Kaliningrad is more than 10,000km from Vladivostok

Never again can fans of Europa League clubs complain of long away trips and be taken seriously – at least not in the eyes of Russian clubs FC Luch-Energiya Vladivostok and FC Baltika Kaliningrad.

The two clubs both compete in Russia’s second division and boast by far the longest away journey in domestic football – roughly a quarter of the way around the world.

When the sides face each other, one club must make a round journey totalling a whopping 20,732km – or 12,882 miles – just for 90 minutes of football.

Kaliningrad is a Russian port and exclave, an area geographically separated from the rest of the country, and sits between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.




For context, the longest journey in the Premier League comes when Swansea face Newcastle, with away fans making a 1,132km round trip.

In this season’s Champions League, meanwhile, Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk must exchange journeys of 9,300km to face each other in Group H.

But clearly the incredible distance travelled by Luch Vladivostok to Baltika in September did them little harm, as they ran out 2-1 victors.

The fixture totally eclipses any other journey in football

MORE: Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger finally makes peace with Chelsea nemesis Jose Mourinho…kind of…