Smallest town in the first division of your country

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skivaz
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Post by skivaz »

In Italy the smallest one in first divison and in EUROPEAN COMPETITIONS too is Chievo, a neighbourhood of Verona the city of Romeo and Juliet. Total amout of population ... 3.000!!!! (and 4.500 season ticket holders, figure that!!!)
Verona overall is 270.000 but since it has his own team it would not be correct to consider Chievo a Verona team.
The second smallest one still in Serie A is Empoli, in Tuscany, with a population of 43.000.

i'm curious to know if there is some nation that has a smaller town on First division, i don't think so...
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seso
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Post by seso »

As I wrote in the other forum, in Cyprus Ethnikos Achnas is from the village Achna which (including Dasaki!!!) has a population of 1952 (631 housing units)!
skivaz
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Post by skivaz »

@ seso.
WOW!!! and this team is constantly playing in first division,or is being relegated?

for everybody...
can we enlarge the topic to teams that are participating in UEFA competition?
is anyone smaller than Chievo?

Correction: sorry, i saw that that team from Cyprus you were telling about is in Intertoto Cup, so my question advance to the next stage: which is the smaller team ever played at least 1 match of UEFA cup (or CL)?
exile
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Post by exile »

First of all Chievo is clearly within the urban area of Verona so it doesn't count. It's like Everton, Fulham or Anderlecht.

Smallest Scottish town to be in a European tie is Dunfermline, 40,000.

England - Burnley, 75,000

Wales - Llansantffraid(TNS) - population 900.

Ireland - probably Ballybofey (Finn Harps) - 3,300.
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pineapple stu
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Post by pineapple stu »

exile wrote:Ireland - probably Ballybofey (Finn Harps) - 3,300.
Forgot about them... :oops: Though Ballybofey is now more of a twin town with Stranorlar, I think. Still fairly small. Plus relegated from the Premier last year unfortunately...
Dirkhuysmans
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Post by Dirkhuysmans »

exile wrote:First of all Chievo is clearly within the urban area of Verona so it doesn't count. It's like Everton, Fulham or Anderlecht.

Smallest Scottish town to be in a European tie is Dunfermline, 40,000.

England - Burnley, 75,000

Wales - Llansantffraid(TNS) - population 900.

Ireland - probably Ballybofey (Finn Harps) - 3,300.

I would like to tell you that the city of anderlecht has a population of 96.000 and is indeed a part of Brussels wich has a total population of around 1.000.000

So the comparison between Chievo (3.000) and Anderlecht is not very correct.
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Severin
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Post by Severin »

Sweden:

1) Kalmar is the smallest with a population of 34 000 and their team Kalmar FF has recently won the first leg in the final round of Intertoto Cup against Twente.

2) Billingsfors is the smallest town ever and their team Billingsfors IK played in Allsvenskan season 1946-47. They lost 19 matches, draw 3 times and never won a game. They managed to score 28 goals during these 22 weeks but conceded 84 times so the victories fail to came. Now to the city. In an area of 228 hectare there lived 1 358 people in Billingsfors year 2000. I don't know how many inhabitants there were 1946 but I am pretty sure they were not more than 1 358. Billingsfors IK are today relegation battlers in a regional division, six levels under Allsvenskan.
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Severin
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Post by Severin »

Severin wrote:Sweden:

1) Kalmar is the smallest with a population of 34 000 and their team Kalmar FF has recently won the first leg in the final round of Intertoto Cup against Twente.
This season, Trelleborg is the smallest with 25 643 inhabitants (year 2005).
Severin wrote:2) Billingsfors is the smallest town ever and their team Billingsfors IK played in Allsvenskan season 1946-47. They lost 19 matches, draw 3 times and never won a game. They managed to score 28 goals during these 22 weeks but conceded 84 times so the victories fail to came. Now to the city. In an area of 228 hectare there lived 1 358 people in Billingsfors year 2000. I don't know how many inhabitants there were 1946 but I am pretty sure they were not more than 1 358. Billingsfors IK are today relegation battlers in a regional division, six levels under Allsvenskan.
They managed to not be relegated in the league last year, but it is not looking good this season. Here's the stats after six matches:
Billingsfors IK 6 0 0 6 1-32 -31 0
spoonman
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Post by spoonman »

An update on the situation in Germany:

Smallest towns in the Bundesliga 2007/08
Cottbus (current population 102,000)
Wolfsburg (121,000)

Smallest town in 2nd Bundesliga 2007/08
Aue (18,200)

And there will be two newly-promoted small-town clubs in the 2nd Bundesliga: SV Wehen and TSG Hoffenheim.

Wehen is a district of Taunusstein (pop. 29,000), in the Rhein-Main area, near Frankfurt. Their own stadium only has a capacity of 5,000. For the next two seasons, they will play in a makeshift stadium for 14,000 people in Wiesbaden.

There are discussions about permanently moving to Wiesbaden and building a new stadium there. Briefly, there was even the possibility that Wehen and rival club FSV Mainz 05 might jointly build a new stadium (in Wiesbaden) but Mainz have now opted for their own arena within the city of Mainz. SV Wehen are sponsored by BRITA, a manufacturer of water filters whose headquarters are situated in Taunusstein.

Hoffenheim is a district of Sinsheim (pop. 35,500), in the Rhein-Neckar area, near Heidelberg. Their current stadium also has a capacity of only 5,000. The club is backed financially by Dietmar Hopp, co-founder of software company SAP, who also financed the SAP arena in Mannheim (home of ice-hockey club Adler Mannheim and handball club SG Kronau/Östringen).

Hopp will now build a new 30,000-capacity stadium for TSG Hoffenheim, right next to the autobahn A6. Hoffenheim's team is trained by Ralf Rangnick, former Stuttgart and Schalke manager.
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antonio62tr
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Post by antonio62tr »

In Turkey it is probably Fenerbahce -it is not a town most likely village....
Also Galtasaray is a high school team...
But both have the greatest fan support in Turkey...
Philipp
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Post by Philipp »

in Austria the club from the smallest town in the next season will be SV Mattersburg with a population around 6.000. its very funny, but the average attendance is about 10.000, against Rapid and Austria often even about 17.000.

This season Pasching was the smallest town, but the club was sold to Klagenfurt and will play there under the name SK Austria Kärnten in the new Woertherseestadium, where also 3 EURO-matches will take place.
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levski.bg
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Post by levski.bg »

In Bulgaria, this is Samokov (Rilski Sportist club).

28 497 ppl.

Image

Image

It is situated in a kettle between the mountains Rila and Vitosha
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Executor
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Post by Executor »

In Romania, the smallest town with a team in Liga I is Urziceni (17.700 inhabitants, 60km NE from Bucharest) and the team is Unirea.
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Kaiser
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Post by Kaiser »

I think that the smallest town is Ramenskoe where Saturn is situated. Only 84'000 people live there.

And the photo (scroll it to the right to see full picture)

Image
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AlanK
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Post by AlanK »

Spain---I think most everybody knows of Villarreal by now--the Yellow Submarine has put the town of 30,000 plus on the football map. During the years I lived in Spain, Sabadell had a first-division team. I don't know what the population was or is, but the one game I attended there suggested it wasn't very large. Sabadell had fallen to second division by the time I went to that game--in 1974--and has since fallen even lower.
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