Mourneview Park 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 in

Lurgan, County Armagh Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

, Northern Ireland, and is the home ground of

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

club Glenavon. The stadium holds 4,160 and was originally built in 1895. The

2008–09 Irish League Cup The 2008–09 Irish League Cup (known as the Co-operative Insurance Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd edition of the Irish League Cup, Northern Ireland's secondary football knock-out cup competition. The tournament started on 26 August 2 ...

2010–11 Irish League Cup The 2010–11 Irish League Cup (known as the The Co-operative Insurance, Co-operative Insurance Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 25th edition of Northern Ireland's secondary Association football, football knock-out cup competition. For this se ...

and 2020-21 Irish Cup finals were held at the stadium.

History

Between 1992 and 2011, Mourneview Park underwent a number of significant renovations, including the building of three new seated stands. Mourneview Park has been used by the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

to host neutral matches in the past. In 2003, the Irish Football Association removed Mourneview Park as a potential semi-final host for the

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

because of rioting between fans of

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

and

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

. Mourneview Park has previously been attacked by arsonists, including in 2005 when a petrol bomb was thrown into a supporters club bar which destroyed it, leading to Glenavon considering closing Mourneview Park because of the continuous damage. In 2009, it was selected to host the 2009 Irish League Cup final because neither of Belfast's Big Two made it to the final and it would have been harder for fans of finalists Newry City and Portadown to get to a Belfast venue. This was the same case for the 2011 Irish League Cup Final, with Mourneview Park being chosen because the finalists were Lisburn Distillery and Portadown, 2 of the closest Premiership clubs to Mourneview Park at that time. The two League Cup finals held at Mourneview Park were the first to be staged outside of

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

. In 2014, Mourneview Park was nominated by Belfast club Linfield to be their designated home ground for their home matches in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

after their normal home ground,

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual rent ...

was undergoing redevelopment. Mourneview Park was chosen as the venue for the 2015

semi-final between

and

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

due to the unavailability of

ahead of a

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

international fixture. The ground was further used for semi-finals in the 2016–17, 2018–19, and 2020-21 editions of the competition. In September 2020, Glenavon FC unveiled a new 5m x 2m Digital LED Screen at Mourneview Park, which was supplied by FSL Scoreboards. It is the first of its kind anywhere in Ireland. On 12 April 2021, it was announced that Mourneview Park would be the host venue for the

2020–21 Irish Cup The 2020–21 Irish Cup (known as the Sadler's Peaky Blinder Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) was the 141st edition of the Irish Cup, the premier knock-out cup competition in Northern Irish football since its inauguration in 1881. The competit ...

Final; the first time the final has been staged outside of Belfast since 1975. Although Glenavon failed to attain European qualification at the end of the 2020-21 Season, there would still be European football played in Mourneview Park, as it was announced on 15 June 2021 that Mourneview Park would host the second leg of the first round tie in the inaugural edition of the

Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

between

FK Velež Mostar Fudbalski klub Velež Mostar ( sh-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Beлеж Мостар; English: Football club Velež Mostar) is a professional football club based in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club has a history of being one of the ...

and

Coleraine F.C. Coleraine Football Club is a semi-professional Northern Irish football club, playing in the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of the Irish League. The club, founded in 1927, hails from Coleraine, County Londonderry and plays its home matches ...

on 15 July 2021, due to pitch redevelopments at The Showgrounds.

International football

Mourneview Park has been used to host

Northern Ireland national under-21 football team The Northern Ireland national under-21 football team also known as the Northern Ireland under-21s or Northern Ireland U21s, is the national under-21 football team of Northern Ireland and is controlled by the Irish Football Association. The team com ...

matches as well as matches involving the

Northern Ireland women's national football team The Northern Ireland women's national football team represents Northern Ireland in international women's football. Although most national football teams represent a sovereign state, FIFA statutes permit Northern Ireland as a member of the United ...

Other uses

Mourneview Park has also been used for purposes outside of football. in 2014 it hosted a Christian evangelical event hosted by former

Northern Ireland national football team The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland natio ...

player turned minister, Stuart Elliott.

References

{{reflist

External links

IFCP photos from Mourneview Park

Glenavon FC Homepage
Association football venues in Northern Ireland Sports venues in County Armagh Glenavon F.C. Sports venues completed in 1895