier
                                Vllaznia - first tier
                                Skenderbeu - first tier
                                Tomori Berat - second tier
                                Besa Kavajë - second tier
                                FK Kukësi - first tier and current champions
                                Teuta Durrës - first tier
                                Bylis Ballsh - second tier
                                KF Apolonia Fier - second tier
                                Flamutari Vlore - first tier
                                Albpetrol Patos - third tier

                                So a total of 13 different clubs.

                                The fact that less than half of them are currently in the Albanian Superliga is an indication of the post-Hoxha turmoil in Albanian society more generally.

                                Comment


                                  The Arena Civica was Inter's original home ground.



                                  ursus minor has competed in athletics there

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                                    Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                                    Hey, he's the one still punting the London XI. I should get some credit for drawing the line at the Intertoto.
                                    Is this where I mention seeing Cliftonville play at Windsor Park in the Intertoto?

                                    Comment


                                      Originally posted by Southport Zeb View Post
                                      Is this where I mention seeing Cliftonville play at Windsor Park in the Intertoto?
                                      Clear your desk of personal items, hand your pass in at security and ...

                                      Okay. Tell us the details - who Cliftonville were playing, what was up with Solitude at the time - and listen to me telling you about how I've seen both Dundee at Dens and Partick Thistle at Firhill in the Intertoto and reckon this makes me the only person in Europe to have seen two teams at their actual home grounds in the Intertoto - and THEN clear your desk, hand your pass in ...

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                                        I saw Zidane,Dugarry and Lizarazau play for Bordeaux in Dalymount park in the Intertoto so it's not totally without merit

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                                          Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                          The Arena Civica was Inter's original home ground.



                                          ursus minor has competed in athletics there
                                          Think that's the Montgolfier brothers flying out after the three foreigners rule saw them dropped from one Ambrosiana game too many ...

                                          Ursus Minor will of course have been deeply honoured to have competed in the same arena as the mighty Rangers - no-one should fulfil all their ambitions so young - and no doubt achieved a better result.

                                          There's a photo of me looking extremely geekish (I know - I know - my posts afford absolutely no hint) and staggeringly thin outside the entrance on the left of this pic. Just before I set off for the Milan derby of November 1994, I had to pay my respects ... to the Gers team so cruelly disrespected in December 1957.

                                          Comment


                                            Originally posted by Alex Anderson View Post
                                            Now I'm just jealous. Spent a lifetime waiting for Scotland to draw Albania in something - so that's why I'm the one man in Europe who already loves the UEFA Nations League - but seeing them from the terrible sightlines and over the running track at Hampden in September is still the closest I'll ever have been to Albania (I used to take a pocketful of Rangers pin badges with me when I knew I'd be on a campaign of sneaking into grounds in any city I was visiting - but the look of disappointment on the groundsman's faces when they realised it wasn't money you were slipping them convinced me against continuing with this practice).
                                            I went to Albania in 1989 with England, some magazine ran a trip, one of the many odd things that happened was that we played 25 a side on the pitch. Sadly the Qemel Stafa is no more, knocked down a couple of years ago to make way for something more refined.

                                            I saw three games there - at the first I was threatened by another England fan, at the second we had to admonish some Albanians who were making monkey noises at some of the England players and at the third there were cobble stones flying in from outside the ground and police battering everyone with batons. Happy memories.

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                                              ... and there was only one man responsible for that chaos, colchestersid;

                                              Comment


                                                Originally posted by Alex Anderson View Post
                                                ... and there was only one man responsible for that chaos, colchestersid;

                                                I had a chat with Norman at the airport going home in 2001, he was very touched that he was so fondly remembered in Albania

                                                Comment


                                                  Originally posted by Alex Anderson View Post
                                                  Think that's the Montgolfier brothers flying out after the three foreigners rule saw them dropped from one Ambrosiana game too many ...

                                                  Ursus Minor will of course have been deeply honoured to have competed in the same arena as the mighty Rangers - no-one should fulfil all their ambitions so young - and no doubt achieved a better result.

                                                  There's a photo of me looking extremely geekish (I know - I know - my posts afford absolutely no hint) and staggeringly thin outside the entrance on the left of this pic. Just before I set off for the Milan derby of November 1994, I had to pay my respects ... to the Gers team so cruelly disrespected in December 1957.
                                                  That’s an incredible stadium. I thought things of such size hadn’t been seen in Europe between Late Rome and the take-off of sport as a mass spectator activity in the late 19th Century (barring maybe bullfighting arenas).

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                                                    Even more impressive when flooded for rowing competitions

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