The Kamuzu Stadium 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 ...

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

. 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 65,000 people. This can be limited for safety reasons.

Big Bullets Nyasa Big Bullets is a Malawian professional association football club based in Blantyre, currently playing in the TNM Super League, the top division of Malawian football. The club was formerly known as Bata Bullets, Total Big Bullets and Bakili ...

and Be Forward Wanderers are tenants.

History

The stadium was originally named Rangeley Stadium during the colonial era to commemorate British civil servant William H. J. Rangeley. It later became known as Kamuzu Stadium, after Malawi's first President,

Hastings Kamuzu Banda Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1898 – 25 November 1997) was the prime minister and later president of Malawi from 1964 to 1994 (from 1964 to 1966, Malawi was an independent Dominion / Commonwealth realm). In 1966, the country became a republic and ...

, when Malawi gained independence from Britain. The main stands were designed and drawn by L Jeffery and Steve Price, the works completed in 1968. After Kamuzu's presidency, the name was changed to Chichiri Stadium under President

Bakili Muluzi Elson Bakili Muluzi (born March 17, 1943 in Machinga, Nyasaland) is a Malawian politician who was the first freely elected president of Malawi from 1994 to 2004. He was also chairman of the United Democratic Front (UDF) until 2009. He succeeded ...

; however, under Muluzi's successor,

Bingu wa Mutharika Bingu wa Mutharika (; born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom; 24 February 1934 – 5 April 2012) was a Malawian politician and economist who was President of Malawi from May 2004 until his death in April 2012. He was also President of the Democ ...

, the name Kamuzu Stadium was restored in 2004. FIFA through its GOAL programme has sponsored the renovation of the natural grass pitch into a synthetic football pitch. This artificial turf field, called Xtreme Turf, has been manufactured and installed by Act Global. President

Peter Mutharika Arthur Peter Mutharika (born 18 July 1940) is a Malawian politician and lawyer who was President of Malawi from May 2014 to June 2020. Mutharika has worked in the field of international justice, specialising in international economic law, inter ...

's inauguration ceremony was held at Kamuzu Stadium on 2 June 2014.Zawadi Chilunga
"Mutharika regrets JB's snub in power handover: Muluzi cheered"
, ''Nyasa Times'', 2 June 2014.

References

External links

Illustrated BBC World Service story about an AIDS awareness event held at KamuzuPhotos
a
cafe.daum.net/stadePhotos
a
worldstadiums.com
Football venues in Malawi Athletics (track and field) venues in Malawi

Buildings and structures in Blantyre Multi-purpose stadiums Buildings and structures in Southern Region, Malawi {{Malawi-sports-venue-stub