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“After St Mirren beat Celtic in the Scottish League Cup, I wondered where it actually is,” writes Dan J. “The answer is (as everyone bar me knew) Paisley, right next to Glasgow airport. Which got me wondering, which team is closest to an airport? I reckon Glentoran, next to Belfast City, and Eastleigh, virtually in Southampton airport, are in with a shout. And Charlton if you are happy to swim part of the way. Any closer ones?”
We had so many answers to this question, so thank you to one and all. Let’s start with a ground that is but a thunderclap away from the nearest airport. “The Icelandic football club Valur is near Rekjavík airport, which is mostly a domestic airport, but also has some international flights,” writes Kári Tulinius. “The distance from the fence around the airport to Valur’s fence is about 150 metres. From training pitch to the nearest piece of airport tarmac is 230m, and from corner flag to the end of the runway is 380m. All of these distances were measured with Google Maps.”
From Iceland to Ireland. “The second city of Cork provides not one but two clubs who will do well to be beaten,” writes Tom Stafford. “The pitches of Munster Senior League side Everton AFC (former club of Denis Irwin) back on to the boundary of Cork airport, and footballs landing over the fence is not uncommon. Further down the road along the boundary fence is ALSA Park, home of Sunday league side Greenwood, equally bordering the airport albeit more towards the runway.”
Fraser Smith may have come even closer. “I reckon you’d have to go some to beat the entire 12-team Gibraltar Football League, who all play their matches at the Victoria Stadium.”
Never mind Row Z; defenders could be encouraged to put it on the runway.
The Victoria Stadium is the best answer we received, though these airport-adjacent grounds are also worthy of mention.
Eco-Power Stadium, Doncaster “Doncaster’s current ground is built on land that was once part of the old Doncaster airport – home to various RAF squadrons and flying schools from the early 1900s until 1992,” writes Andy Wainwright. “Rovers’ former ground of Belle Vue was literally next door to the defunct airport and was reputed to be the only English football ground with red lights on the floodlights to warn low-flying aircraft of their presence.”
PayPal Park, California “This is about 375 feet away from a buffer of hangars before the runway at San Jose international airport,” writes Tim Dockery. “The stadium is home to MLS’s Earthquakes and seats about 18,000 people. This year it was host to several Concacaf Gold Cup games.”
The Airfield, Broughton “Airbus UK Broughton FC of Cymru North (the Welsh second tier) play about 200 metres from the runway of Hawarden airport – which is home to the Airbus factory, hence the location,” writes Rollo Treadway.
Jepson Way, Blackpool “AFC Blackpool of the North West Counties League first division north play at Jepson Way, which is next door to Blackpool airport,” writes Michael Haughey.
Aspmyra Stadion, Bodø “Bodø/Glimt’s ground, Aspmyra Stadion, is a one-minute drive from Bodø airport,” writes our own Will Unwin. “In terms of walking it is 1.1km and takes 15 minutes.”
Europa-Park Stadion, Freiburg “Fence to fence: 25m,” specifies Mykola Kozlenko. “The home of the Bundesliga side SC Freiburg is literally across the road from Freiburg airport (which, however, has no regular flights).”
Edgeley Park, Stockport “This must qualify as the ground closest to the final approach flight path of any league football ground,” writes Graham Allsopp. “The planes are directly overhead and just five miles from Manchester airport.”
Goals (not) on film
“Which goal was the last in the English top flight that wasn’t caught on camera?” asks Tom Solan.
The 1988-89 season, when the television rights passed from BBC to ITV, was the first time a TV channel attempted to show a weekly roundup of every single top-flight goal. It also meant that every club could release a standardised end-of-season VHS. But in the following season, 1989-90, fans of Derby County only got to see 42 of the 43 league goals scored by their team.
“Can I throw in a game I attended back in October 1989?” asks David Hopkins. “Derby managed a 4-1 win over Crazy Gang-era Wimbledon, with most of the attention on the debutant Dean Saunders. Mel Sage scored a rare and, I vaguely remember, long-range goal to put Derby 2-1 up. However, it was omitted from the TV roundup the following day and then again from the end-of-season video. I’ve always assumed this was due to a technical fault.”
There was certainly a technical fault during Liverpool’s trip to the Etihad in December 2003. “I was working on the outside broadcast for ITV’s The Premiership and the generator broke in the second half meaning we lost all power to the truck and the cameras,” writes Mick McGrath. “As it was booting back up, Vladimir Smicer scored for Liverpool. With no power we had no way of filming it or recording it. The floor manager found that Manchester City had a tactical camera up high behind the opposite goal and they brought it to the truck, but you can’t see how the goal was scored. The highlights are on YouTube. I remember Des Lynam making a joke of it that night on the show.”
Knowledge archive
A number of you wrote in to ask about Liverpool’s substitution chain in their victory at Spurs just before Christmas: Conor Bradley was replaced by Alexander Isak, who was replaced by Jeremie Frimpong, who was replaced by Federico Chiesa. We had a similar question from Doremus Schafer in 2024, when we responded thus:
An anorak’s dream has been hiding in plain sight. As Edmund Johnson points out, there was a chain of four players and three substitutions when Watford played Hull in December 2022. Hamza Choudhury, on loan to Watford from Leicester City, went off injured after 15 minutes and was replaced by Joseph Hungbo. He didn’t have his finest game and was replaced by Rey Manaj in the 71st minute. In injury-time, Manaj suffered an injury and was replaced by Vakoun Bayo. Alas, with other substitutes waiting, Bayo got through the rest of the game unscathed.”
Can you help?
“On 2 March 1968 Leeds United won their first major trophy when they defeated Arsenal in the League Cup final,” writes Gordon Smith. “The match was televised by ITV but not shown live; instead highlights were shown the next day in the London area. I don’t think the highlights were shown in the Yorkshire area.
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Can anybody confirm whether my memory is correct?
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When was the League Cup final first televised?
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Have other clubs won major honours during the television age but their victories were not shown on TV?”
“Which was the first team in England to field 11 internationals in the same team?” asks Geraint Morgan.
“With Chelsea and Manchester United both looking for new managers, I wondered: which men or women have turned down the biggest jobs in club football?” asks Silvio Gualtieri.
“Moise Kean was named player of the match after scoring the winning goal for Fiorentina against Cremonese despite only arriving on the pitch as an 85th-minute substitute. The match ended at 95min 31sec. Is this a record for the shortest time a player of the match has been on the pitch? It appears to beat the examples in a previous Knowledge dating back to 2008,” writes Gregg Bakowski. If you know of anyone who can beat Kean’s 10-and-a-half minutes, do get in touch.
“Al-Nassr have been drawn against Arkadag in the AFC Champions League Two, making it highly likely that Cristiano Ronaldo will play in Turkmenistan,” notes Jack Hayward. “This got me thinking: what is the highest-ranked nation in the Fifa world rankings that a Ballon d’Or winner has never played in?”
“The Finland defender Tero Mäntylä scored four senior goals across a 15-year career, all of them in knockout ties. Has anyone been more prolific in cup knockout matches without scoring so much as a single league goal?” wonders Kári Tulinius.
“Berwick Rangers began and ended 2025 with a 2-1 win at Gala Fairydean Rovers,” notes Dan Crowe. “Has a team ever bookended a calendar year in this way before?”
