The World’s Greatest Football Stadiums

They say that home is where your heart is and for millions of football fans around the world their teams’ stadiums really hold a great deal of significance, emotional and perhaps spiritual.

In fact, many grounds are as integral as the most memorable matches and iconic players and have even become a source of quite immense pride.

Here’s our pick of the ten greatest stadiums in the world:

Allianz Arena

This impressive football stadium has 66,000 seats distributed along its three rings of tiers. It was the work of Swiss architects Pierre de Meuron and Jacques Herzog who had won a Europe-wide contest for the development of a new major stadium in Munich. As a result of sponsorship deals, the stadium was named after Munich-based international insurance company ‘Allianz AG’

The stadium is a home ground to two teams, namely Bayern Munchen and 1860 Munchen, who both decided to co-operate on the construction of their new home ground. Using the most sophisticated technology, the stadium’s external look can change colours depending which team are playing in the stadium. When Bayern are at home, the stadium changes its colours to red and white. The colours will then turn into white and blue when 1860 Munich are playing.

The effect is great! Seen from a distance the stadium looks like a big toy. The stadium reaches a considerable height of 50 meters (164 feet) despite the fact that the lowest ring of tiers and the playing field are situated below earth’s surface.

Estádio da Luz

This is a technologically advanced football stadium thanks to its highly innovative design. It was built right next to the famous Estadio Liboa Benfica, which was also called Etadio da Luz.

The technological design of the stadium focuses on the great concept of light and transparency, basically ‘luz’ which in Portuguese means light. Though the original nickname comes from a local neighbourhood called ‘luz’, the new stadium’s design offered additional motivation to name the stadium Stadium of Light.

The roof is made of polycarbonate which allows for sun-rays filtration and in every corner of the stadium the tiers wind down to create an empty space and enable natural sunlight to light the stadium even further. The interior space is well characterised by the three rings of continuous tiers and marked by the luminosity, making the colours brighter.

Sapporo Dome

This technologically advanced stadium is an innovative, multi-functional framework able to conveniently turn itself from a football stadium into a baseball park, as illustrated here.

The system is not only sophisticated but it’s also simple. Raised on the famous pneumatic system, the pitch can rotate and pass through a fully mechanised 90 metre opening of the two moving walls. The pitch can either be kept in an artificial basin underneath the stadium or just moved outside where the grass can then grow naturally. The whole process takes just under five hours to complete.

Old Trafford

Old Trafford was built in 1910. It was developed and designed by the great architect Archibad Leich to host over 80,000 spectators. The stadium’s Main Stand was well protected by a string of small shelters. It was characterised by huge tribunes on each side of the football pitch, connected by closing tiers to form one ring. Such a continuous ring of tiers was rather unique in England as all the other stadiums were then characterised by different tiers, with open angles.

Old Trafford is nicknamed The Theatre of Dreams because of its fascination, the brilliant atmosphere around the pitch, characterised by those red seats depicting Red Devils. The stadium’s exterior, meanwhile, has a relatively anonymous character with mixed bricks alternated with huge windows and surrounded by a strong steel structure which contains supporting beams to help hold the roof. From some distance, the stadium really looks like a massive warehouse emerging between the typical brick houses recalling the history of Manchester, one of the very first cities to have enjoyed the spread of Industrial Revolution

Camp Nou

Francesco Sans, president of FC Barcelona, took the initiative in 1953 to build a brand new stadium after his electoral campaign. There was quite a strong cry to build a new home ground for the all mighty club. The slogan of the campaign was ‘We need, we want and we will have a new stadium!’ After a couple of months upon approval of the proposal, works then started at Camp Nou, meaning the New Stadium in Catalan. The stadium hosted its first game in 1957. Its official name is L’Estadi.

In the early 1980s, the stadium went through great enlargement and renovation to host a handful of the 1982 World Cup matches. It could now hold over 100,000 spectators after construction of a new ring of tiers at the roof-free side of the stadium.

San Siro

Since its first day of existence, San Siro has been extremely important, so much so that in 1936, two of its main stands were enlarged. Four curvilinear stands were also constructed and then connected with the older tribunes and as a result, all the corners of the impressive stadium were closed. Later in 1939, it was fully encircled with stands, now able to host 55,000 football fans.

The current capacity is 85,000 with all seats fully covered. Even though there is no tribune on each side of the stadium, the atmosphere inside is fantastic. The lack of such a tribune does in turn provide a stunning view of Milan and fans sat on the top seats can in fact admire the city’s most remarkable cathedral.

Amsterdam ArenA

This was the first stadium in Europe built with a freely mobile roof. It represents the stadium’s main characteristic.

The roof is a huge structure based upon 2 external cross haired arches which are connected to 2 longitudinal beams fixed in conjunction with the pitch’s rectangle. Semi transparent panels flow along the arches to totally close the stadium. The process takes between 5 and 30 minutes to complete, depending on the urgency. So in effect, the stadium can be fully closed to host major events, including events like rock concerts.

Amsterdam ArenA has a 52,000 seating capacity, divided along the two rings close to the pitch. The upper ring is continuous whereas the lower ring is very elegantly interrupted in all four corners of the stadium. These spaces serve as perfect exit gates and are harmonised with the design of the stadium.

ANZ Stadium

This stadium was the centrepiece of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. It was then the largest stadium ever used for the Games. Its original capacity was a staggering 110,000 but reduced to just over 80,000 after major renovation works.

The stadium was projected by Bligh Sports Architecture. This project was inspired by ‘akubra’, a traditional Australian soft hat. The stadium nicely presents 2 main tribunes covered by a big roof constructed from translucent polycarbonate.

ANZ Stadium remarkably integrates with its environment. Both air and natural ventilation are completely secured by means of spaces, left empty intentionally. The roof’s shape makes it possible to reuse rainwater by directing it into nearby reservoirs. The 4 entry towers outside appear somewhat imposingly, making ANZ the reference point of the vast Olympic Village.

Estadio Monumental

The masterpiece of architects Aslan and Ezcurra has a fine balance between geometry and technology of the construction i.e. four curved tribunes which are placed side by side and define an elliptical framework. Such a framework strictly follows the geometrical rules of the famous Roman Coliseum and has also taken into consideration water pressures created by the nearby river.

The whole project was completed in the late 1950s when the lower part of the North Stand was finished together with a new series of tiers placed on the existing ones. This brand new look of the stadium is achieved using a ring of concrete based upon imposing supports that emerge from the base.

Aztecs Stadium

This is the world’s only stadium to have hosted 2 World Cup finals - in 1970 and 1986respectively. The outside of Aztecs Stadium is characterised by the full concrete structure of 2 upper rings. Elegantly inclining towards the inside, the pillars bow at the higher end to support the upper tiers and to define the overall image of the stadium.

Aztecs Stadium is nicknamed ‘the Colossus of St Ursula thanks to its imposing size. It was built in 1966 and then renovated 20 years later in 1986 to host the World Cup finals for the second time.