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Published: October 4th 2015
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Its Sunday and a free day for the group so a few of us decided to take the opportunity to visit the Gamla Ullevi football stadium home to IFK Gothenburg along with 3 other teams - GAIS, Orgryte IS and the Sweden womens national football team.
Looking into the tickets it was interesting to discover they have a standing area and a dedicated singing area where you are expected to make noise and encourage the team at all times - something I know they have discussed in the English Premier League.
There were not many tickets left when we arrived and had the choice of the standing area or a seated area for more general support, we decided on the seats and were really pleased we did more on that later on.
The stadium itself holds 18,416 and todays attendance was around the 15,000 mark so there were a few empty seats, Gothenburg currently sit at the top of the Swedish 1st division and their opponents Halmsted sit second off bottom so you would think it would be a home banker but we all know football isn't as straight forward as that.
Our seats were right next
to the designated singing area and they were certainly making their voices heard approaching kick off. I hope this doesn't sound bad but I would say the standard of football is the equivalent of our Championship at best so about the same as all our North East teams at present.
It didn't start well for the home side and they found themselves 0-1 down at half time, we had noticed what looked like some Ultra banners from the home support and this was very evident as the teams came out for the second half as the Ultra contingent made their feelings known by setting off numerous flares and the kick off was delayed for about 10 minutes but it all seemed very routine for everyone. We would have been directly below this area so we definitely made the right choice.
Thankfully the game ended 1-1 which was about the right result but we all couldn't decide whether the football or the crowd were the most entertaining as it was definitely a different experience than we are used to at home.
I need to express how proud I am of the group after hearing a story from last
night - after visiting pizza hut they all couldn't finish their food so asked for it to be boxed up and they handed it to one of the many homeless you see on the streets a truly magnificent gesture and a story that needed to be told. There is an issue with beggars on the streets and many people just walk straight past them so again what an amazing thing to do. We will be looking at the immigrant situation during our second week so will be able to find our more around this topic.
I know you will all be sick of me rattling on all the time so I have asked our apprentices to give me a summary of how they have found the first week warts and all so when I have their comments I will dedicate a post just for them.
I hope all our colleagues at home have enjoyed their weekend as I know we have and are ready for the start of the second week of the programme.
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