7 top flight football matches in 7 different countries in 7 days. Just writing that makes me feel tired. Excited, but tired.
I've always had a passion for football,as well as travelling. Unfortunately, I also have a 'passion' for getting drunk with my mates & talking myself into stupid scenarios that I then refuse to back down from. This has led me to overnight trips to Basle, Switzerland for no apparent reason, or a mini-tour of Scotland following a Friday night in a pub in St Albans,Herts, to be home in time to play sunday league football. (over 24 hrs of drinking & travelling is not fun when followed by starting in central midfield straight after. Even less fun when you concede with the last kick to take the game into extra time!)
Both of these occasions were shared with my good mate, Paul, who was best man at my wedding. The reason I'm mentioning these is to give whoever's bothered to read this some insight into how this idea came to fruition.
It seems relatively straightforward in this day & age(!), so we decided to set some boundaries. First of all, the games have to be top flight,(or both top level teams in a cup competition) to prevent us from just filling with mickey mouse local teams. Secondly, we can only use public transport (planes, trains & automobiles). The flights we're taking (there are now quite a few) for some sick, perverse reason, must be Ryanair. Anyone who's ever travelled with them will understand why this is the most nerve-wracking part of the journey for me. We have to work within a set budget (I'll get to that later) & we're at the complete mercy of the fixture list. We thought we could put together some sort of social commentary piece on how Sky are ruining football by messing around fixtures at short notice, but that idea fell away (truth be told, I've learned throughout this process that Sky are a very lesser evil in terms of European tv affecting fixtures- I'm writing this 2 weeks before we set off & just today we lost a very crucial fixture in our plan. We now have absolutely none of the games we initially plotted to take in on our itinerary).
I'm an Evertonian, whereas Paul is a Spurs fan, so we decided with everton playing Spurs on the sunday after a European week, that would be the week we would go for it. We had planned a preliminary route & once the Champions League & Europa League draws were made, we hastily ripped that up, as not many fixtures fell our way. I think at this point, there must have been 30 different fixtures on the agenda. I still expect to be brainstorming when we inevitably get let down again
Unfortunately, whilst we were putting this all together, Paul had to pull out due to work reasons, & the whole thing seemed very improbable. Until 2 other mates, Jamie & Dean stepped forward to keep the dream alive. Both in their (very) late 30's, Jamie's a Chelsea fan, whilst Dean keeps the Spurs connection alive. Both are top lads, who won't make the drinking side of these 7 days any easier, but the banter (I really hate that word, but it seems apt) will certainly be top notch
Whilst I've been putting this trip together, a lot of people have asked what charity we're fundraising for. The truth is, this is a once in a lifetime experience for us, which will involve watching some of the best football in the world, whilst seeing some of Europe's finest cities (through beer goggles), so to be asking people to sponsor us to do so, seems extremely vulgar to me & I would be cynical of anyone collecting money in this fashion. However, for the past 6 months or so, I've been following a blog written by the family of Oscar Knox (http://oscarknox.blogspot.co.uk/). Oscar is a 4 year old boy from Northern Ireland who was diagnosed last year with neuroblastoma, an extremely rare & aggressive form of childhood cancer.His family are aiming to raise £250,000 to give Oscar the best treatment possible, whilst assisting other children with this disease & the fundraising campaign that has taken place in Oscar's name has been nothing short of phenomenal. As a former pub landlord, I wanted to organise a fundraiser in Oscar's name but felt I had lost the contacts to make it a big enough success since moving to Manchester. I decided to try & tie this trip into raising awareness for oscar's story. I contacted Oscar's family asking if it was acceptable to get a flag made up bearing Oscar's name, twitter /facebook account details (@Wee_Oscar #TeamOscar facebook.com/OscarKnoxAppeal) to raise awareness via televised games in the biggest stadia in Europe. This is the reason why I am now writing this blog. We set off in 2 weeks time & are now very likely to make complete fools of ourselves by keeping everyone at home informed of our exploits, via this & various social media networks, as well as promoting Oscar's justgiving page at every opportunity, via every available platform (: https://www.justgiving.com/donation/sponsor?process=1&queryId=cABhAGcAZQA9ADQAMQA1ADYAMQA4ADcA ). This, of course, also leaves us very vulnerable to the possibility of not completing it (at the time of writing, having just lost said key fixture, we're in line to do 7 games but in 6 countries. Also, 1 of the games is a potential sell-out, leaving us 4 hrs from arrival to negotiate 3 tickets without speaking the language. Particularly looking forward to that bit)
We are currently even sweating on the flag itself, but confident it will be made in time. If not, it'll be a home-made bedsheet but its the most important component of this trip now & I will be working a lot more to raise awareness of Oscar's story throughout this
So, here's the itinerary, as it currently stands. Monday 3rd December has proved to be truly tricky date for European football, so we have had to start right here in England with Newcastle vs Wigan. As I had only 4 days holiday remaining, I am having to go to work, in Manchester that day, whilst Jamie & Dean are booked on a train up from St Albans. 8pm ko, & then we're on the MegaBus (the £1 ones with Dara O'Briain's face on the back-charged us more than £1 & all) to Glasgow. We arrive in Glasgow at 2.40am, so have had to find a hotel with a 24 hr check in. From Glasgow, we fly (Ryanair, of course) to Paris (by Paris, I mean some town within 2 hrs of it), landing just 4 hours before kick off. As of now, PSG, who play Porto that night, are only selling tickets as a package with their lesser fixture against Troyes, at 120 euros each, putting them way out of our budget, so we're up against it for this one. From Paris, we fly to Barcelona, where we'll be taking in (hopefully) Barcelona vs Benfica. Thursday,we're flying to Milan for Inter vs Neftci in the Europa League. Friday night was supposed to be Heracles vs Utrecht, but due to Saturday's fixture moving (I'm getting to that), we've decided to go to Hamburg vs Hoffenheim instead, freeing up Ajax vs Groningen on the Saturday night. However, we have already booked flights from Milan to Eindhoven, (at 6am no less!) & Ryanair were never going to allow us to change that. So, it's a train from Eindhoven to Hamburg for no apparent reason, then Hamburg to Amsterdam the following day. Following the Ajax game, much to Jamie & Deano's disdain, we aren't spending the night in the Dam, instead opting for Brussels. This is due to a 9am flight from Charleroi back into Manchester, to get a train across to Liverpool in time to get home to Goodison, for said spurs game. I believe Paul will be joining us for this one, whilst Jamie will be joining me in the Gwladys st end, due to his "dislike of all things Tottenham"
As I've mentioned earlier, we are restricted to a strict budget, so every penny counts with travel, accomodation, match tickets, the flag itself, & of course, drink to be covered by this. I suppose food, as well.
As we had lost out on the monday game, our plan was to travel from Almelo (where the Heracles-Utrecht game is being played) down to Monchengladbach to see Borussia play Mainz at 3.30, only to leave early to make it to Liege in time for Standard vs Charleroi at 8pm (& hope to blag a lift to the airport with away fans, I suppose). This allowed us to exclude the Everton game & still make 7 games in 7 different countries within the 7 day window. As I also mentioned earlier, the Monchengladbach game was earlier today moved to the sunday, hence the rearranged schedule,& the 2 games in 1 day idea was no more. This means we've still got 7 games in 7 days,but only 6 countries. (already got the 4 EFC-Spurs tickets in hand, so no chance of doing a game that sunday instead).
Brainwave. Scotland,on the sunday before we're due to start. The only game that fits the criteria, however, is the Edinburgh derby. I've always fancied going to Hibs (I'm currently reading Skagboys, Irvine Welsh's prequel to Trainspotting, which paints a real picture of Leith), however, having spent £100 of our budget on Jamie & Dean's (non-refundable) tickets to Newcastle, from St Albans, the following day,& tickets to the derby, understandably, only on sale to those supporters with a purchase history at Hibs, this seems to be yet another challenge along the way
So, I think this, my first ever blog, is long-winded & boring enough for now, but I just wanted to convey the logic behind this trip, what we've had to endure thus far (it has been a whole lot more, but I've summed up. Seriously.)
I will aim to update it regularly, with pictures of the flag, once sorted, maps, a twitter account & a facebook page, as well as more details of Oscar's pages, before eventually pictures & details of the trip itself
EDIT- adding our justgiving link to the original blog
https://www.justgiving.com/7ma7ches7coun7ries7days
Many thanks
Baz
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