More from Mr Prolific.....This really shows how Wilkie Tours works !
WilkieTour # 8 - August 2003
Where do fans of European football go in mid-Summer to experience a game on the continent? If not to take in a pre-season friendly or some meaningless tournament, then there are few options. Certainly, there is none to be found in France, Italy or Spain until August and a July start in Austria or Switzerland is a relatively expensive option.
After searching for cheap flights, Treviso in north-east Italy was the chosen destination as the league season in nearby Slovenia started in July. Slovenia is not a hotbed of the game, although this small nation did get some recognition through it’s qualification for the 2000 European championships and the 2002 World Cup finals.
Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, had two first division teams - Vega Olimpija and Ljubljana. Baseball is Slovenia’s main spectator sport and only 2,500 turned up for Olimpija’s opening day 6-1 victory over Maribor.
Having booking the flights, we found that Dinamo Zagreb, reigning champions of the Croatian league and cup winners, were playing at home on Saturday (kick-off 20:00). Zagreb is about 80 miles from Ljubljana.
We flew out from Stansted on Thursday and after an overnight stop in Treviso (serie B), we travelled to Ljubljana via Udine (Serie A) by train and then hire car, stopping on route to visit the magnificent Postojna caves, south-west of Ljubljana.
Setting off for Zagreb on Saturday morning we discovered that the Slovenian fixtures had changed. Our target game was now to be played that afternoon, not in Ljubljana, but in Velenje, which is nearer to Publikum’s base in Celje. What’s more we had not confirmed that the Zagreb game had not been moved from that evening. Having established that there were other games in Slovenia the following day (Sunday), and armed with a telephone number for Dinamo Zagreb we set off for the Croatian border as planned.
The journey was spent trying to identify where the Slovenian games were to be played the following day - the teams are generally named after their sponsors, rather than the town - and trying unsuccessfully to contact Dinamo. Our spirits were low when the Croatian border guards were not aware of a game in Zagreb that day. We decided to press on and drove straight to Zagreb and directly to the stadium. Dinamo play at the national stadium, Gradski Stadium Maksimir, in the north-east of the city. We arrived just as the player’s had finished a training session. An official confirmed that the game with newly promoted Marsonia would kick off at 8pm as scheduled much to our relief. Our host spoke good English, took us into the offices where we bought tickets (£15 for a seat in an executive box) and then took us down to pitch level to view the stadium. He then insisted that he show us around the trophy room / board-room and gave us a car-parking pass for the ground.
After several hours in the old town of Zagreb fuelled with good food and ‘piwo’ and having bought replica Croatia shirts (Phil's had BOBAN on the back!) we returned to the ground and took the lift up to our executive box.
Dinamo had averaged 8,000 fans the previous season (24,000 being the biggest in the league, although 30,000 attended the 0-3 defeat by Fulham in the EUFA Cup) in a stadium that has a 40,000 capacity. This season, 8,000 fans had watched the recent Super Cup victory over Hadjuk Split (4-1), but only 4,000 were present that evening against the team from Slavoski Brod. This was a great shame as the team played some good football and won at a canter (7-0).
Sunday morning back in Ljubljana, the hotel receptionist confirmed that Primorje were playing that afternoon (5:30 kick-off) in the town of Ajdovscina, about an hour’s drive away. Having spent the best part of the day in Ljubljana’s old town and castle we set off for the game. Primorje play at the 5,000 capacity Mestni Stadium and are sponsored by a construction company, whose trucks were in evidence as we travelled around the country. After a ‘piwo’ in the centre of the town and checking directions to the ground we parked adjacent to the entrance and paid £4 for a seat in an uncovered stand. The small ground is overlooked by the imposing Trnovska Godz Mountains. Primorje had won their opening two games and comfortably saw off Domzale 6-0 in front of a crowd of about 1,000.
Three countries visited in 5 days, fantastic scenery in Slovenia and Croatia and two entertaining games with 13 goals between them. Another memorable Wilkie Tours trip!
Where do fans of European football go in mid-Summer to experience a game on the continent? If not to take in a pre-season friendly or some meaningless tournament, then there are few options. Certainly, there is none to be found in France, Italy or Spain until August and a July start in Austria or Switzerland is a relatively expensive option.
After searching for cheap flights, Treviso in north-east Italy was the chosen destination as the league season in nearby Slovenia started in July. Slovenia is not a hotbed of the game, although this small nation did get some recognition through it’s qualification for the 2000 European championships and the 2002 World Cup finals.
Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, had two first division teams - Vega Olimpija and Ljubljana. Baseball is Slovenia’s main spectator sport and only 2,500 turned up for Olimpija’s opening day 6-1 victory over Maribor.
Having booking the flights, we found that Dinamo Zagreb, reigning champions of the Croatian league and cup winners, were playing at home on Saturday (kick-off 20:00). Zagreb is about 80 miles from Ljubljana.
We flew out from Stansted on Thursday and after an overnight stop in Treviso (serie B), we travelled to Ljubljana via Udine (Serie A) by train and then hire car, stopping on route to visit the magnificent Postojna caves, south-west of Ljubljana.
Setting off for Zagreb on Saturday morning we discovered that the Slovenian fixtures had changed. Our target game was now to be played that afternoon, not in Ljubljana, but in Velenje, which is nearer to Publikum’s base in Celje. What’s more we had not confirmed that the Zagreb game had not been moved from that evening. Having established that there were other games in Slovenia the following day (Sunday), and armed with a telephone number for Dinamo Zagreb we set off for the Croatian border as planned.
The journey was spent trying to identify where the Slovenian games were to be played the following day - the teams are generally named after their sponsors, rather than the town - and trying unsuccessfully to contact Dinamo. Our spirits were low when the Croatian border guards were not aware of a game in Zagreb that day. We decided to press on and drove straight to Zagreb and directly to the stadium. Dinamo play at the national stadium, Gradski Stadium Maksimir, in the north-east of the city. We arrived just as the player’s had finished a training session. An official confirmed that the game with newly promoted Marsonia would kick off at 8pm as scheduled much to our relief. Our host spoke good English, took us into the offices where we bought tickets (£15 for a seat in an executive box) and then took us down to pitch level to view the stadium. He then insisted that he show us around the trophy room / board-room and gave us a car-parking pass for the ground.
After several hours in the old town of Zagreb fuelled with good food and ‘piwo’ and having bought replica Croatia shirts (Phil's had BOBAN on the back!) we returned to the ground and took the lift up to our executive box.
Dinamo had averaged 8,000 fans the previous season (24,000 being the biggest in the league, although 30,000 attended the 0-3 defeat by Fulham in the EUFA Cup) in a stadium that has a 40,000 capacity. This season, 8,000 fans had watched the recent Super Cup victory over Hadjuk Split (4-1), but only 4,000 were present that evening against the team from Slavoski Brod. This was a great shame as the team played some good football and won at a canter (7-0).
Sunday morning back in Ljubljana, the hotel receptionist confirmed that Primorje were playing that afternoon (5:30 kick-off) in the town of Ajdovscina, about an hour’s drive away. Having spent the best part of the day in Ljubljana’s old town and castle we set off for the game. Primorje play at the 5,000 capacity Mestni Stadium and are sponsored by a construction company, whose trucks were in evidence as we travelled around the country. After a ‘piwo’ in the centre of the town and checking directions to the ground we parked adjacent to the entrance and paid £4 for a seat in an uncovered stand. The small ground is overlooked by the imposing Trnovska Godz Mountains. Primorje had won their opening two games and comfortably saw off Domzale 6-0 in front of a crowd of about 1,000.
Three countries visited in 5 days, fantastic scenery in Slovenia and Croatia and two entertaining games with 13 goals between them. Another memorable Wilkie Tours trip!
