From mice in Arsenal’s kitchens to moths at the Euros and wasps in Brazil, it seems no football club can be safe from invasions of wildlife.
“One of my main memories of football grounds in my era,” Sir Stanley Matthews told at a dinner in 1993,“is the number of rodents which ran around. There were rat traps everywhere if you looked hard enough.” Although Matthews wasn’t specific about which grounds he was referring to, rodents often thrived on the detritus strewn around the giant terracing and buried under the rickety wooden stands which once dominated English football. The recent issues which Arsenal and Manchester United have had with pest control demonstrates that even in the era of modern stadium design, the presence of vermin hasn’t altogether been eradicated.
This story is from the February 2018 edition of When Saturday Comes.
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This story is from the February 2018 edition of When Saturday Comes.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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