Laurent Pokou Stadium is a football stadium in
San Pédro,
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
. The stadium has a capacity of 20,000 seats. The Construction of the stadium began in September 2018. The stadium will host matches for the
2023 Africa Cup of Nations
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (also referred to as AFCON 2023 or CAN 2023) is scheduled to be the 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's association football, football championship of Africa organized by the ...
, an international men's football competition across
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
.
History
On September 9th 2023, the Stadium witnessed its inaugural official match as
Ivory Coast national football team
The Ivory Coast national football team ( French: ''Équipe de football de Côte d'Ivoire'', recognized as the Côte d'Ivoire by FIFA) represents Ivory Coast in men's international football. Nicknamed ''the Elephants'', the team is managed by ...
secured a 1-0 victory over
Lesotho in a
2023 Africa Cup of Nations
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (also referred to as AFCON 2023 or CAN 2023) is scheduled to be the 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's association football, football championship of Africa organized by the ...
Qualifier. This stadium, which pays homage to the legendary Ivorian striker,
Laurent Pokou
Laurent N'Dri Pokou (10 August 1947 – 13 November 2016) was an Ivorian footballer who played as a striker. He notably played for French club Stade Rennais F.C.
International career
Pokou was a member of the Ivorian national team, who was tw ...
, boasts a seating capacity of 20,000. It was
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...
midfielder
Ibrahim Sangaré who had the honor of scoring the first-ever goal at this state-of-the-art facility on that memorable Saturday. Idriss Yacine Diallo, the COCAN Vice-President and FIF President, expressed his thoughts, saying, "The Ivorian authorities have devoted significant efforts to guarantee optimal conditions for the teams participating in the final phase of the competition in Ivory Coast. We've made multiple visits to San Pedro with CAF delegations to oversee the progress of the construction. It brings us immense pride to return to this splendid stadium, which hosted Lesotho so successfully last Saturday."
See also
*
List of football stadiums in Ivory Coast
This is a list of Association football, football (soccer) stadiums in Ivory Coast, ranked in descending order of Seating capacity, capacity with at least 5,000 seating capacity. Some stadiums in the country are soccer-specific stadiums, football-s ...
*
List of African stadiums by capacity
The following is an incomplete list of sports stadiums in Africa. They are in order by their capacity, that is the maximum number of spectators the stadium can accommodate.
Most large stadiums in Africa are used for football (soccer), with some a ...
*
List of association football stadiums by capacity
The following is a list of football stadiums. They are ordered by their seating capacity, that is the maximum number of spectators that the stadium can accommodate in seated areas. All stadiums that are the home of a club or national team with a ...
References
{{2023 Africa Cup of Nations stadiums
Football venues in Ivory Coast
Sport in Bas-Sassandra District
Buildings and structures in Bas-Sassandra District
2023 Africa Cup of Nations stadiums