Spotland Stadium has staged an event in a World Cup in any sport. The event was sold out with almost 9,000 people attending, setting what was incorrectly claimed to be a new stadium record, even though Rochdale AFC had 24,231 for an FA Cup tie v Notts County in December 1949 and three higher crowds for FA Cup and play-off games between 1990 and 2008 against Northampton, Coventry and Darlington. Spotland Stadium Spotland Stadium, known as the Crown Oil Arena for sponsorship reasons, in the Spotland area of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, is home to Rochdale A.F.C. and Rochdale Hornets R.F.L.C. and has
English public school football games Matthew, a Winchester scholar from 1643 to 1647. He describes how "...we may play quoits, or hand-ball, or bat-and-ball, or football; these games are innocent and lawful. ..". That football at winchester was "innocent and lawful" at this time is very noteworthy. This is strongly supportive of the fact that by the mid-seventeenth century football and other ball games in English public schools had been tamed. "Nugae Etonenses" (1766) by T. Frankland also mentions the "Football Fields" at Eton. A more detailed description of football is given in Francis Willughby's Book of Sports, written in about 1660. This account is