ASK Arena ( az, ASK Arena), formerly Inter Arena and Shafa Stadium is an

all-seater An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in professional association football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most association football and Ame ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

located in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

. The stadium was built on the site of Termist stadium in 2001 and has a capacity of 8,125 spectators. The stadium surrounded by practice fields, administration buildings and four-star hotel.

Background

ASK Arena was built by AFFA in 2001. The first match played was a

2001–02 UEFA Cup The 2001–02 UEFA Cup was won by Feyenoord at their home ground in the final against Borussia Dortmund. It was the second time they won the competition. Liverpool could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2001–02 U ...

first qualifying round between

Shafa Baku Shafa Baku FK ( az, Şəfa Bakı Futbol Klubu), was an Azerbaijani football club from Baku. They were founded in 1998, and were promoted to the Top League the same year. In 2001 the club won the Azerbaijan Cup, beating Neftchi Baku 2–1 in t ...

and Olimija Ljubljana where the match ended 0–4. The first goal scored by

Dušan Kosič Dušan Kosič (born 23 April 1971) is a Slovenian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Slovenian PrvaLiga club Tabor Sežana. Club career Kosič is the second-most capped player in the Slovenian PrvaLiga with ...

. The stadium was one of the venues for the group stages of the

2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the third edition of the women's football tournament, and was held in Azerbaijan from 22 September to 13 October, following a decision by the executive committee on 19 March 2010. Defending champions Sou ...

. A Group A match were played there. In July 2014, it was announced that stadium will change its name to Inter-Arena after

Keşla FK Shamakhi FK ( az, Şamaxı Futbol Klubu, ) is an Azerbaijani professional football club based in Shamakhi, that currently competes in the Azerbaijan Premier League. The club has won the Premier League title twice. History Early years (1997–20 ...

(whose former name was "Inter Baku") loaned stadium for long-term from AFFA. As the stadium changed its owner, in July 2018 it was renamed again into ASK Arena (which means ''Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation'') for sponsorship reasons.

External links

StadiumDB images

References

Football venues in Baku Sports venues completed in 2001 {{Azerbaijan-sports-venue-stub