A Barcelona fan had an embarrassing mix-up when he travelled to the wrong stadium in England while trying to watch his team play in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.
The supporter wanted to attend Barcelona’s match against Newcastle at St James’ Park in Newcastle, but accidentally ended up nearly 600 kilometres away in Exeter, which also has a stadium called St James Park.
As a result, he missed the match where Lamine Yamal scored a late goal to secure a 1-1 draw for Barcelona.
Instead of watching the Champions League clash, the fan found himself at a third-tier English League One match between Exeter City and Lincoln City, which Lincoln won 1-0. The confused supporter had apparently travelled from London and followed directions on his phone without realising he was heading to the wrong city.
Exeter City staff soon realised something was wrong when the fan arrived expecting to see Barcelona play. Adam Spencer, the club’s supporter experience officer, explained how they handled the unusual situation. “One of our volunteers came to the office to let us know that this guy had turned up expecting to see FC Barcelona,” he said.
Spencer added that the fan’s limited English made it a bit difficult to understand what had happened, but it became clear he had simply searched for “St James Park” on his phone and followed the directions.
“His English wasn’t great, but from what we could gather, he’d come from London. My guess is he’d put St James Park in his phone and then just followed the directions from there. ”
The supporter was understandably disappointed when he realised his mistake. “He was pretty gutted and a bit embarrassed. So, we sorted him out a ticket and he got to watch a game at the real St James Park. He’d be welcome back any time,” Spencer said.
Although he missed Barcelona’s match, the fan still ended up experiencing an unexpected night of English football.
