Pyrgos Stadium

The ground sits beside the motorway. It is not a large place, but it has been here long enough to know the local team. Pyrgos Stadium — or, as it has been called since 2018, the "Charalambos Vilaetis" — is the old municipal arena in the Peloponnese. The name change came after decades of simply being the town's pitch, and it honours a man who fought in the War of Independence, which feels like the sort of thing you do when the town has been around for a while. The stand is all-seater, a change made when the capacity was cut back to 6,750 from the original 8,500. Plastic seats in red and white line the tiers, and the floodlights were put up at the same time. That was the last big update. Before that, the place was filled for a match between Olympiacos and Apollon in 1991, when 8,871 people turned up, but the crowd has not been bigger since. It is not a neutral venue in the sense that it hosts international rugby. For most of its time, it has been the home of Paniliakos FC, a club that has been there since the ground opened in 1978. They left recently, but PAS Pyrgos 1968 have taken over the patch. The surface is natural grass, and the facility is tucked next to the indoor hall.