Northern Ireland v Israel

Words Heidi McAlpin

vuvuzelas. And, in case you’re wondering, Wembley ranks fifth with a 90,310 capacity. Local league football also features in our stadium’s Education & Heritage Centre but it’s to Britain where vast numbers of fans swarm for club games and stadium tours. In 2015 Visit Britain's football tourism survey ranked Old Trafford and the Emirates Stadium joint top of the league table with 109,000 foreign visitors apiece, closely followed by Anfield with 99,000 visitors. Unsurprisingly, the highest numbers came from the Republic of Ireland, but fans from Norway and Sweden took second and third spots. Meanwhile, the National Football Museum in Manchester attracts around half a million visitors each year. Back at Windsor our stands are still dominated by local members of the GAWA. But Northern Ireland fans come from all over the world for home matches, making them as much a valued tourist as the away contingency. And those precious multi-generational GAWA memories often correlate with the National Stadium’s own timeline. Are you one of the 60,000 duncher-wearing, Woodbine rolling men who stood on the terraces in the ‘50s and ‘60s for the British Home Championships? Perhaps you began your spectating career in the all-seated Kop of the 1990s? Or maybe you’re enjoying canapes and champers in one of those freshly-minted hospitality suites (I’m not jealous)? Whatever your vintage the Education & Heritage Centre will have your reminiscences covered. Back to tonight’s big game, if you’re visiting from Israel shalom. Have a great time in Norn Iron (that’s short for Northern Ireland). Enjoy our unique atmosphere and take a shedload of selfies at those George Best and Euro 2016 murals. Whoever you are and wherever you’re from, as you amble towards your pew gaze up in awe at Our Wee Stadium and remember: size isn’t everything. Capacity: 18,614. Memories: Priceless.

In a 2015 survey FourFourTwo magazine ranked Boca Juniors’ and Argentina’s La Bombonera in Buenos Aires the World’s Best Football Stadium, its bouncing capabilities giving it a lifelike quality. Sound familiar? But its 46,000 capacity is somewhat overshadowed when compared with Barcelona's legendary Camp Nou. Runner-up in this particular ranking, its 48m high structure and 99k+ capacity live long in the memory of any visitor, which is just as well as an access-all-areas Players Experience Tour will cost you a princely €139. Tours may attract over one million visitors every year but I think I’ll stick to a matchday ticket in the nosebleeds. Messi and Suarez may look like dots on the pitch from my lofty perch but I can cope. And, by the way, construction is now under way for the new Camp Nou, which is set to cost £550m and, by 2022, increase capacity to a staggering 105,000. Completing the top three is Wembley Stadium whose iconic 21st century arch and Bobby Moore statue welcome visitors in their legion. And with VIP Tours setting you back a mere £60 it seems a steal compared with its Catalan cousin. If you're wondering about our stadium the hashtag #weexist springs to mind. They don’t know what they’re missing. I mean where else can you compare your hand size with Big Pat’s and trot pitchside for a mere £8.50? Back at the top end in terms of capacity, Pyongyang’s May Day Stadium is the world’s largest football cauldron with room for a whopping 114,000 baying (or, more likely, extremely well- behaved) fans. Pitchside or VIP Tours are difficult to come by at this monster construction. Then again so is a website. Or for that matter direct flights from Belfast to North Korea. Surely only a matter of time… The aforementioned Camp Nou is the world’s second biggest football stadium and Soccer City in Johannesburg comes in third with room for 94,736 fans. That’s a headache-inducing amount of

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