Pancho Aréna is a stadium in

Felcsút Felcsút is a village in Fejér county, Hungary. History The village was first mentioned in 1269 where its name was originated from the personal name "Csút". ("fel-" felső"means "upper" in Hungarian.) In the Middle Ages the owners were cru ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. It 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 and is the home stadium of Puskás Akadémia FC. Between 2015 and 2018, the stadium was the home also for the three-time champions Fehérvár FC due to the reconstruction of Sóstói Stadion.

History

The stadium was opened on 21 April 2014 with the final of the

2014 Puskás Cup The 2014 Puskás Cup was the seventh edition of the Puskás Cup and took place between 18 April to 21 April in Felcsút, Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, C ...

. On 26 April 2014, the first

Hungarian League Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignme ...

match was played at the stadium between Puskás Akadémia and Videoton. The match ended with 3–1 away win. On 30 June 2016 the first

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 ...

will be played between

Videoton FC Videoton may refer to: *Videoton (company), Hungarian electronics company *Fehérvár FC, formerly known as Videoton FC, Hungarian football club See also *Vidéotron Vidéotron is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company active in cable t ...

and

FC Zaria Bălți FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Paki ...

at the stadium. Since Videoton's stadium, Sóstói Stadion, was demolished in the spring of 2016, the

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; german: Stuhlweißenburg ), known colloquially as Fehérvár ("white castle"), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the regional capital of Central Transdanubia, and the centre of Fejér ...

-based club will play their matches at the Pancho Aréna. The Pancho Aréna was listed among the top three most beautiful stadiums of the world according to stadiumdb.com. "The wood-lined curved interior to the stand gives spectators the feeling that they are attending a Sunday church service, not a football match. The 3,500 seater stadium opened in 2014 and was the brainchild of local architect Imre Makovecz". On 26 March 2018, the first international match was played at the stadium when

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

hosted

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

in a friendly match. The match ended with a 2–1 win for Bulgaria.

Controversy

Many allegations of corruption have surfaced regarding the stadium, as Hungary's current prime minister,

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between 20 ...

(known for his passion for football) spent much of his childhood in the village, and Pancho Arena was built just meters away from his Felcsút estate. Although the stadium was not built directly from government funds, companies that provided the lion's share of the funding won several high-value public procurement procedures during Orbán's prime ministership. In addition, Orbán's government passed laws granting benefits to companies supporting sport investments. Allegations were fuelled by the fact that the stadium seats 3,500 people, while the total population of the village is under 1,700. From a historical perspective similarities can be found between Pancho Aréna and Stadionul Viitorul.

Milestone matches

Milestone matches (youth squad)

International

Attendances

Puskás Akadémia only played three matches at the Pancho Aréna during the 2013–14 season. This table includes only domestic league matches.

Gallery

File:Pancho Aréna légi fotó.jpg, Aerial view File:Pancho Aréna főbejárata.jpg, The main entrance File:Pancho Aréna Felcsút főutcája felől.jpg, The Pancho Aréna from the Főutca of Felcsút File:Pancho Aréna gyep az utca felől nézve.jpg, The interior File:Pancho Aréna a kisvasút felől.jpg, The view of Pancho Aréna from the Vál-völgyi train File:Pancho Aréna tetőzet részlet.jpg, The roof of the Pancho Aréna

References

Football venues in Hungary 2014 establishments in Hungary Sports venues completed in 2014 {{Hungary-sports-venue-stub