An avid fan has travelled 51,000 miles across ten different countries to visit 118 football grounds across the world
Oliver Banks has splurged £13,000 so far on his ground hopping hobby, including dropping £7,000 on match tickets, £2,000 on travel and £4,000 on beer.
The passion for football for Oliver began when he was an eight-year-old and his beloved Manchester United's secured the treble with a Champion's League final win over Bayern Munich.
He spent his childhood going to United home games with his dad Jon and considers Old Trafford to be the best stadium he has been to.
The 32-year-old started visiting local grounds when on went on holiday overseas and realised how much he loved seeing how they differed from place to place.
During the Covid lockdowns Oliver began pining for the live match day experience and so started following various ground hoppers on social media. Once restrictions were lifted, he made it his mission to visit as many as possible.
Oliver has now visited a whopping 118 and he has many more in his sights.
He said: “My flights alone have been 31,000 miles since I started ground hopping. I'd probably estimate another 15,000 - 20,000 miles in trains and driving for games in the UK.
“The countries I’ve watched football in include; Cyprus, Belgium, Wales, Poland, France, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Spain and England.
“I fly to overseas games, then train or drive to UK games.
“I’ve probably £1,000 to £2,000 travelled outside of England to different games. I tend to make sure I get reasonably priced flights.
“For example, my dad and I did a trip to Warsaw for a game last year and flights were £9.99 return.
“Flights for my Denmark and Sweden trip are only £40 return, so if you pick the right dates it's not too bad.
“England is normally much more expensive to get around - trains to domestic away games are far too expensive.”
The football obsessive doesn't just splash the cash on getting to different countries, he also spends a large amount on entry and beer as well.
He added: “If we include my Manchester United and FC United season tickets, I'd suggest I’ve spent about £5,000 to £7,000 on tickets alone in two and a half seasons.
“I watch men's and women's football. I was fortunate to have tickets for most of the Lionesses' games for last year's Euros.
“My favourite game and memory of last season was the final at Wembley, just a brilliant day from start to finish.
“Beers at games is also an expensive factor in ground hopping, I'll have more at United as I'm not driving. Manchester United charge £3 a pint and most non-league clubs are £3.50 to £5 a pint.
“I would say probably 750 to 1,000 throughout ground hopping so far, so as a rough estimate I’ve probably spent around £4,000 just on beer.”
So far Oliver has managed to visit 118 grounds and watched 512 live games of football.
“It’s hard to pick a favourite ground as it definitely depends on the day around it, the game, the food, the atmosphere," he continued.
“Of course, Old Trafford is my favourite ground because it’s my home. Followed by Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan in Seville, Spain which a terrible result for United but I've never known an atmosphere created by a set of home fans like the one Sevilla made.
“Next is Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland. I had wanted to visit it since I was a child and it was everything I wanted it to be.
“Followed by Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, England. I was fortunate to pick up a last minute ticket for Wrexham v Grimsby in the play-offs last year and what a fantastic day.
“Last but by no means least has to be San Siro in Milan, Italy. It was absolutely iconic and totally lives up to its reputation.”
Oliver has also visited his fair share of grounds that didn’t quite live up to his expectations, including St Mary's in Southampton, England, which he said was "just really dull".
“Next up would be Leigh Sports Village in Leigh, England. Nothing hugely against the stadium but it's a farce that Manchester United Women play there, and transport options for it are shocking," he continued.
“Technique Stadium in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Again, similarly to St Mary's, it's fine but there's no real interesting qualities to it. Molineux in Leicester, England. It is a nice ground but so uncomfortable to sit in as a tall person.”
The experience of being stuck inside during the lockdown and unable to head to stadiums for live games really made Oliver appreciate how much he loves the live experience.
“I definitely feel like there's something spiritual about a football ground - there are very few places where people congregate in such large numbers for one event and with one common goal," he said.
“Absolutely every ground is different, and ground hopping takes you to parts of the country and the world that I don't think I'd otherwise ever see.
“There are ground hoppers who've visited up to 750 grounds and I'd like to get to those kind of numbers in years to come.
“I will quite happily watch any standard of football anywhere really, so I expect that my match numbers will keep on rising faster than my ground number does."
Stadiums Oliver has visited include:
Cyprus: GSP Stadium
Belgium: Stade Roi Baudoin
Poland: Polsat Plus Arena and Stadion Bemowskiego Osrodka Pilki Noznej
France: Parc Des Princes
Germany: BayArena
Italy: San Siro, Arena Civica, Gewiss Stadium, Stadio Artemi Franchi, Stadio Ennio Tardini, Stadio Giovanni Zini, Stadio Olimpico and Stadio Pierluigi Penzo
Spain: Civitas Metropolitano, Estadio La Rosaleda, Estadio Benito Villamarin, Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, Estadio de la Ceramica, Reale Arena and Camp Nou.”
