The National Stadium of East Timor ( pt, Estádio Nacional de Timor-Leste, tet, Stadion Nasional Timor Lorosa'e), also known as the Municipal Stadium of Dili ( pt, Estádio Municipal de Díli, links=no, tet, Estadiu Munisipal Díli, links=no), 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 ...

Dili Dili (Portuguese/Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in ...

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...

. The stadium has a capacity of 5,000 and is 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.

History

In 1999-2000, during the

1999 East Timorese crisis The 1999 East Timorese crisis began with attacks by pro-Indonesia militia groups on civilians, and expanded to general violence throughout the country, centred in the capital Dili. The violence intensified after a majority of eligible East Timo ...

and its aftermath, the stadium was used as a makeshift refugee camp and emergency relief distribution point. On 21 December 1999, the stadium hosted the

Tour of Duty – Concert for the Troops Tour of Duty – Concert for the Troops was a benefit concert held on 21 December 1999 in Dili, East Timor, for the Australian troops serving with the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET). The concert was a special Christmas present ...

, featuring

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

and

John Farnham John Peter Farnham Officer of the Order of Australia, AO (born 1 July 1949) is a British born Australian singer. Farnham was a Teen idol, teen pop idol from 1967 until 1979, billed then as Johnny Farnham, but has since forged a career as an Adu ...

, for the Australian troops serving with the

International Force for East Timor The International Force East Timor (INTERFET) was a multinational non-United Nations peacemaking task force, organised and led by Australia in accordance with United Nations resolutions to address the humanitarian and security crisis that took ...

(INTERFET). Since 2004, the stadium has been home to the finals of the

Super Liga Timorense Super Liga was the top division of the Federaçao Futebol Timor-Leste. It was replaced by Liga Futebol Amadora in 2015. List of Champions * 2005–06: Fima Sporting *2007–10 : ''not played'' References {{AFC Leagues 1 East Timor ...

, the Taça Digicel, and, more recently, the

Taça 12 de Novembro Taça 12 de Novembro is an annual knockout association football competition in men's domestic Timor football. This competition was organised by Liga Futebol Amadora and FFTL. Competition format Beginning in August, the competition proceeds as ...

and the Liga Futebol Amadora / Timor-Leste. In 2005, world-renowned soccer player

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

visited Dili stadium and had a picture with the President, Xanana Gusmão. In 2006, the stadium once again housed a refugee camp, for over 1,000 displaced people. A

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

held between East Timorese national teams, a UN Police team and Australian and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

combined teams was held in May 2007. On 12 March 2015, the stadium hosted the first international home match of the Timor-Leste national football team in the first round

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

against

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

with Timor winning 4–1. On 20 September 2019, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the formation of INTERFET task force, friendly football matches were played at the stadium between teams of Falintil and Interfet veterans, and between the Timor-Leste national team and an

Australian Defence Force The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Forc ...

team.

Facilities

The stadium has a capacity of 5,000 people. During the 2010s, it was renovated in two separate projects, commenced in 2011 and 2016, respectively. The 2011 renovations were inaugurated in April 2012 by the then

Prime Minister of East Timor , insignia = Coat of arms of East Timor.svg , insigniasize = 125px , insigniacaption = Coat of arms of East Timor , flag = , flagsize = , flagborder = ...

, Xanana Gusmão. The 2016 renovations were valued at , and included the renovation of the grandstand, construction of bathrooms, electricity rooms, and lighting poles, and adding seats to the grandstand. As of mid-2019, those renovations had not yet been completed. In February 2021, the Board of Directors of the Infrastructure Fund ( pt, Conselho da Administração do Fundo das Infraestruturas, links=no (CAFI)) approved an additional budget of more than to complete the renovations. The stadium has an athletics track, which has been used for training for the Summer Olympic Games. There are two grandstands on the Eastern and Western sides of the field. The main grandstand has a roof. Due to problems with the stadium's infrastructure, the national football team must sometimes play its home games in other countries.

Major matches

References

External links

{{Dili Football venues in East Timor Athletics (track and field) venues in East Timor Sport in Dili Buildings and structures in Dili

Multi-purpose stadiums