The Alphamega Stadium, also known as Limassol Arena, is a

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 ...

Kolossi Kolossi ( el, Κολόσσι []) is a village on the outskirts of Limassol, Cyprus. It lies partly in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Its population in 2011 was 5,651. Kolossi is known for its Kolossi Castle, medieval castle. ...

Limassol District Limassol District () or Lemesos ( el, Λεμεσός) is one of the six districts of Cyprus. , it had a population of 239,842, 77% of which was urban. Its main city is Limassol. Part of the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia for ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

and was constructed by the Cyprus Sports Organization (CSO). The stadium holds 10,700 people and was opened in 25 November 2022. It is the home ground of the 3 biggest clubs of Limassol

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou ( el, Αθλητική Ένωση Λεμεσού, translation=Athletic Union of Limassol) commonly known as AEL, is a Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL also maintain ...

Apollon Limassol Apollon Limassol FC ( el, Απόλλων Λεμεσού, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Divisi ...

and

Aris Limassol Aris Limassol (Greek: ''Άρης Λεμεσού'') is a Cypriot football club based in Limassol and one of the founder members of Cyprus Football Association. The club's colours are green, black and white, and their home is the Tsirion Stadiu ...

Name

The official name of the stadium is Alphamega Stadium. This name resulted from a sponsorship collaboration between the stadium management company and the Alphamega Hypermarkets for the use of the supermarket's name as the stadium's trade name.

History

Initially, the stadium would be built by AEL and Aris on the same site which had been given to the two teams in previous years. The two teams chose the architect Petros Kontaridis, who prepared the plans for the stadium. After the financial crisis of 2013, Apollon agreed to build a stadium together with the other two teams and the plans were modified. Due to the increased costs that the teams could not bear but also due to the fact that the existing

Tsirio Stadium The Tsirio Stadium ( el, Τσίρειο Στάδιο) is an All-seater stadium, all-seater multi-purpose stadium in Limassol, Cyprus. The stadium holds 13,331 people and is mostly used for Association football, football matches. It was the home g ...

had several problems and the city needed a new stadium, the CSO decided to finance the project. However, as the project would not be state-owned but would belong to other users and would exceed €15 million in funding, this funding had to be approved by the

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of the

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. The Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission considered this funding illegal because the stadium would belong to the teams, thus resulting in preferential treatment by the state for these teams at the expense of other teams. For this reason, the land was transferred to the CSO, which took over the financing of the project and the ownership of the stadium. The CSO granted the management of the stadium to the three teams. The signatures of the construction contracts between the CSO and the Cyfield – Neophytou J.V. joint venture, which undertook to build the stadium, took place on 4 January 2019. The construction of the stadium began on 28 January 2019. The official inauguration of the Alphamega Stadium took place on 25 November 2022. The first match was played on 15 December 2022 between Apollon and Doxa Katokopias for the 15th matchday of the

2022–23 Cypriot First Division The 2022–23 Cypriot First Division is the 84th season of the Cypriot top-level football league. Competition system 14 teams will participate in the 2022–23 First Division. It will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase, all teams ...

. Apollon won the match with 1–0 score. The first goal which was achieved in the Alphamega Stadium was scored by

Khaled Adénon Abdoul Khaled Akiola Adénon (born 28 July 1985) is a Beninese professional footballer who plays as a defender for Cypriot First Division club Doxa Katokopias. Club career Adénon was born in Allahé, Benin. He started his career with Ivorian ...

as an

own goal An own goal, also called a self goal, is where a player performs actions that result in them or their team scoring a goal on themselves, often resulting in a point for the opposing team, such as when a football player kicks a ball into their own ...

References

Football venues in Cyprus Sports venues in Cyprus Sport in Limassol Sports venues completed in 2022 Buildings and structures in Limassol {{Building-stub

Name

History

See also

References