The worst stadium in Europe « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. 800,000 visits last month

By Walter Broeckx

As Tony recently wrote an article about some terrible grounds in the UK I must say that one of my favourite things during the holidays is going to stadiums. I usually take a tour when I can and so I have seen some fine stadiums in the world. Most grounds in Holland are new and shining and very comfortable.

But this supposed to be about worse stadiums and the worst stadium I know… is the one nearest to my home. It is the ground called “De Bosuil” which you could translate as “The wood owl”. The home of the oldest club in Belgium R. Antwerp FC.

When the stadium was at its best it could contain some 60.000 people and had 2 huge terraces behind the goals and two big sitting stands beneath the pitch. It was the place where Belgium used to play its most important international games: Belgium – Holland.

The oldest club in the country, the biggest stadium in the country, one can imagine how proud the fans of this club were.

But during the ’70 and ’80 the stadium began to rot. I don’t know if the translation is correct but it had concrete rot as they called it. Together with this came the hooliganism and the combination of a stadium that is falling to peaces, literally, and hooligans is the worst combination you can imagine.

As a kid I went every now and then when there was a promising game on or when my local team had to play a derby game and mostly lost. I supported what you could call the Crystal Palace of Antwerp.

The things I have seen thrown was incredible. First the home fans would throw all their glass bottles to the opposing fans and when everything was broken or thrown they just hammered on the concrete and the concrete pieces that came lose where used as projectiles. They actually brought hammers to the ground to hit at the concrete. This was real madness. If Antwerp played a game against another top club or a derby game it was riots before, during and after the game.

The stadium itself, like I said as rotten as can be has on the one end a big sitting stand which is called the “little stand”. I never could understand the name little as it is the biggest stand but I really think the adjective little was named because of the roof.

You had to pay for a sitting place on a covered stand but only the last 12 rows of the stand is actually covered. So on a grey day you had to be in early to be sure that you had a place under the roof if it would begin to rain.

And when it started to rain you had a mass of people moving higher up the stand to find a dry spot. But even as you sat under the roof this didn’t mean you would stay dry. No if the wind was blowing from the wrong direction there wasn’t a dry spot on the whole stand because the roof was placed way to high to cover the stand. And when the wind was not blowing…you could just be sitting under a hole in the roof and become soaking wet.

Every now and then when there was a storm some peaces of the roof came lose and if lucky it blew over the rest of the roof but if unlucky it could fall down upon your head.

So whatever the weather it was always and adventure to go there and you never knew if you would get home safe or not. Be it for the hooligans or the weather, you never could say it was dull.

Oh yes there were toilets in the stands. I think some two urinals and two cubicles.   For a stand where some 15.000 people could sit! I don’t know which diseases you could catch there because only a person who could not smell and was blind would dare to enter those facilities. The walls were brown but I never discovered if it was paint or ….

This was the condition in my childhood (35 years ago) and the last time I went there (2 seasons ago) it looked as if nothing has changed there over the years. And this facilities was for the home fans.

Well to be fair, something did change over the years. The two giant terraces behind the goals disappeared and made room for a new and comfortable and nice stand behind one goal. The other new stand is what we call “De viskom” which you can translate as ‘the fishbowl”. Behind the goal there is a large wall of some 10 meter high and above it is a huge glass wall with seating areas behind it. This is where the rich people go and sit and can have meals. But it is as ugly as the face of Wayne Rooney to look at.

Well in fact RAFC, as it is known by their fans, has a partnership with MU, so this could explain a lot.

It is the oldest club in our country, it is feared for the worst hooligans in our country, and it has the ugliest stadium in our country.

Oh yes indeed, if you ever would come in Antwerp some day no need to check the tour dates. There are none. Maybe I should start some tours under the name: “Horror for football fans”.

And if ever in Antwerp, call me, I will show you some nicer peaces of my town.

MAKING THE ARSENAL: The novel that describes the foundation of the modern Arsenal 100 years ago is available through www.emiratesstadium.info and via Amazon.

WOOLWICH ARSENAL: The day to day activities – and the fight for survival – of our club 100 years ago, recorded on the daily blog: www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk Today: Whatever happened to Football Fiction?

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