Celtic Park has been voted as the fifth most atmospheric stadium in the world in an article by France Football.
The long running magazine has looked at a number of factors before naming La Bombonera, home of Boca Junior’s as the best stadium in the world for atmosphere.
Anfield and Dortmund’s Iduna Park (better known as the Westfallen) come in at second and third with the Rajko Mitic, home of Red Star Belgrade edging Celtic out into fourth place.
A number of factors were weighed up with individual taste prominent but it can be noted that the more modern sanitised stadiums have been left out as France Football explained:
Because it only took thirty. So we chose. And we have deliberately ignored some of the top players, Real, Barça where the quality of the stands is not up to that offered by the field; MU or Arsenal as the Premier League ended up sanitizing its passion by making the football show a happening for the well-off public; West Ham, Atletico Madrid, Tottenham, these clubs which lost emotion when they left their house. We decided to also respect a geographical balance, otherwise how many Argentinian, Uruguayan, Turkish or Greek clubs would have deserved to sneak into this ranking?
Since Celtic’s entry into the Champions League in 2001 the stadium has been noted and commented on by visiting players and officials.
Lyon found out how special the stadium and the team were in 2003 while in recent seasons the fans of Paris Saint Germain and Rennes have returned to France raving about the old style atmosphere on their UEFA visits.
Next season’s European ties are unlikely to be played in front of full stadiums but when the fans return their presence will never be questioned with the Behind Closed Doors matches in the Bundesliga putting football in an entirely different light.
