I am sure you will have heard the hilarious tale this week, of the Barcelona fan turning up to the wrong St James’ Park.
Exeter City announcing (see below) that a Barcelona fan had turned up on Tuesday night to their St James’ Park for the League One match against Lincoln by mistake.
As opposed to St James’ Park on Tyneside for the Champions League match against Newcastle United, some 370 miles away.
This Barcelona fan story has been blindly repeated all across the media, difficult to miss.
Just think how much more incredible this story would have been…if it had been true!
Surely already it is the guaranteed 2026 winner of the ‘Didn’t happen of the year awards’.
For all the coverage this story has got, it is a little short on detail. In fact, none at all. None of the newspapers and others in the media that have covered it, have given any real detail, just copying this Exeter City social media post, which absolutely looks like a desperate attempt at getting attention, generating interest in their club vicariously. Attaching themselves to a Champions League match that had no connection to them.
There was no name, not even a first name, of this Barcelona fan allegedly turning up at the wrong St James’ Park.
No details of how/why he travelled to Exeter rather than Newcastle Upon Tyne.
No photo of this Barcelona fan, no photo of his Newcastle v Barcelona ticket, in fact, no photo of anything.
Considering everybody has a smartphone these days, it is ‘almost’ unbelievable that nobody thought: ‘You know what, why don’t we take a photo…’
It is a bit like people still claiming that UFOs and/or Ghosts are an actual thing, despite everybody permanently carrying around a phone with a camera on it, yet somehow ‘forgetting’ to take a photo of the UFO or Ghost they keep bumping into.
The idea that a Barcelona fan would have had the wherewithal to get a very hard to get ticket for the Newcastle match and yet have no idea that the match was in Newcastle, where Barcelona played only six months earlier…well, you have to laugh.
So this person knows no other Barcelona fans, doesn’t look at anything on social media, didn’t have any conversation with anybody ahead of the match, then somehow headed to Exeter by mistake, having to buy a train ticket (or whatever other imaginary form of transport they were using…)…
Apparently Exeter City are looking to make a film dramatisation out of this extraordinary event and have approached Andrew Sachs (ask your dad, grandad) to play the confused Barcelona fan…well, that is about as believable.
For the follow up, I can’t wait to hear about visitors to New York in North Tyneside, asking locals where the Statue of Liberty is, or others driving past Nissan and arriving in Washington, then disappointed when they can’t spot the White House!
Exeter City official announcement via their social media – 11 March 2026:
‘It was a tale of two cities and two very different football grounds for an FC Barcelona fan who turned up at the wrong St James Park.
The Spanish supporter, who made the journey to Devon from London, turned up at the turnstiles of Exeter City’s Adam Stansfield stand, expecting to see his team take on Newcastle United.
It was only when he showed his ticket to staff that he realised his mistake.
But he got to see a game of football – Exeter City staff sorted him out a ticket for the game against Lincoln under the lights of the real St James Park!
Adam Spencer, Supporter Experience Officer at Exeter City, said: “One of our volunteers came to the office to let us know that this guy had turned up expecting to see FC Barcelona. 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.
“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.”
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