Bilino Polje is the home

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 ...

of Bosnian Premier League football club NK Čelik from the city of

Zenica Zenica ( ; ; ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and an administrative and economic center of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Zenica-Doboj Canton. It is located in the Bosna (river), Bosna river valley, about north of Sarajevo. Th ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

and one of two stadiums of the national football team of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also sometimes used for the

Bosnia and Herzegovina national rugby union team The Bosnia and Herzegovina national rugby union team has yet to make its debut at the Rugby World Cup. Bosnia and Herzegovina have been playing international rugby since the early 1990s. The national side is ranked 73rd in the world (as of 29 J ...

as well. 2008-2010 European Nations Cup Third Division#Matches 4

History

The stadium was built and opened in 1972. It was used in

's first match, a friendly played against

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

in 1996 with the final result being a 2–0 win to Albania. The stadium was once considered a "curse" for foreign national teams, because the Bosnian national team usually wins or rarely loses their home games at Bilino Polje stadium. In a period stretching from 1995 to October 2006, Bosnia went undefeated at home in around 15 games played in Zenica. The city of Zenica had to wait another 4 years (1996–2000) before the next match of the national team was played at the stadium. This match was also a friendly, this time against Macedonia, with the final result being a victory for the home side 1–0. NK Čelik was formed in 1945 as a club and played its home games at Blatuša. At the time, the stadium was mainly built with wooden stands and could have an attendance of 15,600 spectators. Zenica, being an industrial city and having Željezara as the main provider for most of the population of the city, needed to provide some kind of job offer for its hard workers. Now, the decision was made to build a larger stadium since NK Čelik was taking part in the

Yugoslav First League The Yugoslav First Federal Football League ( Serbian: Прва савезна лига у фудбалу / ''Prva savezna liga u fudbalu'', hr, Prva savezna liga u nogometu, sl, Prva zvezna nogometna liga, mk, Прва сојузна лига, ...

. Bilino Polje was built within a 6 and 8 months period, and was ready for NK Čelik to host European teams in the then

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hungar ...

. At that time, NK Čelik hosted

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

at the stadium in the finals of the Mitropa Cup and won it that year. Also, NK Čelik went on to win the Mitropa Cup the following year as well. A few years after the construction, the stadium was actually given the award for being the most beautiful stadium in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. Bilino Polje has a rectangular shape with British style dimensions, rather than an oval shape such as the Stadium Koševo in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, making it a somewhat unusual stadium in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Location

The stadium is located in the urban area of

and can be easily accessed and navigated to from several points in the city. It is also well connected to the ongoing urban redevelopment of the city's road network.

Stadium statistics

ref1.
br> Football matches by the

Yugoslavia national football team The Yugoslavia national football team; hr, Jugoslavenska nogometna reprezentacija; sl, Jugoslovanska nogometna reprezentanca; mk, Фудбалска репрезентација на Југославија, Fudbalska reprezentacija na Jugosl ...

to 1992: Football matches by the

Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team The Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team ( bs, Nogometna/Fudbalska reprezentacija Bosne i Hercegovine; sr, Фудбалска репрезентација Боснe и Херцеговинe, Fudbalska reprezentacija Bosne i Hercegovi ...

to date: Table correct as of 19 November 2015.

Image gallery

File:Bilino Polje 2.jpg, East side File:Bilino Polje 3.jpg, South side File:Bilino Polje 5.jpg, Scoreboard on north side File:Bilino Polje 6.jpg, New grass (placed in August 2012)

References

{{Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina venues Architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina Football venues in Bosnia and Herzegovina Football venues in Yugoslavia Buildings and structures in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sport in Zenica NK Čelik Zenica Sports venues completed in 1972 1972 establishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina