The weird to the wonderful: football pitches of the world

Around the world and whatever the landscape, football grounds abound, and are as varied and diverse as the people who play on them.

A rooftop of a department store serves as a football pitch in downtown Tokyo, Japan. Photo by AFP

Perched on top of a Japanese department store, lost on a dusty mountain trail in Nepal or nestled at the foot of an ancient aqueduct in Rome.

Players compete at the Campo Gerini football ground nestled inder one of Rome's ancient acqueducts. Photo by AFP

Where there is a love of football, there will always be a pitch.

Residents play football in a field crammed between buildings of the Perus neighbourhood of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo by AFP

In football-mad Brazil, pitches are crammed between crowded neighbourhoods in big cities like Sao Paolo or swallowed in Rio's Tavares Bastos favela by buildings piled up like a house of unsteady cards.

People play a football at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City, against the background of the Statue of Liberty. Photo by AFP

In New York's Brooklyn, footballers play by the waterside with the Statue of Liberty for backdrop. Seoul's nightlife includes a pitch ablaze with light on a rooftop above a shopping center.

In Switzerland players drink in the beauty of mountains and valleys with Lac Leman in the distance.

Trapped between icy sea and ice-capped mountains, Henninsvaer FC in northern Norway, boast a bright green synthetic pitch. Photo by AFP

The Arctic circle boasts Henninsvaer FC's ground, whose green synthetic turf is squeezed between Norway's snow capped mountains and icy seas.

In Turin, a local pitch nestles atop a building among church spires and reddish-brown rooftops while in Rugeley, central England, teams play beneath the massive cooling towers of a huge coal-fired power station.