Estádio da Várzea is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

Praia, Cape Verde Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Várzea and on

Avenida Cidade de Lisboa Avenida Cidade de Lisboa is an avenue west of the center of Praia, Santiago island, Cape Verde. It runs along the neighbourhoods of Várzea, Achadinha and Chã de Areia. It is one of the major arterial roads of the city. The street is named fo ...

on its east side. It is currently used mostly for

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 ...

matches. The stadium holds 8,000 people. The stadium is owned by the city of Praia and is operated by the Santiago South Regional Football Association and serves its headquarters of the association. The other stadium operated by the association in the south of the island is Calabaceira. The entrance is on the west side of the stadium where most of the seat is. The stadium has seat rows in the left and right sides, 200 meters east is the

Plateau of Praia ''Plateau'' is the historic centre of the capital city of Praia in the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. It gets its name (from French “plateau”) because it is situated on a plateau overlooking the port of Praia. Its average elevation is 37 ...

. Its size is 108 by 69 m, the longest part of the field goes north to south with a 15 degree angle facing east at the top. Its elevation is about 4 meters above sea level. A smaller practice field lies due south. The stadium is home to the four best football clubs in Cape Verde, Sporting,

CD Travadores Clube Desportivo Travadores ( Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC: ''Klubi Desportivu Travadoris'') is a football club in the Santiago South Premier Division in Cape Verde and are one of the unrelegated clubs of the Premier Division. It is based in the ...

, Académica and

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

the

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Island first division alongside Vitória FC, one of the region's best, it also home of

Desportivo da Praia Desportivo da Praia is a football club that currently plays in the Premier division and the Santiago Island League (South) in Cape Verde. It is based in the capital city of Praia in the island of Santiago. It is the military team of Cape Verde. Its ...

which is a military club and the lesser club Benfica Praia. Other teams that base in another part include ADESBA located in the nearby neighborhood of Craveiro Lopes some hundreds of meters north but play in the stadium. Praia-Estádio da Várzea (2)

Competition

The regional Premier Division matches are played in the afternoon and the early evening hours starting, on Fridays, its matches starts at 16:00 (4 PM) and during the weekends its matches starts at 14:00 (2 PM). Four regional Second Division matches are played in the morning hours starting at 8:00 (8 AM), the other match are played at nearby Calabaceira further northwest.

Training ground

Southwest of the stadium is a small training ground. The clubs mainly train at that part of the stadium, some like Sporting Praia, Travadores, Académca da Praia, Desportivo Praia, ADESBA and Celtic Praia train there. The size is 69 x 43 meters. It was built on a former concrete basketball court in 2004. Estádio da Várzea

Other landmarks

Other landmarks around the stadium includes the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, o ...

in the north, the government building, home of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

in the south and recently since 2013, the stock market building. Further east is the headquarters of

Cabo Verde Telecom Cabo is Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for cape. It may refer to: * Cabo San Lucas, a resort city in Baja California Sur, Mexico * Cabó, a municipality in Alt Urgell, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain Other places * Cabo Blanco, Costa Rica * Cabo ...

, a building south is Cape Verde's tallest building built in around 2010, it is used for finances, banking and investments. Other nearby sports complexes are its tennis complex and Gimnodesportivo Vava Duarte about two buildings south.

History

The stadium (then commonly as Estádio Municipal da Praia) was constructed around the mid-20th century. From 1953 to 2002, the stadium was solely operated by the Santiago Regional Football Association before its breakup into two zones. On February 5, 2004, the management of the stadium was done by the Santiago South Regional Football Association, newly separated then, while the ownership remains to be the city itself. Currently the ARFSS is the operator of the stadium, they also operate Calabaceira and a part of its training grounds in other parts of the city. The stadium was reopened in 2006, Campo de Coco formerly occupied the site until the area would be renovated. Campo do Coco was one of the first football (soccer) fields opened in around 1930, around the 1990s, the stadium name became Várzea. The stadium twice hosted the

Amilcar Cabral Cup The Amilcar was a French automobile manufactured from 1921 to 1940. History Foundation and location Amilcar was founded in July 1921 by Joseph Lamy and Emile Akar. The name "Amilcar" was an imperfect anagram of the partners' names. The b ...

, the first was in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

which it also canceled the national championships that season but not the first national cup, and the last one was in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

where the team defeated

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

1-0 and won the only title. In 1998, the field started to deteriorate, one of the reasons that the Santiago regional competitions were cancelled for the 1999 and the 2001 seasons, it was restored briefly in 2000. Another reason of the deterioration was that in the 1980s and the 1990s, more matches were played especially the Second Division at the stadium with an addition of a few clubs. The stadium underwent renovations for November 1999, heavy rains delayed renovations and was not completed until April in the following year. Later, Praia's clubs between 2001 and 2004 were played at Sucupira, weeds were grown inside the stadium, the stadium was being renovated and the field sorted again at the time. The adjacent Sucupira field became disused, a building is now built on the former field. On March 15, 2007, the field became artificial and synthetic turf. Before, the grass was dry and in bad shape due to the climate that is not favorable for natural grass, the replacement costed about CV$60 million (545,000 euros). Music concerts also took place in the stadium especially in February 2007. The first

Cape Verdean Cup A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

final took place in September 2007 which was won by Académica Praia. More improvements along with artificial grass were made in late 2010 and artificial light were added. With the improved 2017 national season, the first with two meetings each, 3 out of 6 matches were at the stadium and had three consecutive matches played, the 2nd, 3rd and the 4th rounds.

Cape Verdean Colonial/Provincial Championships

The final matches between the winners of the islands of Santiago and São Vicente before independence in 1975 took place at Campo do Coco, one of them was in 1972, the predecessor to Várzea, they were held each year with the exceptions of 1955, 1957 to 1959 and in 1970.

Cape Verdean Football Championships

Several final matches of the

Cape Verdean Football Championship The Cape Verdean Football Championship or the Campeonato Caboverdiano de Futebol is a football competition that was created in 1976 in Cape Verde. A local championship was founded in 1953 before independence, when the islands were still part of ...

s took place in the stadium, one of two finals matches featuring a club from Santiago or outside the island of São Vicente took place at the stadium until 1985. Four of its matches was held at Sucupira while the stadium was being repaired, Sporting Praia won their fourth title at the stadium in 2002 with a record total of 19 points and scored 22 goals. The 2004 final took place in the stadium with the first match of two where Academica lost to

Sport Sal Rei Club Sport Sal Rei Club (or as Sport Sal-Rei Clube) is a sports club whose football (soccer) team has played in the Premier division and plays in the Boa Vista Island South Zone Division in Cape Verde. It is based in Sal Rei on the island of Boa Vis ...

0–2 on June 26, 2004. The first of two match of the 2005 finals was in the stadium with

FC Derby Futebol Clube Derby (short form: FC Derby, second name: Derby São Vicente) is a football club that had played in the Premier division and the São Vicente Island League in Cape Verde and is Cape Verde's only affiliate of FC Porto and the old ...

and ended in a one-goal draw, Derby later won their third and recent title for the club. In 2006, the second final match took place on July 2 and Sporting was tied with

Académico do Aeroporto Académico do Aeroporto ( Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC or ALUPEK: ''Akadémiku du Aeropurtu'') is a football club that had played in the Premier division and plays in the Sal Island League in Cape Verde. It is based in the city of Espargos in the i ...

with two goals, Sporting won their fifth title, their first of four consecutive titles. In 2007, the second match was at the stadium on July 21 and had a one-goal draw with

Académica do Mindelo Associação Académica do Mindelo ( Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC or ALUPEK: ''Akadémika'', São Vicente Crioulo: ''Académica'' or ''Akadémika'') is a football club that had played in the Premier division and the São Vicente Island League in ...

and Sporting claimed their sixth title under the away goals rule. Sporting faced Derby in the 2008 finals, the second rescheduled match featured Sporting who defeated Derby with 3 goals and claimed their seventh title. The 2009 finals was the first in the country that featured two clubs from the same city, the clubs were Sporting and Académica da Praia and Sporting won all four consecutive titles. Again, the 2009 finals would feature clubs from the same city,

defeated Sporting Praia in two of its final matches and claimed their third and recent title for the club. The 2011 edition of the finals had its first match held at the stadium and the first with artificial grass, Sporting played against

CS Mindelense Clube Sportivo Mindelense ( Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC or ALUPEK: ''KS Mindelensi'' (''KS'' – ''Klubi Sporting''), São Vicente Crioulo: ''KS Mindelense'' (''KS'' – ''Klube or Clube (CS)'') is a football club that plays in the P ...

and lost the match by a goal, later Mindelense won their eighth title. In the 2012 finals, Sporting challenged against

SC Atlético Sport Club Atlético (first part, Portuguese meaning: "athletics", Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC or ALUPEK: ''SK Atlétiku'') is a football (soccer) club based in Ribeira Brava and plays in São Nicolau Island League and had played in the Premie ...

in the second match and ended scoreless, Sporting under the away goals rule claimed their ninth and recent title for the club, one of the notable finals of the decade. The 2017 national football championship finals had the second leg took place in the stadium, the next in five years where Sporting Praia won their recent title, also its long-awaited celebrations made by Sporting Praia fans took place at the stadium. The 2018 National Division has the first three of the six matches with Académica Praia in the stadium while Sporting played its first match in the stadium and will play the last six inside Várzea.

Cape Verdean Cup

The knockout stage of the Cape Verdean Cup took place at the stadium in 1982, 2007, 2009, 2010 and in 2012. The 2007 season had all matches played and the final round with three matches in 2010. No new national cup competitions have been made until 2018, where the third round matches will be playing in June. Praia campo

Clubs at the continental level

African championship and cup league competitions took place at the stadium, seven championship editions took place with eleven matches and three cup competitions with three matches. In the championship portion, Sporting held the most with seven matches the latter five being the

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club competition organized by the Confederation of African Football and co ...

with ASC Port Autonome and Tunisia's Club Africain in the

1992 African Cup of Champions Clubs The 1992 African Cup of Champions Clubs was the 28th edition of the annual international club football competition held in the CAF region (Africa), the African Cup of Champions Clubs. It determined that year's club champion of association footba ...

which was the first Cape Verdean club to appear, in the 2000 CAF Champions League with AS Tempête Mocaf of Bangui, Guinea's

Fello Star Fello Star de Labé is a Guinean football club based in Labé. Their home games are played at Stade Saïfoulaye Diallo. Its logo and uniform colors are blue and black. Achievements National *Guinée Championnat National: 4 ::Winner: 2004 (cha ...

in 2007,

FAR Rabat Association sportive des Forces armées royales (, ar, الجمعية الرياضية للقوات المسلحة الملكية), commonly known as AS FAR ( ar, نادي الجيش الملكي), is a professional sport club based in Morocco's ...

and

Inter Luanda Grupo Desportivo Interclube, usually known as Interclube or Inter de Luanda, is an Angolan football club based in Luanda. The club is attached to the Angolan police force. Interclube is one of the two clubs based in Luanda (the other one is 1º d ...

in 2008 and again with FAR Rabat in 2009, the 2009 edition was the recent that the Cape Verdean champion competed at the continental level. The other two are Travadores with two matches held, first in the 1995 African Cup of Champions Clubs with Real de Banjul and the 1997 CAF Champions League with

USM Alger Union Sportive de la Médina d'Alger ( ar, الإتحاد الرياضي لمدينة الجزائر); known as USM Alger or simply USMA for short, is a football club based in the inner suburbs of Algiers. The club was founded in 1937 and its co ...

and Boavista in 1996 African Cup of Champions Clubs. In the cup portion each of the three clubs held it once, Travadores was the first Cape Verdean club to compete at the continental competition in 1993 where Boavista lost to ASC Air Mauritanie, then Boavista in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

with

Diamond Stars The Diamond Stars Football Club is a Sierra Leonean professional Soccer, football club based in Koidu Town, Kono District, Sierra Leone. The club represent the diamond-rich Kono District and is a member of the Sierra Leone National Premier Lea ...

from Sierra Leone and lastly Sporting held it once in 2001 with

Gazelle FC Gazelle FC is a football club from Chad based in N'Djamena. The club currently play in the Chad Premier League, the top flight of Chadian football. Gazelle FC was founded on May 16, 1972 in the capital city of N'Djamena. The club has won four ...

from N'Djamena, Chad.

Architecture

The architectural type is early modernism. The exterior of the architecture at the front is colored stucco-peach, it has eight modernized square columns, on the bottom inside are colored white where the entrance gates are and the offices are located. In the middle is colored light brown with two flaw windows on its edges with four in the middle at the upper third floor, a circular window at the second floor is in the middle, it is bordered by two balconies at the third floor and bordering it are two thick glass staircase windows with three small squared windows each side on its two upper floors.

Panoramics

The stadium can be viewed from the hills in the outskirts including

Achada Santo António Achada Santo António is a subdivision of the city of Praia in the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. Its population was 12,965 at the 2010 census. It is situated near the Atlantic coast, southwest of the city centre. Adjacent neighbourhoods are V ...

and especially the

Transportation

Two nearby bus stops are located by the stadium. One is at Avenida Cidade de Lisboa to the south and another is on the old road between the city center and Cidade Velha. These stops are also served by minibuses and taxis. Bus lines of the city's transit system that is nearby the stadium include: *São Filipe – Plateau - Achada Santo António (sometimes) *Palmarejo - Plateau – Achada Grande ine 2(sometimes) *São Filipe – Plateau - Achada Santo António - second route *Palmarejo – Plateau – Eugénio Lima *Terra Branca – Plateau – Pensamento (sometimes)