Let’s be honest. Some places in the world just speak to us and we don’t know why. It could be entire nations, obscure cities or very specific buildings, corners or points on a street. During this year’s pre-season season, I got the chance to visit one of mine. That place is Teruel, provincial capital of the region of the same name and the most southerly city in semi-autonomous Aragón in Spain’s north-west.
Needless to say that in the past 15 months it has been tough to find live Football games to attend, enjoy and subsequently write about. Travel has been limited, entry requirements into stadia have been very strict and – let’s be honest – in the grander scheme of things writing about Football fan culture has not been a high priority in the world recently. Since early March we have been to just one live Football match; a heavily regulated Tercera Group X league fixture between Xerez Deportivo and Rota. This weekend however that changes.
A small-time club that we have a bit of a soft spot for here at FBTG has hit a milestone today. Happy 8th Birthday to Xerez Deportivo Football Club – a sports team fighting to keep the Football traditions of a city alive and well.
One feature common to many cities across Catalonia is their “Rambla” – a surprisingly complex concept to describe when you stop and think about it. It is little more than a straight road (more or less), usually lined with trees either side that is located relatively centrally in the town in question. A suitable English translation could be something like “avenue” or “promenade”, but it’s a little more complicated than that.
They have done it again.
The Europa League trophy is going back home to the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium. Sevilla FC has just completed la Sexta. Continue reading
January sucks.
The weather remains as cold and dark as it was in December, but the pre-Christmas cheer has been entirely replaced by an emotional hollowness further compounded by the fact that we’re all broke. With so much post-party penny-pinching persisting, travelling to watch and write about Football becomes a lesser priority. But halfway through a bowl of soggy discount cereal this morning, an obvious question Continue reading
Still going strong, From Boothferry To Germany is now celebrating four years of Football Culture blogging. To mark the occasion, we have picked out our four favourite articles written on our site in the past 365 days Continue reading
Two games in eight hours played in cities located in two different Spanish provinces? Not a problem for the FBTG crew, but it made for a tight schedule. We dedicated our recent Sunday to the Beautiful Game as it is played in the lower leagues in the Continue reading
