Smallest Top Flight club

[JC_GUFC]

I was just reading that Ballinamallard has a population of just over 1300 according to the latest UK census.
Just wondering if there are any top flight clubs in European leagues from smaller towns? I guess some Faroese or Andorran clubs are possibilities.

[peadar1987]

Not quite the same, but I was reminded of this article, which was an interesting read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/13/stadiums-capacity-town-population-knowledge

[peadar1987]

More relevantly, the Faroe Islands seem to sweep the "small towns in the top flight category", featuring:

Toftir: 823
Streymnes: ~400 (and a team in the Europa League)
Vagur: 1361
Fuglafjordur: 1562
Tvoroyri: 1785
Gota: 548

Other small countries get a little weird:

Andorra is so mountainous, all the teams share stadia in Andorra la Vella, which has a population of 22,000.

Teams from Liechtenstein play in the Swiss system.

I had a look at San Marino, turns out that teams aren't really tied to a town as such, they just all go into a hat, and the stadium they play their next game at is chosen at random.

There are probably others scattered around the place, but I'm not looking beyond the obvious ones!

[pineapple stu]

Probably going to be hard to top EB/Streymur from the Faroese village of Streymnes - population per wikipedia of 201. They are also reigning champions!

[peadar1987]

Probably going to be hard to top EB/Streymur from the Faroese village of Streymnes - population per wikipedia of 201. They are also reigning champions!

Reigning champions!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gJMCSTp8SGs/S2L1izz_wXI/AAAAAAAACx8/RylC3Cf5-gM/s1600/vio_margair_faroe_islands.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gJMCSTp8SGs/S2L1izz_wXI/AAAAAAAACx8/RylC3Cf5-gM/s1600/vio_margair_faroe_islands.jpg

No, seriously, this appears to be their actual stadium!

Edit: Looks like it might kind of be the Faroese version of the Carlisle

[pineapple stu]

Yep; I've been there. :) Myself and Bald Student cycled from Torshavn over a couple of hours; were wrecked at the end cos it was so hilly. Went into the hotel - which had a campsite out front for our tents - and asked if they did food. They did. Could we have a menu? We were told that there was no menu as such; there was steak. One of the nicest meals I have ever had!

Though wiki says they've moved to another village, so while they may originally have come from Eidi (or certainly one of the teams that merged came from Eidi), they play in a different village now?

They played Man City in the UEFA Cup a few years back. The game was moved from the above ground...

[Charlie Darwin]

Luck you're not a vegetarian!

[pineapple stu]

Suppose you could have just had the veg then!

[peadar1987]

Yep; I've been there. :) Myself and Bald Student cycled from Torshavn over a couple of hours; were wrecked at the end cos it was so hilly. Went into the hotel - which had a campsite out front for our tents - and asked if they did food. They did. Could we have a menu? We were told that there was no menu as such; there was steak. One of the nicest meals I have ever had!

Though wiki says they've moved to another village, so while they may originally have come from Eidi (or certainly one of the teams that merged came from Eidi), they play in a different village now?

They played Man City in the UEFA Cup a few years back. The game was moved from the above ground...

Whale steak?

Seriously though that's a pretty amazing ground-hopping achievement you've got yourself there

[pineapple stu]

No, just proper steak. With pepper sauce, and a side plate of chips, and another side plate of veg, and a jug of water, and a bottle of beer. Exactly what was called for. (Except maybe cider instead of beer)

Was over for the Ireland game in 2005. I'd love to claim that I'd gone out deliberately for a match, but...!

Though I think I've been at football games in close on 30 countries at this stage, so my ground-hopping is decent enough anyway. :)

[Gather round]

Schalke (nowadays a district of Gelsenkirchen) isn't that much bigger than Enniskillen (if not Ballinamallard).

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelsenkirchen-Schalke

[ArdeeBhoy]

Except that it's part of the Ruhr conurbation and their old stadium held up to 70k on occasion, whilst the new one holds over 60k.

So hardly 'small, by any stretch of the imagination...
:rolleyes: