Barcelona fan mistakenly travels 366 miles to the wrong St James Park stadium

A Barcelona football fan who travelled to the UK to support his team in a match against Newcastle United ended up 366 miles away from the venue.

The FC Barcelona fan was ‘gutted’ after showing up to St James Park in Exeter, rather than the St James’ Park – which has an apostrophe – in Newcastle.

When he showed his ticket to the staff, he realised his mistake. Employees felt bad for the man and gave him a free ticket to the match in Devon, where the Grecians lost.

In Newcastle, however, FC Barcelona drew 1-1 against Newcastle United, but the devoted Spanish fan wasn’t able to see it.

Adam Spencer, who works at Exeter City, told the BBC: ’My guess is he’d put St James Park in his phone and then just followed the directions from there.’

Mr Spencer said the fan’s English wasn’t ‘great’, but added: ‘We sorted him out a ticket, and he got to watch a game at the real St James Park.

‘He was pretty gutted and a bit embarrassed. But he’s welcome back anytime.’

Still, the story has left many in stitches. One fan wrote on X: ‘Fella probably had a great night, made some new friends, hopefully left with a shirt and will have a great story for his mates back home. Plus, it’s not like he missed a great game.’

Another added: ‘Hopefully, he now has a second team to support in England. Lucky coincidence, a game was on.

‘You couldn’t turn him away after that journey, great gesture. Well done.’

Others felt bad for the footy fan, writing: ‘There are two St James’ parks in England? We need to sort out these naming conventions. It’s damn confusing.’

Eddie Howe’s side delivered an impressive performance against Barcelona at St James’ Park and appeared to be heading into next Wednesday’s second leg with a 1-0 advantage following Harvey Barnes’ goal in the 86th minute.

But Barcelona were awarded a penalty in the sixth minute of injury time, which was scored by Lamine Yamal.

After Barnes’ opener, Newcastle continued to push for a second goal, which divided commentators.

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