Fun fact. My mom came to Vilnius to study when she finished high school and the stadium was in construction. Then she found a job, gave birth to me, saw me grow up and become an adult and the stadium is still in construction. Fun.

The state of Lithuanian football in crisis you say? Lowest attendances in Europe in relation to population size? I expect Jordan Henderson will arrive in Vilnius imminently. That man doesn't sleep for thinking of where in the world he is needed to help spread and support the growth of the game he so loves.

I have been a big fan of this channel for a very long time. And seeing the title of this video today made me literally jump out of my seat. Thank you so much, your research has been as outstanding as it always is. Amazing work. As a local Lithuanian, I would like to add some tidbits to what has been mentioned about the sports dynamics in our country. I am 35 years old currently, and one of the first memories that I have is the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where our freshly independent basketball team won the bronze medal after beating the former USSR team in the final match. I remember watching it, I remember watching that entire Olympic run and I remember the emotion at home - my entire family was glued to the TV screen throughout the competition. Everyone experienced such insurmountable emotions of joy and pride, which was such a relief in the early 90's circumstances, that your excellent video describes so vividly. Right there and then, as a four year old rascal I got so addicted to this feeling that I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up - I wanted to be a sports... commentator. As funny as it may sound, even back then in my young mind I felt as if the players on the court, well, they were amazing. But the person whose voice narrated the story - he was a Divine figure. His emotions made all of us laugh, scream, cry and just... live the life that was so different from what we experienced in our every day reality. Providing that hope, that emotion - that felt like a job above all others. And, thankfully, today I have been a professional sports commentator for eleven years. Nearly a third of my life. And I could not be happier - thanks to the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic basketball team and the emotions it brought to my soon to be broken family, I found my purpose in life at a very young age. Nowadays I am one of the few guys who do the commentary for LKL (Lietuvos Krepšino lyga - Lithuanian Basketball League) games on the TV. I also do the Eurocup (the basketball equivalent of Europa League) games of Lietkabelis Panevėžys and the radio broadcasts of Euroleague (top basketball continental competition) games of Žalgiris Kaunas weekly. Without a doubt, it is a genuine dream-come-true story, but I do also have an immense passion for football. International tournaments in particular, but I have also spent more than two decades rooting for Everton, as if I needed more footballing torture in my everyday life. Any Howe, this gargantuan prologue is meant to provide all of the interested viewers and readers with some context. Yes, we, Lithuanians, love our basketball, but only to a certain degree. During the past few years I have had the honor and the privilege of providing commentary for Euro2020(21) and the Qatari World Cup. In comparison - the international basketball tournaments attract a lot of attention, when it comes to the games that our national team is playing in. Otherwise - nobody really cares about a, let's say, semi-final game between France and Germany. The ratings are obscure to say the least. But, ironically, if it is a football semi-final game between the same countries - it is one of the most nationally viewed events of the year. In other words - we only care about basketball if it involves our national team or one of our local clubs. But we pay unbelievable amounts of national attention when it comes to international football competitions. Except... Except when our own national team is playing. We have been heartbroken for so bloody long that even Everton fans would just shake their heads in disbelief if they knew our story. I mentioned Lietkabelis Panevėžys, a basketball team who is playing in the second level of continental basketball leagues - their games usually receive up two five (!!) times more TV audience than the Lithuanian national football team qualifiers for EC's an WC's. Despite the fact that, statistically, we actually enjoy football waaaay more than basketball. That's the story, I guess. The corruption... What can I say. The LFF would make The Sopranos look like Teletubbies in comparison. The 90's are still alive and well here in this sense. What an epic fact it is, that the only recent victories of our national football team came against Bulgaria of all nations, I wonder why. But - it's a stretch to use this expression here, I know, but I couldn't resist - without any further Adu I just wanted to thank you and your team once more. I guess that's what it feels like to get international attention in football.

Never thought my country will be talked about in one of the biggest football channel.

Ranking behind the Faroe Islands with a population of 25 people & a couple of pets is hilarious 😂

Hello Alfie, your long time viewer and in this case, lithuanian too. Thanks for bringing up this topic, or should I call a national meme, and shedding some more attention to it. First of all, this stadium will never be finished or at least, I don't see it being finished in my lifetime and I just turned 30 so...yeah... Anyways, hopefully you can see this, I do have some corrections to the mistakes you made in this video: 1) In 2009 FK Atlantas did threaten to leave A lyga with another team from Kaunas but it was not FK Kauno Žalgiris, instead, it was FBK Kaunas, which was owned by Romanovas, a character that you might be interested in making future video about ;) FK Kauno Žalgiris simply did not exist back then as it is a football club being part of wider sports club that started as basketball club specifically BC Žalgiris from Kaunas, the most succesful professional sports team in Lithuania ever and to add more confusion here, this has nothing to do with FK Žalgiris which is seperate entity entirely; 2) I think you made a mistake by mentioning that men's basketball national team won european titles in '37 & '39, which are the only ones we had won? That is not true and might trigger a more concentrated listener since we did win one in 2003, the most recent one. (also silver medalis in '96, 2013, 2015; bronze in 2007; 2010 FIBA World cup bronze medal and then 3 consecutive bronze medals in olympic games from '92 to '00; also also women's national basketball team deserves a mention for historic performances in eurobaskets, winning silver in '38 and then gold in '97; this is just a comparison to no achievements in football) 3) You did mention Dariaus ir Girėno stadium, which is located in Kaunas but you only mentioned it being too old. Well, news flash, it has been renovated quite recently to a modern stadium with ~20k capacity and yes, national football team plays once again outside it's nation's capital. The completion of this project actually sparked further discussions on necessity of national stadium since we already do have modern stadium, why bother with second and who would even occupy this one. As you mentioned, attendance in highest division is quite pathetic, so these questions do persist but that's another can of worms

Hi Alfie, you should make a video about Vietnam's football paranoia. I found that an unwritten football policy in Vietnam demanded that a player can only represent Vietnam national team if they have ancestry, must be at least fluent in Vietnamese language, and is common to Vietnamese culture and custom. This is why despite many naturalised players in Vietnam now, only three of them are able to make it to the national team, two are goalkeepers that have to endure a massive language, history and cultural training programs to be able to represent the country. This policy has alienated Vietnam from the rest of Southeast Asia by imposing language, history and culture education, something not even Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines would do and reactions has been divisive ever since, especially when you look at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup where Vietnam was the worst performed of all Southeast Asian sides while Indonesia and Thailand achieved a lot of successes with their newly naturalised players. This policy, I believe, might have something to do with a friendly between this country and Brazil U-23 in 2008, where a Brazilian naturalised goalkeeper refused to sing the anthem of Vietnam, causing a lot of resentment to even now among the populace.

Fun little fact about the demolition of the old stadium structure: it itself had to be halted temporarily as stadium debris damaged vehicles and buildings nearby. This whole project really seems cursed to fail. Another fun fact: the National stadium isn't the only piece of sports infrastructure in Vilnius, which has seen massive delays and cancellations in regards to renovation. The Palace of Sports, which has been sitting abandoned since 2008 or so has seen talks of possible renovation for years which haven't materialized largely due disagreements with the local Jewish community, because the arena was built on the site of an old Jewish cemetery.

If you thought Lithuanian football was corrupt have I got a video suggestion for you. FK Arkadag were created in 2023 several weeks before the start of the Turkmenistan season and were immediately given entry to the top flight and went on to win all 24 games and be crowned champions. They were founded by the former authoritarian ruler of Turkmenistan (who stepped down so his son could take over) so as with any team in history with links to authoritarian rulers they get alot of help from referees and are just able pick off the best players from their rivals.

Still waiting the video about Kazakhstan, the 21st century's first sportswashing state, how it joined UEFA by leaving AFC in 2002 (which is the reason why it has been called the 21st century's first sportswashing regime) and how the massive oil and gas production in the Caspian Sea enabled corruption, bribery and manipulation by Nazarbayev-Tokayev regime toward UEFA and European politics. It's notable because its sportswashing corruption campaign and UEFA's failure to address the matter contributed to the rise of the sportswashing ideology for authoritarian regimes, which was later copied by Russia, China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, with Mohammed Bin Salman went further than what Nursultan Nazarbayev did.

Video on Deportivo la Coruna would be interesting. Getting 20k to every home game in Spain's 3rd tier after being a top division side just 5yrs ago. There's also the option of doing a video on Rayo Vallecano. That's a legitimate gold mine of just mental stuff on how that club is run (You can't even buy tickets for games online, you legitimately have to queue up at midnight at the ground )

It has to be pointed just how much of an anomaly Lithuania is in Europe. Football doesn't even scratch the surface of the culture as Basketball truly is a religiob and thus municipality funding is allocated heavily to Basketball. There is of course mismanagement around this story but equally the peoeple don't care all too much for as long as Basketball is flying. Zalgris v Galatasaray in the summer was a turning point outside looking in and I think the opportunity of the conference league and nations league will help them grow a lot but still the sport is an extremely low priority

Went to Vilnius for a 2nd time last August. Being a stadium nerd and recent new English follower of Źalgiris and Lithuania, I decided to go and check out the stadium site to see what on earth was or wasn’t going on with the stadium (no1 tourist activity to do I know!). There wasn’t much more there than sand, a few holes, one excavator, and some guard on the site wondering what some eccentric bloke was doing walking around looking in, but what was made in the first “attempt” had been destroyed. Hope I get to go to a game there one day when both the stadium and Rail Baltica are complete! Also wanted to mention how much I love the LFF Stadium, both the walk to get there from Vilnius city centre and the stadium itself. I’ll be back!

I visited Lithuania (Kaunas) last year. I thought visiting the second city would be a good idea on my travels up through the Baltics into Finland. Kaunas is absolutely tiny in comparison to Vilnius. In Ireland (where I'm from, with a similarly corrupt FA and underfunded national league), we have the same problem - where Dublin holds most of the political capital and most of the decisions made regarding footballing infrastructure are made there. If the halls of power in the LFF won't sort out the stadium, it will be used as an excuse for Lithuania's poor national team performance and prevent the right infrastructure to develop the A Lyga from being built nationwide. FAI corruption has done similar in Ireland.

the biggest shock from this video is finding out that Keisuke Honda played in Lithuania

Finally,this is an extremely so fantastic and Lithuania is one of my favourite countries daily and ever and ever and I have used to watch a few of their league matches and have enjoyed watching of course,good friends!!!Despite Lithuania's football is considered second best after basketball,I really hope to see the Lithuanian football,particularly the league football from top till bottom tiers and I am slowly getting to their footballing leagues,good friends!!!LONG LIVE LITHUANIAN FOOTBALL AND LITHUANIA!!! 🇱🇹

I am still waiting for a video about Paraguay's football crisis and how we become the minnows in South America. In fact, even CONCACAF teams look superior than us now. Sad.

Hi Alfie, I think a video on Ifk Göteborg may be interesting, they have won Allsvenskan 18 times but have been much worse in the past years

this is by far my favorite lecture on the economics of post-soviet Lithuania

At least Lithuania isn't a football nation, so they can still delay. Think of our Iran, football is huge and everyone in Iran love football, but Iran is one of the most corrupt countries in Asia and among 40 most corrupt worldwide. Currently Iran is having a golden generation, but they have won nothing since 2010s and recently failed to reach the final of the Asian Cup again, this is despite we beat Japan 2-1. In World Cup, we qualified six times, yet our record is even worse compared to Saudi Arabia and Australia (which also qualified the same amount of times as us). Meanwhile, corruption is so rampant in Iran and most Iranian clubs are run by members of the IRGC, which robbed money from Iranian people to profit for their wars abroad. That's where we are now, unfortunately.

As a lithuanian, this stadium it's just place to cry. Thank god, we reconstrated Darius & Girėnas stadium in Kaunas in 2022. P.S. 2:07 it's my city (Panevėžys) stadium - Aukštaitija stadium, which was built in 1965 and we won the A Lyga last season in this stadium. We don't do anything good for football here....

I think it has something to do with the lack of popularity of football in Lithuania. Lithuania is a basketball crazy country, so investing for a football stadium is something unthinkable. Plus, since it was a Soviet project, and Lithuanians wanted to get rid of Soviet colonial past, the stadium became a contention point, ranged from either a sense of national identity or a symbol of Soviet tyranny.

Hey Alfie, id really like a WHAT ON EARTH happened at Kaiserslautern! And also maybe a classic 7s video about players that were unfairly treated (by club, media, fans, clubs…) Or 7 high profile players who haven’t (yet) sold their souls.

I am still waiting for a video about Italy's football crisis, especially in term of their coaching staff, and why Italy is so unwilling to accept that their football has become inferior and outdated compared to Spain, France and Portugal and that they need coaches that do not come from Italy. In fact, Italy seems to be running with a North Korean-like mindset of coaching appointment, as they seem unable to adapt with non-Italian philosophies. Italy coaching selection is like... North Korea, but capitalist.

In the last year of the Soviet Union Lithuanian football pefromed pretty well. Žalgiris Vilnius finished 3rd in 1987, ahead of Dinamo Kyiv. Few Lithuanian players played in the Soviet National team. The collapse of the Soviet Union led Lithuanian football, like in many other Soviet republics to collapse

Interesting video. I'm from Latvia - and guess what? Latvia also doesn't have its own national football stadium - well, maybe it's not as bad as it is in Vilnius (Riga has the Daugava Stadium, which meets the categories required by UEFA with 10,000 seats), but the most interesting thing is that the Latvian Football Federation is doing everything to should not play in that stadium and prefers to play in the Skonto stadium owned by Riga FC, where there are approximately 8,200 seats. Why is the football team trying not to play at the Daugava stadium, even though everything is +/- ok there? Because it is designed more like an athletics stadium that integrates everything needed for football, but the fans want a classic football stadium. What is happening in Riga with the idea of ​​a national football stadium? At first, the football community shouted that football was being neglected because we have a back netball arena and a hockey arena, etc., but no football - but it turned out that the problem was bigger, because even if there had been money to build a stadium, etc. no one had really thought about it at all - where to build the stadium and why exactly in that specific place and not elsewhere. Currently, it seems that the process has reached such a stage that a sponsor has been found who would be willing to invest in the construction of a football stadium, but with the condition that it is at least a 20,000+ stadium, so that concerts can also take place, because we need to find a way for the stadium to be able to pay for itself and it cannot be naked football. Currently, as far as information is available, the investor has been given all the information about the desired project and is now waiting for a response from the investors.

Feels like a fever dream watching you covering my country 😂

My favorite kind of HITC Sevens video.

Basketball is so popular in Lithuania, that even basketball fans don't know that Žalgiris, one of the most popular basketball clubs in the country, also has a football team.

Can you make a video about South America's football deficiency? It seems like only Brazil and Argentina (maybe Uruguay included) are functioning football for South America, the rest seem struggling to rival the ability to a point that there are belief that Brazil and Argentina are controlling South American football and the rest are discriminated. This is the reason why, with the exception of Brazilians and Argentines, majority of South Americans are in favour to merge CONMEBOL with CONCACAF.

It's nowhere near as dramatic, but the continuing story for a new/renovated Feyenoord Rotterdam stadium would make a good video too. Real estate developers keep coming up with megalomanic plans that can make them a lot of money, but shift all the risks to the municipality, which leads to heated debates in the city council. All the while fans vastly prefer the historically significant De Kuip to be renovated.

I remember in 1989 we rushed to build stadiums in Morocco for 1994 wc but Morocco has to wait 41 yers just for co host

The most shocking fact to me in this video is that 2008 was 16 years ago already.

Aaaah, being brazilian, i can only send a hug to our lithuanian friends. I also know the pain that comes from so much corruption and bureaucracy, and we'll probably never escape from it, as sad as it might sound...

To add to Lithuania’s Euro Basket win in 1939, by the time the next Euro Basket came around after the war, Lithuania no longer existed as an independent nation. They wanted to defend their title and wrote to the federation to allow them to compete, but they didn’t want to allow them in after maps had been redrawn in the postwar settlement. I went to the national basketball museum in Kaunas to find that out.

Malta mentioned :0

As a Lithuanian football fan, id say the builders are gambling the money away

The research you put into the subject matter you cover blows my mind every time I tune into your channel Alfie lad. Just brilliant brother 👏👏👏

Lithuania really said build it at the speed of a cathedral

I am Swedish-Chechen and to be frank, I never heard of it even when I was in Lithuania several times. It's strange to see how Lithuania doesn't have a National Stadium in their true sense. I am sympathetic with them, though, when football is not a major sport. Anyway, I am getting interested in the issue of Iraqi football. Since my country Sweden has a lot of Iraqi diaspora, ranged from Muslims and Christians, our country has been a raw material supply for Iraq in football. Yet despite massive love for football in Iraq, Iraqi football is so badly managed when compared to my country Sweden even when Iraq has more people. I'd love to know why Iraq, a country of 37 million people, unable to achieve the same level they are expected.

My family left Lithuania in the 1910’s, I had never learnt so much from the country before this video. Once again, thank you, Alfie 🐐❤️

From deep of my heart I would like to say BIG THANK YOU to all who's done this job about LTU "football" and LTU National football stadium construction story... And in the same way to me looks very soft way you've had approached... Is even worst!!! Of course, you had some difficulties to pronounce Lithuanians names and surnames, names of the cities and places, but the amount of money that was "spend for the football stadium" you done great. And in the end, after another 40 years your grand-son will be in Vilnius to find out where is the Lithuania football stadium...

Very good. Well researched. Informative. Thanks.

I had forgotten about the stadium, the political bit was so interesting. Maybe you should make some history videos on your second channel? I'd watch

Yet again, great job, Alfie!

Videos like this are the reason I'm subbed, acc so interesting!

By the way,your beloved Hull City did get a draw at home against Leicester City yesterday to be in 7th by 58 points in the English Championship table,good friend Alfie Potts Harmer!!!🏋‍♂️

As a Lithuanian football fan i can tell you that its an absolute piss take. Corruption is only at large when building or making anything and the price spent to build fuck all for a few million euros shows the level of corruption. Even if we do manage to build the stadium i doubt it would last 20 years and atleast 25% of the money would be pocketted.

You need to do a video on what’s going on in Turkmenistan. The former president founded a club less than a year ago, which one the domestic double in blatantly corrupt circumstances. Essentially it’s Tajikistan on steroids.

Can we please have a video about Maltese Football ⚽ I know you did mention us briefly at 17:55 haha maybe it is the start of something. Thank you

I love the fact that Lithuania loves basketball so much

Lithuania and football are last things that i would expect in sentence,but here somehow makes sense

"it's not quite Kenilworth Road" yeah, but it is far further along than our new stadoum at Power Court.

Excellent Sunday morning entertainment, cheers Alfie!

I learned a lot. Thanks!

I saw the title and thought Alfie was clowning Oxford fans.

I saw the title and knew what stadium it’s going to be 😂

THIS IS THE CONTENT I WANT TO SEE

That was some fancy drone work.

Truly tremendous video.

That was world class, can't wait to visit the national stadium when it's complete....

Please add Lithuania to the title!!!! I know even more people will want to watch it- It's so great to see a video about them. I'm married a wonderful Lithuanian man and his family are so generious and hospitable. My british Dad and uncles were baffled that he didn't follow a football team its such an alien idea to them 🤣 I've been to see a Basketball match of 2 Lithuanian teams in Stratford and the atmosphere was incredible.

3:00 - wow, I'm impressed! That was very good Polish pronunciation!

Can't wait to come back for this same video about Valencia's Stadium :D

Hey Alfie am a huge fan of your football essays. Thank you for being so consistent and informative. I have a question that has been bothering me for a while, Please discuss; 1.Whatever happens when a reserve team plays in the second tier and gets promoted. Is it possible for Barcelona and Barcelona B to play in the same competition or a Ajax and Jong Ajax for instance? What about if Ajax gets relegated, can they play in the same league as their reserve team? What are the rules and aren't there conflicts of interest ?? 2.What happens when a championship side wins the FA or the League cup in England, can a championship side qualify for Europe's elite competitions by virtue of winning the FA or league cup? or say Sevilla get relegated from la liga this season but they end up winning the europa league would they play the champions league next season while playing in the segunda division? Please discuss. Thanks for being awesome. Love from Kenya

Hi Alfie, I want to ask what kind of a deal you have with Getty? Is it a subscription? How much does it cost? Thanks.

Thanks for the video, Alfie. As mentioned, there was some mistakes made (somebody already menioned them) that is totally forgivable compared to whole Lithuanian football situation. BTW, FK Žalgiris played in first euopean tournament group stages ever in 2022 and sent Vilnius football fans into euforia. Since then fans flocked to see the FK žalgiris games (however even with cash injection they lost first place in A lyga to FK Panevėžys last year), so we'll see how it rolls out this year.

Day 23 of asking a "What Went Right for Stade Brestois?" Video This is currently, by far, the best season in club history, one which could result in their first ever qualification for Europe in over 70 years of existence. There's a fascinating story to tell, from going bankrupt and slowly climbing back, to various great names that played there such as Ribéry, Makélélé or José Luis Brown, to the story of the Brest president going up against the Colombian drug cartel. Plus, you can have a lot of Brest related puns. Hopefully that won't happen to Brest's new stadium

What was not mentioned that Kaunas stadium was finally renovated and we have modern 4th category stadium which perform as home ground for national team. And it gave some boost for the team, that the play and support on football is on the grow. And for the childrens, football is now outnumbering basketball .

No Alfie I’m gonna stand and be tense for this one.

Very interesting video 👍🙂

Switching to the euro was the no.1 biggest mistake lithuania ever made. Prices are crazy compared to wages its an absolute joke.

It's like the football stadium version of that one building in GTA that's been under construction for 11 years.

Damn, unexpected. Probably because half the country can't name more than two or three football clubs from Lithuania. So Alfie being aware of what's happening here is surprising.

Nice one Alfie! Glad the climate is not to blame.

And I thought the new housing estate being built down the road from my flat was taking a while. Its been about 3 years and it's nearly done now. Positively light speed construction compared to this!

Do a video raking every world cup winning team

Day 1 of asking for "What happened to Jordan Ibe"

Man that dude is good at flying a drone

7:56 It's probably important to note that they DID send the tanks to the country's capital.

Alfie just wanted to say thanks for making our "NATIONAL STADIUM" to hit the headlines of new age media .

The history lesson I didn't know I needed this Sunday morning.

Thank you for another brilliant, though sad analysis: 👍👏👌!

Exquisite use of that Conway Twitty song at the 12th minute.

I think as soon as the stadium opens Ill have to go for the first match that will be played there

Shoutout Arvydas Sabonis

When Ireland lost to Lithuania in Dublin in 2021, I nearly got sick… A new low for us…

15:00 A government stopping the construction of a stadium to increase teachers' salaries? As a Hungarian & son of a teacher, I'm crying happy tears that such a thing exists. The government has promised to increase teachers' salaries before the election in 2014, then froze them just after for almost 10 years. So in 2023 teachers barely earned more than minimum salary, a lot of them has left the job and consequently there's an enormous shortage of teachers all over the country. Meanwhile, every football, basketball, handball, etc. club has received a new stadium, financed by the tax-payer (without asking them, of course), contructed by companies with a tie to the PM, obviously enormously overpriced. The village where he's from has also received a stadium that's twice as large as the population, literally next to his house. And the team that had languished in the regional leagues has received so much governmental subsidies since Orbán has been in power that they are challenging for the national title. Come to think of it, that could be the topic of another video!

(Day 4) Make a video on Liechtensteiner football, and why the landlocked microstate of only 38,000 people is the only UEFA nation without its own football league 🇱🇮

I think I will die and Vilnius will still be without stadium. Just incredible. National shame.

This is a top 10, Alfie. not just because I am 50% Lithuanian.

Proof that, when well told, even the seemingly most irrelevant story to oneself can be fascianting. A masterwork.

I can say I’ve been to watch a league game in the LFF stadium. Quite enjoyed it actually! 🇱🇹

similar to Nou Mestalla that has been sitting, half completed since about 2008!

Once our Lithuanian former prime minister A. Kubilius said "When Real Madrid and Arsenal will be playing in Lithuania then we will build a stadium" so yeah, were are still waiting for them most probably

Stupid question - if the stadium needed to be multi-purpose to get EU funding, could they have built a basketball stadium inside the stadium or make it a roofed stadium with movable seats, rather than an athletics stadium?

The people's channel strikes again. Outstanding video Alfie.

Aw man, almost Latvia 🙁

I would love to visit Lithuania one day, but its stadium not so much. Thanks for another interesting fact about world football Alfie.

As a swiftie myself will you ever do a vid on the NIFL