The Stade du Schlossberg 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 ...

located in

Forbach Forbach ( , , ; gsw, Fuerboch) is a commune in the French department of Moselle, northeastern French region of Grand Est. It is located on the German border approximately 15 minutes from the center of Saarbrücken, Germany, with which it const ...

, France.

History

The stadium was inaugurated in Schlossberg on 30 September 1923 during a friendly match between the

US Forbach Union Sportive de Forbach Football (; commonly referred to as US Forbach or simply Forbach) is a French football club based in Forbach in the Lorraine region. The club was founded in 1909 under the name ''Sport Club Forbach'' and is a part of a ...

and the

Club Français Club Français was a French association football club based in Paris which was founded in 1890. Club Français won the 1896 USFSA Football Championship and Coupe de France Final 1931. In 1900 the USFSA elected players from Club Français to ...

from Paris (2–2) in front of over 3,000 enthusiastic people. The construction costs amounted to 376,000 gold francs and were repaid by 1939 just before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The stadium, as did the city, suffered greatly during the 118 days of fighting. It was renovated and on 17 May 1953 the Lorraine team beat the team from

Saar Saar or SAAR has several meanings: People Given name *Saar Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player * Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist *Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor Surname * Ain Saar (born 1968), Est ...

4–1. On Monday Easter 1957 the local club in front of 7,114 spectators beat

Stade de Reims Stade de Reims () is a French professional association football, football club based in Reims. The club was formed in 1910 and plays in Ligue 1, the top level of Football in France, having been promoted from Ligue 2 in 2017–18 Ligue 2, 2018. ...

and was embarked on a professional period (of 1957 to 1966). In that first season, 9,753 attended a clash between the leaders of the division for seven games (Forbach and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

) (0–0) and USF finally missed rising to the 1st division by a point. The stadium was then endowed with its current honorary stand and a lighting system. The

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

is no longer played there and it now has a capacity of 5,400 places. The stadium Schlossberg is not only 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 ...

. It has an athletics track and is also used every year for the international athletics meeting of Forbach.

References

1923 establishments in France Athletics (track and field) venues in France Football venues in France Sports venues completed in 1923 Sports venues in Moselle (department) {{France-sports-venue-stub