The Bangalore Football Stadium is a

football stadium Football stadium may refer to: * A stadium used in gridiron football, association football or Australian rules football * A soccer-specific stadium Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sp ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. It was a venue in three editions of the

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

, top-tier football league in the country, and home of

Bengaluru FC Bengaluru Football Club () is an Indian professional football club based in Bangalore, Karnataka. The club competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. The club was established on 20 July 2013, and began its first ...

for one season, when they won I-League trophy in first attempt.

History

Construction and early history

Bengaluru FC vs CIL in Bangalore Super Division

Construction of the stadium began in 1967. Initially the stadium was going to be based on the famed Estádio do Maracanã in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

which had a capacity of 250,000 back then. The idea was to design and construct the Bengaluru Football Stadium like that but with a final capacity of 90,000 instead. After the first stands were completed around 1970 and 1971 then

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

president

João Havelange Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange (, ; 8 May 1916 – 16 August 2016) was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, athlete and centenarian who served as the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the ...

made the trip to Bengaluru to see the progress and start of the construction of the main stands. He was left happy with what he heard about the stadium and reportedly said he would bring South American teams to India to play in the stadium. However, eventually, problems started to arise about the cost of constructing the stadium skyrocketed. Materials such as steel and cement were stolen and due to the rise of costs the state football federation, the

Karnataka State Football Association The Karnataka State Football Association (abbreviated KSFA), formerly the Mysore Football Association, is one of the 37 Indian state football associations that are affiliated to the All India Football Federation. It is the organization that admi ...

(KSFA), were left without the needed funds to complete the stadium. Even though an enquiry was started, the results were never published due to corruption within the Bengaluru system. In order to raise some funds a leasing agreement was made with a private builder for two corner areas for his own buildings. The lease was revealed to be an 88-year agreement for 1 crore a year being given to the KSFA. Despite the agreement, the delay in construction meant one of the stands had to be re-constructed while slum dwellers moved into the area where the southern stand would be. This led to problems with fans and players who found it tough to retrieve the ball from the area once it landed there. In 1996–97, in an effort to have the

National Games of India The National Games of India consist of various disciplines in which athletes from the different states of India participate against each other. The country's first few Olympic Games, now renamed as National Games, were held in North India (De ...

hosted in Bengaluru the high court ordered the slum area of the stadium cleared, which thus happened. On 5 December 2004, the stadium was the site of the death of Brazilian footballer

Cristiano Júnior Cristiano Sebastião de Lima Júnior (5 June 1979 – 5 December 2004) was a Brazilian footballer who played as a forward for Dempo, before an on-field collision in the Federation Cup finals, with the goalkeeper of his opposing team led to ...

during a

Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...

match between his

Dempo Dempo Mining Corporation Limited is a prominent mining company from the western Indian state of Goa. The mineral business was founded by Mr. Vasantrao S. Dempo in 1941 along with his younger brother Mr. Vaikuntrao Dempo. Mr. Vasantrao S. Demp ...

and

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment ...

. He collided with the Bagan and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

international goalkeeper

Subrata Pal Subrata Paul (also Pal; born 24 December 1986) is an Indian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Indian Super League club ATK Mohun Bagan FC, ATK Mohun Bagan, on loan fr ...

while scoring his second goal for Dempo before collapsing to the ground. He was announced dead on arrival at the hospital. In 2006 the AFC Youth Championship was held at the stadium partially.

I-League era (2010–2014)

In 2010 the

I-League 2nd Division I-League 2, previously known as I-League 2nd Division and officially known as or Hero I-League 2 (for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp), is an Indian men's professional football league. It is the 3rd tier of Indian football, behind Indian ...

was hosted by the Bangalore Football Stadium which saw local Bangalore side HAL Bangalore promoted to the

, the top-tier football league in the country. The first ever

match at the stadium was held on 3 January 2011 in which HAL Bangalore took on Salgaocar. The match ended 1–0 for Salgaocar. After two seasons of being in the I-League the Bangalore Football Stadium was removed as a venue for the league when HAL Bangalore were relegated and thus not included in the 2012–13 season. However, on 28 May 2013 it was officially announced that

would be formed in the city for the 2013–14 season. Then on 20 July the stadium hosted a mega-event which officially launched the club and the stadium was officially announced as the home for the club for the upcoming season. The team then played their first ever match against

at the stadium. Ending in a 1–1 draw, the encounter was made memorable by the crowd which was almost full to capacity. The final I-League match to be played at the stadium was between Bengaluru FC and

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

on 28 March 2014. The match ended 1–1 with

Anthony D'Souza Anthony D'Souza (born 2 March 1987) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Goa. Career Early career Born in Siolim, Goa, D'Souza started his football career at the SESA Football Academy before joining the youth tea ...

scoring the final goal at the stadium. Overall, the average home attendance for Bengaluru FC at the stadium was 7,500.

Closing and new stadium

On 5 December 2013 it was officially announced by

that India would be the hosts of the

2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 17th FIFA U-17 World Cup, a biennial international football tournament contested by men's under-17 national teams. Organised by FIFA, the tournament took place in India between 6 and 28 October 2017, after the ...

, the country's first FIFA international competition. It was also announced that

would be among the choices for being a host city for the tournament. In March 2014 it was announced that at the end of the

2013–14 I-League The 2013–14 I-League (known as the ''Airtel I-League'' for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season of the I-League, the top-tier Indian professional league for football clubs, since its establishment in 2007. The season began on 21 Septemb ...

season the stadium would be demolished and then a new stadium would be built on that exact spot.

I-League records

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

Bengaluru FC

References

External links

Bangalore Football Stadium game day
at buzzingbubs.com {{Football stadiums in India Bengaluru FC Football venues in Karnataka Sport in Bangalore Sports venues in Bangalore Sports venues completed in 1970 FC Bengaluru United 1970 establishments in Mysore State