Stadio Ennio Tardini, commonly referred to as just Il Tardini, 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
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
in
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...
, Italy, located near the centre of Parma, between the town centre and the city walls. It is the home of
Parma Calcio 1913
Parma Calcio 1913 (), commonly known as Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, which competes in the Serie B, the second tier of Italian football.
''Parma Football Club'' was originally founded in Decembe ...
. The stadium was built in 1923 and was named after one of Parma's former presidents,
Ennio Tardini. The stadium is the nineteenth largest
football stadium in Italy and the second largest in
Emilia–Romagna
egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title ...
with a capacity of 22,352 spectators. The stadium is the sixth oldest Italian football ground still in use.
The ground underwent significant expansion under
Parmalat
Parmalat S.p.A. is a dairy and food corporation which is a subsidiary of French multinational company Lactalis. It was founded by Calisto Tanzi in 1961.
Having become the leading global company in the production of long-life milk using ultra-h ...
's ownership of the resident football club in the 1990s, as the ground's
seating capacity
Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...
was increased from around 13,500 to 29,050. In 2006, the capacity was reduced to 27,906 although only 21,473 are authorised to enter for all-seater events and even those seats are very seldom all sold. The expansion has allowed meant a number of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
matches have been played at the Tardini. Expansion plans were made public in Italy's unsuccessful
bid for
Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...
and would have made the permanent capacity of the stadium 31,397.
History
Early years (1922–1990)
![Stadio Ennio Tardini 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Stadio_Ennio_Tardini_4.JPG)
The Tardini was the idea of
Ennio Tardini, who was a graduate in Law and club president from 1921 to 1923, but although much of his work was political his passion was sport.
In January 1922, the authorities in Parma granted Parma F.B.C. a sum of
₤10,000 and Tardini instigated a national competition for the design of the new stadium in February 1922. To raise further funds, Tardini sold a plot of land for £163,000 to the municipal administration. The club had previously had no fixed home.
In September 1922, Parma's committee admitted two projects for consideration: one by
Atanasio Soldati and one by
Riccardo Bartolomasi Riccardo is a male given name, Italian version of Ricardo or Richard. It also may be a surname. It means "Powerful Leader".
It may refer to:
People A–L
*Riccardo Antoniazzi (1853–1912), Italian violin maker
*Riccardo Bacchelli (1891–1985) ...
, both architects working in Parma. Soldati's plans looked to architectural simplicity with classical Greek features, while Bartolomasi opted for a more convenient and modern approach.
Neither candidate had their work realised. It was architect
Ettore Leoni who submitted the final draft for the new stadium, drawing influence from French and German stadia –
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
's
Stade de Gerland
The Stade de Gerland (known for sponsorship reasons as Matmut Stadium de Gerland and otherwise known as Municipal de Gerland or Stade Gerland ) is a stadium in the city of Lyon, France, which serves as home to Top 14 rugby club Lyon OU. It has a ...
in particular – while celebrating the history of Parma. On 26 December 1922,
ground was broken on the construction of the stadium and the first stone was laid. The municipal contribution was then raised to £100,000 because of the public nature of the project. Tardini died shortly after, on 16 August 1923, but the stadium – originally to be called ''Stadio Municipale'' – would be named in his honour. During the 1970s, the capacity of the stadium stood at approximately 20,000. The stadium originally featured a cycle track that was converted into a clay athletics track in 1935, which was in turn built over at the end of the 1980s.
A modern floodlight system was also installed by ''Azienda Elettrica Comunale'' in 1954. The ''Tribuna Petitot'' – the main grandstand – was completely restructured by the municipal authorities between 1985 and 1990 with reinforced concrete, but the club was beginning to outgrow its stadium and external expansion had become impractical as residential buildings occupied the surrounding area.
Reconstruction of north, south and main stands (1990–1993)
![Ennio Tardini](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Ennio_Tardini.JPG)
Promotion to
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...
in 1990 required a legal minimum of 30,000 seats for any clubs playing in that division. The
seating capacity
Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...
of the stadium at that time was just 13,500. Both viable options were considered: the adaptation of the current stadium and the construction of a new ground in another part of the city. A
consortium
A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...
filed plans for a new stadium to be built near
Baganzola, a few miles outside Parma, on 14 June 1990. The idea was praised by the city's authorities, but political change in the city's halls led to delays in the approval of the plans. Consequently, on 29 May 1991 the club voted by a slim majority to renovate the current stadium. First, the grandstand was enlarged. Next, the construction of "English" corner stands – stands which fill in the corners of the stadium and make a rectangular base with all four stands close to the pitch, thereby replacing the oval shape of the stands which had facilitated a running track in previous years – was begun. The ''Curva Nord'', where the club's most dedicated fans sit, was re-developed in this style after Parma's triumph in the
Coppa Italia
The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since.
History
The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...
in 1992 before the opposite stand was completed a year later.
Renovations were finally completed in 1993, having begun in 1991, but further plans to improve the stadium were approved by the city on 23 December 1993 with local funding in excess of £12 billion. This time the ''Tribuna Est'' was the target. The outcome of the overhaul of the stadium – designed by architects Stefano Della Santa, Italo Jemmi, Paolo Simonetti and Fabrizio Fabbri – begun in the spring of 1991 led to a number of issues relating to inflows and outflows of thousands of people. Other problems included the urban location of the stadium and the consequent necessary construction of the stadium within a defined perimeter. This caused difficulties in the provision of a good view from all seats and of adequate safety features. While the most striking differences to the stadium were the increase in capacity and the removal of the running track, amenities were also vastly improved.
Incremental changes (1993–2009)
![ParmaTwente](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/ParmaTwente.jpg)
In 1997, the stadium was authorised to hold around 28,000 spectators, although there were in fact around 29,200 physical seats. In late August 1997, following the installation of yellow seats, the official capacity of the Stadio Tardini was increased to around 29,000 seats. Again in 1997, next to the ''Tribuna Petitot'' further work was completed and underneath the stand, ''Emporium'' the club's own megastore was opened, selling branded products. 2000 saw the ticket office re-located to the entrance monuments, and a change to the layout of the forum with the creation of a separate restaurant and dining room under the stands. In 2002, an agreement between the
Comune di Parma and Parma A.C. meant the club had a lease of the stadium for thirty years. The agreement is in place to allow the club to continue to renovate the stadium with the goal of optimising in-stadium services for fans and maximising matchday attendance and revenue, but many of the goals envisioned were unattainable due to the financial crisis of
Parmalat
Parmalat S.p.A. is a dairy and food corporation which is a subsidiary of French multinational company Lactalis. It was founded by Calisto Tanzi in 1961.
Having become the leading global company in the production of long-life milk using ultra-h ...
who were part of the same corporate group as Parma A.C..
Despite the financial misery, the club – now re-formed under the name of Parma F.C. in 2004 – sought to continue to work to its goals and the summer of 2006 saw the upper part of the ''Tribuna Est'' removed in preparation for a new grandstand. The tragic death of Parma fan Matteo Bagnaresi led supporters to change the name of the Curva Nord to the Curva Nord Matteo Bagnaresi in his honour. On 31 March 2008, Bagnaresi, a member of Boys Parma 1977, a group of over 100 Parma
ultras
Ultras are a type of association football fans who are renowned for their fanatical support. The term originated in Italy, but is used worldwide to describe predominantly organised fans of association football teams. The behavioural tende ...
, was run over on the way to
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
's
Stadio Olimpico
The Stadio Olimpico (English: ''Olympic Stadium'') is the largest sports facility in Rome, Italy, seating over 70,000 spectators. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex, north of the city. The structure is owned by the Italian Na ...
by a coach which was carrying the opposition
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
fans, although the extent of intent is not known. In 2006, the maximum capacity of the stadium was reduced from 29,050 to 27,906, although attendance was capped at 15,645 with the closure of the Curva Nord, the lower part of the Tribuna Est and the reduction in capacity of the main stand by the club for its one-season stay in
Serie B
The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...
due to structural problems.
Fatality, investment and Euro 2016 bid (2009–present)
![Stadio Ennio Tardini 6](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Stadio_Ennio_Tardini_6.JPG)
In May 2009,
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan.
Vicenza is a th ...
-supporting away fan Eugenio Bortolon was fatally injured in the Curva Sud on the last day of the season, despite the stadium being in full compliance with all safety regulations. The club was cleared of any wrongdoing in 2012. Shortly after, the stadium's remaining capacity was partially restored so that it could hold just over 20,000. Partly as a result of the partial re-opening of sections the stadium, the club has spent €3.5m on improvements to the ground since
Tommaso Ghirardi
Tommaso Ghirardi (born 10 May 1975 in Brescia) is an Italian businessman, mostly known for having served as chairman (of BoD) and owner of Italian association football club Parma F.C. from January 2007 to December 2014. His main activities are in ...
's arrival as club president in 2007.
This includes the summer of 2010 spend of €830,000 on the renovation. The ''Tribuna Est'' was re-roofed, access was improved with the installation of readers for Parma card holders, a giant screen was installed, improvements were made to drainage, media boxes in the ''Tribuna Centrale Petitot'' were built and investment in a new hospitality facilities were made.
The stadium was part of
Italy's unsuccessful bid for the right to host
Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...
and plans to increase the capacity to 31,397 (30,225 for the tournament) and roof the corners and ends of the stadium were submitted as part of the bid. It would have hosted matches in the group stage and a round of 16 match and the cost of the renovation would have been €40 million had Italy been selected to host the tournament and Parma been chosen as one of the nine host cities, whittled down from the twelve nominated.
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
praised Parma's ground transport links as "above the benchmark", despite this being perceived as a weakness of the stadium by the club owners, but airport links were criticised as the only airport-stadium link was to be by bus, although the assessment of
Parma Airport itself was "slightly above the benchmark".
Structure and facilities
![EnnioTardini](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/EnnioTardini.png)
Completed in 1990, the ''Tribuna Petitot'' is the largest stand and it has three levels internally. The dressing room is housed on the ground floor; the first floor is home to the club's administrative offices, as well as newsrooms, reception rooms and the honours room; and the second floor is used for surveillance and security services control and to house the media. It holds around 8,000 seats, including 348 corporate seats and 148 in the press gallery. The stadium also houses the Emporium, where fans can buy official club merchandise. The club's biggest fans tend to sit in the ''Curva Nord'' and the opposition's in the ''Curva Sud'', which were both built in the early 1990s. The area formerly used for away fans alongside the ''Settore Ospiti'', the ''Curva Sud Ospiti'', was closed after a fatal fall by a
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan.
Vicenza is a th ...
fan during a match in 2009, so the home section of the ''Curva Sud'' currently houses away fans only from the summer of 2011. The ''Tribuna Est'', whose capacity was reduced in 2006 in anticipation of its expansion, includes the disabled fan area.
Here is a breakdown of the capacities of each of the four stands of the stadium:
160 seats in the Tribuna Est are reserved for disabled supporters and 2,500 of the seats in the Curva Sud are reserved for opposition fans.
Future
In early 2012, then-club president
Tommaso Ghirardi
Tommaso Ghirardi (born 10 May 1975 in Brescia) is an Italian businessman, mostly known for having served as chairman (of BoD) and owner of Italian association football club Parma F.C. from January 2007 to December 2014. His main activities are in ...
noted that the club's two postponed home matches in that period would have gone ahead if all the stands were under cover and that the covering of the ''
curve
In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line (geometry), line, but that does not have to be Linearity, straight.
Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point (ge ...
'' should become reality. The club could also choose to move to a new stadium, although this would go against Ghirardi's public pronouncements.
Rather, he preferred to talk of his dream of renovating the stadium, while managing director
Pietro Leonardi
Pietro Leonardi (born 29 December 1963 in Rome) is an Italian businessman, who served as sporting and managing director of Italian association football club Parma F.C. until 4 March 2015. After the bankruptcy of Parma, he joined U.S. Latina Calc ...
has spoken of potential to buy the stadium from the relevant municipal authorities. In November 2012, Leonardi said he wanted "to put an end to the situation where our people, in 2012, have to follow the match in the rain" by adding a roof to uncovered parts of the stadium (i.e. the Curva Sud and the Curva Nord). There are also rumours of a much more expensive €200 million reconstruction on the current stadium's site encompassing a shopping centre,
car park
A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surfac ...
, gym and
multiplex cinema
A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens within a single complex. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into s ...
, rather than a move to the north of the city in Moletolo or Baganzola as sometimes mooted. This would likely require a temporary move away from Parma (probably to the
Stadio Mario Rigamonti
Stadio Mario Rigamonti is a soccer stadium located in Brescia, Italy. It is currently the home of Brescia Calcio.
It is dedicated to Mario Rigamonti, a defender of the Grande Torino, born in Brescia, who died in the Superga air disaster in ...
in
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...
), but any substantial work on the Tardini would require significant external investment.
Rather than renovate the Tardini, the club's leadership has instead opted to make improvements to its wholly owned
training centre in Collecchio, completed in late 2012. Municipal support for any work seems especially unlikely after
Federico Pizzarotti
Federico Pizzarotti (born 7 October 1973) is an Italian politician, who served as mayor of Parma from 2012 to 2022. He was member of the Five Star Movement, and is now leader of Italia in Comune.
He became the first Five Star Movement mayor in ...
, elected ''
sindaco
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' of Parma in May 2012, ruled the use of public money out in November 2012. The state of stadium ownership in Italy, where only
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
owns its own stadium, is widely regarded as unsatisfactory.
The stadium falls short of
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
competition standards and therefore would not be allowed to host
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
or
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 ...
matches. The reason for this is the inadequacy of this stadium's facilities. For example, the seats' backrests, which must be at least 30 cm high are below the requirement by 15 cm in some areas of the ground.
Such an improvement would require an investment of at least €1,500,000. As well install new seating, the dressing rooms, medical facilities and west stand would require renovation. The cost of these measures means the likely host of any European fixtures played by the club would be
Modena F.C.
Modena Football Club 2018, commonly referred to as Modena, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Modena, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1912, and refounded in 2018, and had spent the majority of its existence playing i ...
's
Stadio Alberto Braglia.
International football matches
The
Italian national football team
The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body ...
does not have a
national stadium
Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...
and many different venues are used by its teams at all levels. One of these venues is the Stadio Ennio Tardini, although it cannot currently be used for competitive games due to the inadequacy of the seating. This led to the moving of the Italy-
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
match to the
Stadio Alberto Braglia in
Modena
Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...
, which took place on 3 June 2011.
It has not been chosen as a host stadium in any of the major tournaments that Italy has hosted to date: the
1934 World Cup
The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934.
The 1934 World Cup was the first in ...
,
Euro 1968
The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Italy. This was the third UEFA European Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968.
It ...
,
Euro 1980
The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams i ...
and
1990 World Cup
The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being M ...
, but it was on the provisional list for the failed
Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...
bid, despite failing to make the failed
Euro 2012
The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...
bid list.
In September 2020,
Moldova's UEFA Nations League
The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body.
The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...
game against
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
was held at the stadium as Moldova does not
recognise Kosovo.
Italy national team
The Tardini has hosted six full ''Azzurri'' international matches, five of which Italy have won. The stadium is one of just over 50 used by the Italians for home games in their history and is one of the fifteen most-used. The first two matches played at the Tardini were pre-
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
friendlies contested by managers that had previously managed the club –
Arrigo Sacchi
Arrigo Sacchi (born 1 April 1946) is an Italian former professional football coach. He has twice managed AC Milan (1987–1991, 1996–1997), with great success. He won the Serie A title in his 1987–88 debut season and then dominated European ...
and
Cesare Maldini
Cesare Maldini (; 5 February 1932 – 3 April 2016) was an Italian professional football manager and player who played as a defender.
Father to Paolo Maldini and grandfather to Daniel Maldini, Cesare began his career with Italian side Triestin ...
. The other three matches have been played during the three most recent World Cup qualifying campaigns. The victory over
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 ...
was Italy's last match of the campaign and secured them qualification to the
2002 World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...
. The
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
match was played earlier in the campaign, but triumph in Parma did send the Italians top of their group. The most recent competitive international played at the Tardini was a
dead rubber Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series, other than the ...
. On 29 May 2012, the Tardini was set to host its third senior international
friendly, pitting the Italians against
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
, but the fixture was abandoned following a fatal 5.8-magnitude earthquake 36 miles east of
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...
. In dedication to the 24 deaths caused by the earthquake, Italy played a friendly against
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
at the Tardini on 14 November 2012. It also supported an initiative against violence towards women. In front of a sell-out crowd, France won the match 2–1, inflicting a first ever defeat on Italy at the Tardini.
Italy under-21 team
The Tardini has hosted two
''Azzurrini'' international matches. The second of these was the second leg of a two-legged affair, which ended 2–2, a result enough to see the Italians out on
away goals
The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...
after the first leg ended goalless.
League attendances
Information related to league matches held at the Stadio Ennio Tardini by
S.S.D. Parma Calcio 1913 in the last 50 years in the top two tiers of the
Italian football league system
The Italian football league system, also known as the Italian football pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system for association football in Italy. It consists of nine national and regional tournaments, the first three b ...
is listed below.
Other uses
Rugby Parma F.C.
Crociati Parma Rugby F.C. are an Italian rugby union club. They are based in Parma in Emilia-Romagna. They were founded in 2010 by the merger of Rugby Parma F.C. (''Overmach Parma'') and F.C. Rugby Noceto and disbanded in 2014.
Rugby Parma
''Rug ...
were residents at the Tardini in their early days, including their peak in the 1950s, but the club then moved to the
Stadio Fratelli Cervi in the next decade. In the late 2000s, the increasing popularity of
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
in Italy meant that current ground
Stadio Flaminio
The Stadio Flaminio is a stadium in Rome. It lies along the Via Flaminia, three kilometres northwest of the city centre, 300 metres away from the Parco di Villa Glori.
The interior spaces include a covered swimming pool, rooms for fencing, amat ...
was becoming less viable as a home ground for
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
and the
Stadio Luigi Ferraris
The Stadio comunale Luigi Ferraris, also known as the Marassi from the name of the neighbourhood where it is located, is a multi-use stadium in Genoa, Italy. The home of Genoa C.F.C. and U.C. Sampdoria football clubs, it opened in 1911 and is ...
in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
and the Tardini were suggested as alternative grounds as they are in Northern Italy where rugby is more popular. For the
2012 Six Nations Championship
The 2012 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2012 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 13th series of the Six Nations Championship. The annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship was ...
, the
Stadio Olimpico
The Stadio Olimpico (English: ''Olympic Stadium'') is the largest sports facility in Rome, Italy, seating over 70,000 spectators. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex, north of the city. The structure is owned by the Italian Na ...
, also in Rome, was used.
The Tardini also hosted the deciding game of Italy's
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
competition on 8 July 1989 in the
Italian Football League
Italian Football League (IFL) is the top level American football league in Italy established in 1980.
History
In the 1970's teams formed and played in Italy. In 1980 the first official American football league in Italy was established and crow ...
's Italiano IX. The game pitched Seamen Milano against
Frogs Legnano
The Legnano Frogs established in 1977, are an American football team from the city of Legnano, in the Metropolitan City of Milan, in Lombardy, Italy. It has black and silver as its social colors, while it has a frog as a symbol, hence the name o ...
against each other and Frogs Legnano won 39–33.
On 21 December 2012, the Tardini was chosen as the neutral venue to host the
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...
match between
Cagliari
Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
and
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
due to the unavailability of the former's home stadium, the
Stadio Is Arenas.
Transport
The stadium is in a central location in the city of
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...
and is a 30-minute walk along Viale Mentana, then Viale S. Michele before a left at the roundabout onto Viale Partigiani d'Italia. from
Parma railway station
Parma ( it, Stazione di Parma) is a railway station serving the city of Parma, in the region of Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. The station opened in 1859 and is located on the Milan–Bologna railway, Pontremolese railway (to La Spezia), Bresc ...
, which is at the northern edge of the city centre. Alternatively, Buses 8 or 9 can both be taken from the train station to the stadium.
A bus service also serves those making use of the
A1 parking area outside the city. A direct drive to the stadium involves an exit on the A1 at the Parma junction.
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
stated that Parma's transport sector was more than capable of supporting
UEFA Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...
matches.
References
External links
Official websiteS.S.D. Parma Calcio 1913's official website
{{UEFA Europa League Final venues
Ennio Tardini
Ennio Tardini
Ennio Tardini
Rugby league stadiums in Italy
Rugby union stadiums in Italy
Sports venues in Emilia-Romagna
Buildings and structures in Parma
Sports venues completed in 1923
1923 establishments in Italy