FANCY WATCHING a game of football on the side of an active volcano?
Or maybe you would prefer the 90-minute experience of sitting high up a mountain pass, perched on a slender goat trail?
The thing about new grounds these days is that while they cost billions of pounds to build, more often than not they all look the same and lack uniqueness or character.
There is something thrilling and wonderful about watching a match played in bizarre or strange surroundings – locations far removed from the pristine, copycat comfort of the Premier League.
Author Leon Gladwell went on a two-year voyage to discover and photograph 100 of Europe’s wackiest and strangest venues, travelling more than 130,000 miles across 71 trips.
He has collected them all into a glossy new book European Football’s Greatest Grounds.
And SunSport has put together 10 of the most remarkable, bucket-list places on the continent where you can go and watch the Beautiful Game.
Campo di Calcio Zuel (Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy)
The Trampolino Olimpico, a ski jumping hill in the Dolomites, was opened in 1923 and was used as a venue during the 1956 Winter Olympics.
The faded Olympic Rings are still visible from the bottom of the 49-metre high launch ramp.
Yet there is no chance of Eddie ‘The Eagle’ flying over the goalposts because the jump has been closed for 35 years.
During the summer months, when the snow has melted, the area below is used for junior football, thanks to the installation of a football pitch by Serie A giants AC Milan.
It also has a key place in movie history – it was the scene of a famous ski jump by James Bond in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only.
Campo Gerini (Rome, Italy)
Italian stadiums might look old and rundown but that is part of their charm and romanticism.
Anyone who grew up watching the Italia ‘90 World Cup on TV will instantly recognise some of the famous yet tired arenas that hosted the world’s best footballers 35 years ago.
One of the nation’s quirkiest grounds can be located in its capital Rome, eleven kilometres south-east of the Colosseum, in the second-largest urban park in Europe.
Campo Gerini hosts various football factions seven days a week, from junior sides right through to senior matches in Italy’s ninth tier.
Some of the pitches are located next to a decaying aqueduct built in 50 BC during the reign of Emperor Claudius.
Yet the future of the area is in doubt after 40 hectares of land (the equivalent of 60 football pitches) were sold to private individuals, including a supermarket entrepreneur, in 2023.
Eriskay (Scotland)
Eriskay is a remote island in the Outer Hebrides and is barely four kilometres in length.
With a population of just 143, it is one of the smallest regions to support a football club.
And Barnet’s old uphill slope is nothing compared to this imperfect playing surface.
The bumpy, bobbly Cnoc Na Monadh pitch, with his wobbly touchlines, has a “wee hill in the corner” and as such, one of the corner flags is as high as the crossbar.
Occasionally, stray sheep might make a beeline for the centre circle and after every winter, groundstaff have to painstakingly remove all the local wildlife’s POO.
Fifa’s World Football Museum gave Eriskay worldwide recognition in 2015, branding it as one of the eight most remarkable places in the world to play football.
Post-match drinks can be enjoyed in the island’s only pub, Am Politician, which is named after the celebrated shipwreck.
Feldstrasse (Hamburg, Germany)
Hamburg’s historic SC Hansa 11 club has a unique claim to fame – it is next door to a gargantuan Nazi-built Second World War BUNKER.
Two artificial pitches in this inner-city sports ground are flanked by the astonishing Flakturm IV.
This air raid shelter was built in the 1940s under orders from Adolf Hitler to protect the country from Allied air attack.
An anti-aircraft gun has long gone from the imposing concrete blockhouse tower and it has since been converted into a public rooftop terrace, which doubles up as a live music venue.
On the other side of the ground is the Millerntor-Stadion, which is home to Bundesliga side, FC St. Pauli, a must-see destination for all football hipsters.
Grigoris Lambrakis Municipal Stadium (Athens, Greece)
The best stadiums are not really the ones located off a motorway, far out of town, next to a shopping centre, with ample parking spots.
The most interesting ones exist within a deprived community, perhaps next to a housing estate, in a hustling, bustling city, which has been dwarfed by the skyward creep of urbanisation.
Athens Kallithea FC’s ground, known locally as El Paso, is one such neighbourhood spot and some lucky fans can watch action in Greece’s top division from their apartment block windows.
Otherwise punters can perch on limestone cliffs that roll around half the pitch, standing behind coils of barbed wire and iron railings.
In the mid-1960s, Sergio Leone’s spaghetti-western classic For a Few Dollars More, starring Clint Eastwood, was released in Greece under the name Duel in El Paso.
Kallithea used that nickname and to this day, they run on to the pitch to the dustbowl strains of Ennio Morricone’s haunting score.
Gryluvollur (Hveragerdi, Iceland)
There is no danger of flooding or soggy pitches for Iceland lower-league side FC Hamar.
That is because underneath their hillside ground are boiling underground rivers hot enough to cook an EGG.
Situated on the slopes of the Grændalur volcano, fumarole vents near the touchline and in neighbouring backyards belch plumes of sulphuric steam into the air.
A Gryla geyser lies dormant just 70 metres from the pitch and until the late 1990s, it would often shoot boiling jets of water up to 12 metres high during matches.
At least for those who live in this alien landscape in the little village of Hverageroi (which translates as ‘hot spring garden’), players can use the gases to steam-dry their match-day kits.
Janosovka (Cierny Balog, Slovakia)
Ideally, a football ground needs to have good, reliable transport links – but there is one in Slovakia which takes that concept to its extreme.
One slumberous village in Cierny Balog actually has a STEAM TRAIN that passes directly by, just metres from the pitch and only a few feet from one of the grandstands.
A busy logging railway used to haul timber up and down the valley for more than 80 miles of narrow gauge track for almost 75 years.
These days, it is a heritage railway for tourists but the line goes straight through the ground of this semi-professional club.
There are no confirmed accidents involving trains at the ground but the chairman often jokes that a few of his wingers should hop on and off to get them up the line a bit quicker.
Yet anyone planning a Rory Delap-style long run-up for their throw-ins might think again…
Kvarlis Tsentraluri Stadioni (Kvareli, Georgia)
Kvareli Duruji FC in Georgia’s fifth division play football inside the walls of a medieval CASTLE.
The rural 17th-century fortress, which has an iron-studded entrance gate, has wooden grandstands and can house up to 2,500 fans.
Legend has it that a player once went down headfirst into a sinkhole that emerged during one match in 1978.
That has since been filled in and bricked over but underneath the pitch are tunnels and rooms that were built to store earthenware vessels used for the fermentation and ageing of local wine.
When Gladwell went there, a special friendly match was arranged in his honour and his son Noah was allowed to play – even though he ended up missing a key penalty.
Valloyran (Sandavagur, Faroe Islands)
Those who live in the Faroe Islands can get to church on time on a Sunday – and then, after their prayers, have a little kickabout next door.
One of the country’s 26 grounds – in the seaside fishing village of Sandavagur – is overlooked by a beautiful red-roofed wooden church and cemetery.
There are so few seats that it is essentially standing room only around this tiny football field – but you could choose to watch from your car given how close you can park behind one of the goals.
The artificial pitch ensures few games are called off but spectators have to wrap up warm in the face of the fierce Faroese weather.
Yenisehir Stadyumu (Gumushane, Turkey)
The city of Gumushane, which is 3,970ft above sea level, lies on the ancient Silk Road, the historic trade route from China to Turkey.
To reach their football club, you have to endure a hair-raising zig-zagging journey along the Zigana Pass in the Pontic Mountains.
Fans can either watch from the grandstands or, to avoid buying a ticket, find a spot up on the uphill goat paths.
Pity the poor groundsman who has to work with a pitch that sees little sunlight due to the towering walls of red rock that encircle the ground.
It is one of the most remote places to visit in Europe, several hours outside of Black Sea resort Trabzon, but also one of the most special.
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