As not all of the main European leagues had published their fixtures at the time, Wilkie proposed a late September trip to the northern Polish port of Gdansk, part of a 'Tricity' conurbation with Sopot and Gdynia.
Six immediately signed up for the trip to Gdansk with the prospect of both Lechnia Gdansk and Arka Gdynia playing at home in the top flight Ekstraklasa league.
Gdansk are due to play Krakow's Cracovia in their 41,000 capacity Stadion Energa Gdańsk, Arka are at home to Zaglebie Lubin. Arka's 15,000 capacity Stadion Miejski (GOSir) hosted games in the European Under-21 Championships in June.
Ekstraklasa fixtures can be scheduled from Friday evening to Monday evening; so we eagerly await confirmation of the dates / times in order to plan our tourist activities. Also, if either of these two fixtures don't work out for us then we would need to find alternative games in the lower leagues.
Wilkie also informed the group that the next two trips would in early November and early December. Top of the wish list are return trips to Turin, Italy to see Juventus in their new stadium and to northern Spain, to San Sebastian (Real Sociedad) and Pamplona (Osasuna).
We have good memories of the last trip to Turin in 2009 when we saw Torino play at the Olympic Stadium and also visited the remains of the famous Stadio Filadelfia ground where the Grande Torino team played until 1963. We were made welcome at the adjacent Torino supporters bar, adorned with colours and photos, including one Denis Law who played there for a season in the 60's. The site has since been developed into Torino's training ground.