City that scored biggest crowds
QUESTION Did Glasgow once have the world’s three largest sports stadiums? Can any other city compare?
GLASGOW has been a city of football since the early days of the game.
By the early 1900s, it had the three biggest football grounds in the world — Hampden Park, Ibrox Stadium and Celtic Park, which even then had a combined capacity of more than 200,000.
As well as being Scotland’s national ground, Hampden Park was originally home to Queen’s Park, the oldest football club in Scotland, founded in 1867.
By the 1930s the crowds were vast. A 1937 Scotland v England fixture attracted a European record crowd of 149,415. Scotland ran out 3-1 winners.
The following week 146,433 packed into Hampden for the Scottish Cup Final where Celtic took on Aberdeen. This match set two more records for Hampden Park — the largest ever attendances for both a European domestic game and a National Cup Final anywhere in the world. Celtic won 2-1.
Rangers’ Ibrox had a record attendance for a league match of 118,567 in a fixture against Old Firm rivals Celtic, and Celtic Park had a record of 83,500 in the reverse fixture in 1938.
London has had more big stadiums but can’t compare with these numbers. Wembley’s record attendance (at the old stadium) was 126,047 in 1923 for the FA Cup Final. The largest-ever attendance was at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Officially, 173,850 watched Brazil v Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup ‘Final’ (it was the last game in a four-team final group) but 199,854 is generally given. Eddie Marsh, Manchester.
QUESTION Have soccer teams in other countries had any incidents similar to the Roy Keane row in Saipan?
ONE similar incident occurred at the 1994 World Cup, and involved the German midfielder Stefan Effenberg. Like Keane, Effenberg was a player of the highest calibre, but also a rather temperamental character.
He started for the Germans in all of their group games at the ’94
World Cup in the USA, but things went awry when he was substituted in the last of those three matches, a 3-2 victory over South Korea.
German fans had been vocal in their displeasure at Effenberg’s below-par performance, and the midfielder, in characteristically bolshie style, gave them the finger as he left the field. Recalling the incident later on, the player said: ‘The German fans booed from beginning to end, particularly when I had the ball. I was furious and finally gave them the finger.
‘But it was more of a reflex and hardly anyone had noticed. It was only after the game that somebody informed the coach.’
However, the manager, Berti Vogts, was unimpressed, and sent the player home. Explaining why he gave Effenberg the boot, Vogts said: ‘It was the last straw. I will not allow a player to make an obscene gesture like that to the crowd. As far as I am concerned
Effenberg is over as an international player. He has done too much in recent years.’
Effenberg was unimpressed with the manager’s decision, saying: ‘The way the coach reacted was ridiculous.
‘I have talked to some of the players and they don’t understand why I have to go.’
Germany ultimately had a disappointing tournament, exiting at the quarter-final stage. Effenberg’s exile from the international set-up continued after this incident, though he did make a brief return in 1998. John Murtagh, Co. Meath
QUESTIONS
Q: I read a horror story called How Grim Was My Valley (a play on How Green Was My Valley). What other novel titles have been twisted to similar effect?
Mr T. L. Llewellyn, Wrexham. Q: Are there any famous rock bands or musicians from the North Riding of Yorkshire?
Peter Smith, Durham. Q: If you stand on the North Pole which way does your compass point? Guy Jackson, Stroud,
Gloucestershire.
QUESTION In terms of road safety, is there a ranking of colours in which cars are sprayed, safest to least safe?
STUDIES have shown light colours to be the safest.
An extensive study by the Monash University Accident Research Centre analysed more than 855,000 crashes from between 1982 and 2004 in the Australian states of Victoria and Western Australia.
It showed that white cars are 12% less likely to get into an accident than black cars, regardless of the time of day. Cream, yellow, and beige cars ranked closely behind white. Black was the most dangerous. D. B. Samuels, Hereford.
QUESTION Did Humphrey Davy administer laughing gas to the audience at his lectures?
THE previous answer listed Davy’s many achievements. Towards the end of his life he was asked what was his most important discovery. He replied, ‘Michael Faraday’, his assistant for many years.
Derek Britchford, London Colney, Hertfordshire. O
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