When the UEFA competitions reached the group stage draws, there can be few quartets to rival those placed in Group A of the Conference League. Firenze (Florence), Edinburgh, Riga and Istanbul, all four historical and dripping in beauty.
Personally, there has never been a situation in my football supporting days (50 years by the time you read this!), where a team from my own country, let alone city, by sheer coincidence too I might add, were going to pitch up where I had booked accommodation about a month prior. The original plan for Tuscany 2022 might have fallen by the wayside, but that disappointment was tempered by this curious quirk of fixtures, and as luck would have it, the fixtures also saw Fiorentina headed to Edinburgh just days before I flew out to Italy.
This double header in eight days gave me merely the second chance in my life to see both legs live of a European fixture as Inverness CT largely don’t do continental competition, but when we did, I naturally had to head across to Romania and watch us play Astra Giurgiu. Heroically we drew 0,0 over there, but had lost narrowly 1,0 at home. Astra would beat West Ham in the next round and won the Romanian league that season.
Hearts haven’t featured much in Football Weekends, and here was the perfect reason to bring them to the readership as well as Fiorentina, but the respective cities, Edinburgh and Firenze, which is the most appealing?
I put my hands up, I am bias, I love my city, but then again, I love Italy and I will merely put points up for debate rather than endeavour to sway an audience. After all, if you have delighted in both, you will have your own opinion.
Edinburgh is one of the great attractions of the entire UK, let alone Scotland, where it is the number one tourist city. It might be increasingly accused of nearly pricing itself out of a festival, but given it is the largest arts festival in the world in a relatively small city, everything does get squeezed in August during the various festivals.
If you avoid August, while it is never cheap, it will afford you stunning views as well as offering a veritable pot pourri of football from the 9th tier to the top. Firenze is never cheap either, it’s fame exceeds Edinburgh courtesy of the renaissance artists of the day amongst other rationale. But if you are a football tourist, while it could be a pricey base for watching in a multitude of nearby locations, the actual city itself is predominantly a one team city, although very small sides might reside in the lower depths of the Tuscan Regional system.
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, and its Castle is singularly the biggest draw in the city, as well as The Royal Mile, leading down to Hollyrood Palace at the far end of a UNESCO protected street, which is akin to a skip back in time. A little trek up Carlton Hill by the observatory beyond the East end of Princes Street will also allow fabulous views, as will the full hike to the top of Edinburgh’s main extinct volcano, Arthur’s Seat.
Firenze is the capital of Tuscany, a region famed for its beauty, and rightly so. Technically Firenze is slightly smaller than Edinburgh, but if you factor in the satellite towns for both, it is probably very similar. Edinburgh can’t compete on the art side, Firenze is one of the great art destinations and the Uffizi gallery will get comparable visitors to Edinburgh Castle, albeit I would say, you really have to be of a religious art persuasion to enjoy the Uffizi fully. They are undoubtedly masterpieces, but some are huge, brooding paintings, and its appeal was beyond my limited art appreciation.
The Firenze Duomo v Edinburgh Castle is an interesting debate, both built in spectacular locations. Do the Piazzas of Firenze trump the garden spaces of Edinburgh’s city centre? Or is the Ponte Vecchio more spectacular than the soon to be buffed up North Bridge? Or it just better known, after all it just translates as Old Bridge, much less romantic, but how about if it was known as Ponte Nord in Edinburgh?! I am unsure who wins, I will remain neutral, you decide for yourself. Edinburgh potentially wins for the lofty vantage points looking over the city, but Firenze’s hike to the top of il Duomo and its hillside look across, could make it a score draw! The cafe view on that hilltop over Firenze might even be a late winner!
It’s also a draw on ease of access from the respective city centres to the stadia. A tram to Haymarket and walk, or hop off a train there, then bus or walk the mile or so to the ground. The Artemio Franchi is very close to Firenze Campo di Marte train station, and is easier to get to once you have alighted, but if it is foot solidier walking affair from the centre, Hearts is a straight line story, whereas Fiorentina is a google maps epic!
The coincidences don’t just stop with the beauty of the two cities, or the ease of getting to the stadia, both have had big financial issues in the recent past. At Fiorentina, the meltdown was total and saw Florentia Viola as the club name briefly once they started in the 4th tier having just been relegated from Serie A. I inadvertently was party to the end of the Serie A story for the old AC Fiorentina, a night when the wheels came off despite thrashing Foggia 6-2. I was watching the other club fighting for survival, Udinese as they played away at AS Roma, where both clubs ‘hammed up’ a draw, a point being enough for the team from Udine. The ruse was exposed when Andrea Carnavale rounded the Udinese keeper, but gave him sufficient time to recover and grab the ball. To a man, woman and child, the stadium erupted, it was going to be a draw, ‘Viola Serie B’ rang out from all corners of the Olympic Stadium. They wouldn’t have a clue at what was coming down the tracks for Viola during that tumultuous summer though.
Hearts situation is more complicated, where the collapse of a Lithuanian Bank forced Hearts into administration as the Chairman Vladimir Romanov owned both businesses. Liquidation was avoided as Hearts amazing fan base rallied to save the club, and with the added help of funds from Ann Budge, they steered a way out, but not without drastic wage bill cuts and a huge points deduction which led to relegated. They had an immediate bounce back from the Scottish second tier the next season, a league that included city rivals Hibs and Rangers. Both Edinburgh clubs went down in the same season remarkably, and yet a few weeks before the end of the season, Hibs went to Tynecastle with the chance to officially relegated their great rivals, but blew it big time, falling from 7th to 11th and having to suffer the first of the re-introduced relegation/promotion play offs that still exist today. They won the away leg 2,0 in Hamilton but still managed to go down, losing in a penalty shoot out after a 2,2 aggregate score at Easter Road. One footnote to Hearts troubles, true to her word Ann Budge let the fans buy her share out, and the club is now the largest fan owned team, certainly in Britain.
Hearts also got caught having a hopeless season just ahead of Covid, and when the pandemic called a halt they were bottom, allowing Scottish football to be ripped asunder yet again. By contrast, in Fiorentina’s darkest hour, the FIGC (football authorities) came partly to its rescue with a double promotion, given on ‘sporting merit’ that saw them leap from the 4th to the 2nd tier in one go. They were back in Serie A two seasons after being relegated.
Comparing the stadiums is interesting. The Artemio Franchi is much bigger and a legacy of the Mussolini era of elipse stadiums for multi-purpose sport use. However, in the modern viewing era, the Curvas are miles back, and the ends of the main stand are so far from the play you’d get a stiff neck constantly looking to one side.
By contrast, at Tynecastle, no seat will give you a bad view, and when the home team are on top, and in the mood, it can be a very intimidating venue, especially given the gradient of the seats in each stand. So on venue, despite being less than half the Viola capacity, I give Tynecastle a point on this aspect.
Alas winning a point for the better stadium is about as good as it gets in this double header for Hearts. These two matches were horrible mismatches, even if the Viola hadn’t started the new Serie A campaign very well. The first 25 minutes of the game in Firenze saw the home Ultras boycotting the central space in the Curva, leaving it empty with no singing in silent protest at how things are going. Despite the lack of backing, Fiorentina were already 2 up before the drums were rolled out and the singing got going. It did allow the sizeable Hearts support, (some put it at circa 5,000), to sing uninterrupted to the whole stadium for a while.
Hearts were missing some key defenders for both games, and they might have made a difference, but Fiorentina would still have won both games. While the young defenders were cruelly exposed, more worring was the total difference between the sides in technical ability, and accuracy of pass under pressure. These games were a huge learning curve for the Hearts players, and sadly, together with so many European night’s from all the Scottish clubs this term, it has exposed a real gulf in class to the top sides. It could be argued that at least our co-efficient is high enough to largely avoid the brown paper bag losses, but Motherwell did managed to remind us all of that potential, while Dundee United set a high bar for embarrassing scores, meaning losing 1-8 over two games can’t be taken as total humiliation.
Both games were played in good spirits between the fans, and despite a rumour, thankfully unfounded, that Italian ID only entry would be admitted, nothing of the sort occurred. The potential for trouble was there, given Fiorentina had happily sold thousands of home tickets to away fans. Thankfully commonsense prevailed, a rare thing in modern football these days, and an area of the home terrace near the away support was set up for the visiting fans overspill. An unlikely near refusal at the gate in Napoli the night before had me twitchy overnight, but the Artemio check of the passport, while duplicated, couldn’t have been smoother.
It had been quite an 8 days watching both these mismatches, but by the same token, enjoying a great coming together of two famous clubs in each country for that rare, enjoyable experience of bonding that football can bring. As scarves were exchanged, and as beers were collectively supped, it is all a reminder that money might be doing its best to ruin football, as well as all the draconian rules on access and even just trying to buy a ticket, but when the dust settles, football fans are all the same. We appreciate the effort of our team even if they lose heavily, and on many occasions we have a lot more in common with those segregated from us, than they have against them. Edinburgh and Firenze are beautiful places to watch football and do the cultural thing, so if either or both are missing off your CV, what are you waiting for? Go!
Football Adventures with James Rendall 