Ottmar Hitzfeld Gspon Arena

Location: Gspon, Switzerland
Capacity: 7,500
Home team: FC Gspon

Named after German former Switzerland and Bayern Munich manager Ottmar Hitzfeld, who took the ceremonial opening kick-off when it hosted the inaugural European Mountain Village Championship in 2008, Ottmar Hitzfeld Gspon Arena is the home of FC Gspon.

Sitting at approximately 2,000 metres above sea level and surrounded by mountain peak twice as high, it is the highest football stadium in Europe. In fact, it is so high, in winter, it becomes a ski-resort.

The venue is located in the Swiss Alps close to the resort of Zermatt and sits on one of the few patches flat enough to hold it. A down side to the scenic alps is the nearby cliff, although a net is installed to stop balls from falling down the massive drop, this still happens regularly. Players are faced with a long walk to retrieve the ball.

At such a high altitude, the air is much thinner than a usual soccer pitch, making it difficult for visiting teams to breath. This provides a significant advantage to the home team.

There was not enough room to build a full-sized pitch, so teams play on a three-quarter sized pitch more suited for a five-a-side game. The surface is artificial because grass simply, will not grow at this altitude and because the village is too high for traffic, the only way to access the venue is by cable car.