Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, 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 ca ...

stadium in the

San Siro Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums i ...

district of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city has ...

, Italy, which is the home of

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons ...

and

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter i ...

. It has a

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 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums in Europe, and the largest in Italy. On 3 March 1980, the stadium was named in honour of

Giuseppe Meazza Giuseppe "Peppino" Meazza (; 23 August 1910 – 21 August 1979), also known as il Balilla, was an Italian football manager and player. Throughout his career, he played mainly for Inter Milan in the 1930s, scoring 242 goals in 365 games for the ...

, the two-time

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 ...

winner (

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a m ...

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

) who played for Inter and briefly for Milan in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and served two stints as Inter's manager. San Siro is a UEFA category four stadium. It hosted three games at the

1934 FIFA 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 ...

, six games at the

1990 FIFA 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 Me ...

, three games at the

UEFA 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 four European Cup finals, in

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for a full term as ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh c ...

. The stadium will also host the opening ceremony of the

2026 Winter Olympics The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games ( it, XXV Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Milano Cortina 2026 ( lld, Milano-Anpezo 2026 or ), is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place fro ...

of Milan and

Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo (; lld, Anpezo, ; historical de-AT, Hayden) is a town and '' comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alp ...

History

2009-08 Derby- AC Milan vs Inter at San Siro

San Siro Stadium, Inter fans Derby - 2009

Construction of the stadium commenced in 1925 in the district of Milan named San Siro, with the new stadium originally named Nuovo Stadio Calcistico San Siro (San Siro New Football Stadium). The idea to build a stadium in the same district as the horse racing track belonged to the president of

at the time,

Piero Pirelli Piero Pirelli, born Piero Carlo Pirelli, (27 January 1881 – 7 August 1956), was an Italian entrepreneur and the son of Giovanni Battista Pirelli, the founder of Pirelli. Biography Born in Milan to Giovanni Battista Pirelli and Maria Sormani ...

. The architects designed a private stadium only for football, without athletics tracks which characterized Italian stadiums built with public funds. The inauguration was on 19 September 1926, when 35,000 spectators saw

Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club * FK Inter Bratislava, a forme ...

defeat

6–3. Originally, the ground was home and property of A.C. Milan. Finally, in 1947, Inter, who used to play in the

Arena Civica Arena Civica (), officially Arena Gianni Brera, is a multi-purpose stadium in Milan, Italy, which was opened on 18 August 1807. One of the city's main examples of neoclassical architecture, today it mainly hosts football and rugby union games, c ...

downtown, became tenants and the two have shared the ground ever since. From 1948 to 1955, engineers Armando Ronca and Ferruccio Calzolari developed the project for the second extension of the stadium, which was meant to increase the capacity from 50,000 to 150,000 visitors. Calzolari and Ronca proposed three additional, vertically arranged, rings of spectator rows. Nineteen spiralling ramps – each 200 metres long – gave access to the upper tiers. During construction, the realisation of the highest of the three rings was abandoned and the number of visitors limited to 100,000. Then for security reasons, the capacity was reduced to 60,000 seats and 25,000 standing. On 2 March 1980 the stadium was named for

(1910–1979), one of the most famous Milanese footballers. For a time, Inter fans called the stadium ''Stadio Meazza'' due to Meazza's stronger connections with Inter (14 years as a player, three stints as manager). However, in recent years both Inter and Milan fans have called the stadium simply ''San Siro.'' The last major renovation for San Siro, which cost $60 million, was that of 1987–1990, for the

. It was decided to modernize the stadium by increasing its capacity to 85,000 spectators and building a cover. The Municipality of

entrusted the work to the architects Giancarlo Ragazzi and Enrico Hoffer and to the engineer Leo Finzi. To increase capacity, a third ring was built (only in the two curves and in the west grandstand) which rests on eleven support towers surrounded by helical ramps that allow access to the public. Four of these eleven concrete towers were located at the corners to support a new roof, which has distinctive protruding red girders. In 1996 a museum was opened inside the stadium charting

and Internazionale's history, with historical shirts, cups and trophies, shoes, art objects and souvenirs of all kinds on display to visitors. Two

Milan derby The Derby della Madonnina, also known as the Derby di Milano (Milan Derby, in English), is a derby football match between the two prominent Milanese clubs, Internazionale and A.C. Milan. It is called ''Derby della Madonnina'' in honour of one ...

Champions League knockout ties have taken place at San Siro, in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, with

winning both ties.#TBT: 5 European clashes against Italian sides

, 30 November 2017 The reaction of Inter's fans to impending defeat in the 2005 match (throwing flares and other objects at Milan players and forcing the match to be abandoned) earned the club a large fine and a four-game ban on spectators attending European fixtures there the following season. Apart from being used by Milan and Inter, the Italian national team occasionally plays games there. It has also been used for the European Cup finals of

(won by Inter),

(won by

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

), and the

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 competiti ...

finals of

(won by

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...

) and

(won by

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally worn ...

). The stadium was also used for the home leg of three

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, w ...

finals in which Inter was competing (

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Ph ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic (1997 film), Titanic'', the List of highest-grossing films, highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; ...

) when these were played over two legs. It was also used by

Juventus )''I Bianconeri'' (The White and Blacks)''Le Zebre'' (The Zebras)''La Signora Omicidi'' (The Killer Lady)''La Gheuba'' (: The Hunchback) , founded = as Sport-Club Juventus , ground = Juventus Stadium , capacity = 41,507 , owner = Agnelli ...

for their 'home' leg in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake stri ...

as they decided against playing their biggest matches at their own Stadio delle Alpi at the time. On each occasion, apart from 1991, the second leg was played at San Siro and the winners lifted the trophy there. However, the stadium has not yet been selected as the host stadium since the competition changed to a single-match final format in 1997–98. San Siro has never hosted a final of the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

, but was the host stadium for the 1951

Latin Cup The Latin Cup was an international football tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949 the football federations came together and requested FIFA to launch the competition. Europ ...

, a four-team event won by

. The city was also the venue for the 1956 edition of the Latin Cup (also won by Milan), but those matches were played at Arena Civica. Amid the

COVID-19 pandemic in Italy The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when t ...

, on 25 March, the Associated Press dubbed the

match between Bergamo club

Atalanta B.C. Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio, commonly referred to as Atalanta, is a professional football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. The club plays in Serie A, having gained promotion from Serie B in 2010–11. Atalanta was founded in 1907 by Lice ...

and Spanish club

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area also ...

at San Siro on 19 February as "Game Zero". The match was the first time Atalanta has progressed to a Champions League round of 16 match, and had an attendance of over 40,000 people—about one third of Bergamo's population. By 24 March, almost 7,000 people in the

province of Bergamo The Province of Bergamo ( it, provincia di Bergamo; lmo, proìnsa de Bèrghem) is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. It has a population of 1,112,187 (2017), an area of , and contains 243 '' comuni''. Its capital is the city of Bergamo. ...

had tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 1,000 people had died from the virus—making Bergamo the most hard-hit province in all of Italy during the pandemic.

Potential replacement

On 24 June 2019, A.C. Milan and Internazionale announced their intention to build a new stadium to replace San Siro. The new 60,000 capacity stadium, which would be constructed next to San Siro, is anticipated to cost US$800 million and would be ready for the 2022–23 season. The design of the new stadium is said to be based upon the

Mercedes-Benz Stadium Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Opened in August 2017 as a replacement for the Georgia Dome, it serves as the home stadium of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NF ...

in Atlanta, Georgia,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

Giuseppe Sala Giuseppe "Beppe" Sala (born 28 May 1958) is an Italian manager and politician, currently mayor of Milan. He was CEO of Expo 2015 in Milan from 2010 to 2015. He became mayor of Milan in 2016, supported by the centre-left coalition, and he was co ...

, the current

Mayor of Milan The mayor of Milan ( it, sindaco di Milano) is the first citizen and head of the municipal government of the city of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. The current office holder is Giuseppe Sala, a centre-left independent who has been in charge since 2016 ...

, and the ''comune'' of Milan asked for time and stressed that San Siro would be kept until at least the

and Winter Paralympics to be held in Milan and

. The proposed project was also met with some skepticism and opposition by several fans of both teams. On 26 September 2019, A.C. Milan and Internazionale released two potential designs for the new stadium next to the original ground, tentatively named the ''Nuovo Stadio Milano'', designed by Populous and MANICA, respectively. On 22 May 2020, Italy's heritage authority raised no objections to demolishing San Siro. On 21 December 2021 the Populous project was chosen.

International football matches

Italy national team

1934 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the biggest venues of the

and held three matches.

UEFA Euro 1980

The stadium was one of the four selected to host the matches during the

1990 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the venues of the

and held six matches.

2021 UEFA Nations League Finals

The stadium was one of two selected to host the

2021 UEFA Nations League Finals The 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals was the final tournament of the 2020–21 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the second season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UE ...

matches.

Other sports

2026 Winter Olympics

Opening ceremony of the

(Milano Cortina) will be held at San Siro on 6 February 2026.

Boxing

San Siro was the venue for the boxing match between Duilio Loi vs. Carlos Ortiz for the

Junior Welterweight Light welterweight, also known as junior welterweight or super lightweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional boxing In professional boxing, light welterweight is contested between the lightweight and welterweight divisions, ...

title in 1960.

Rugby union

The first and only top level

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 ...

match to be played at San Siro was a test match between Italy 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 country ...

in November 2009. A crowd of 80,000 watched the event, a record for Italian rugby.

Concerts

Besides football, San Siro can be configured to hold many other events, particularly major concerts.

Transport connections

The stadium is located in the northwestern part of Milan and can be reached by underground via the dedicated San Siro subway station (at the end of line M5), located just in front of the stadium, or by

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

, with line 16 ending right in front of the building. The Lotto subway station ( line M1 and line M5) is about 15 minutes walk away from San Siro. Stations nearby:

References

External links

*
AC Milan website

FC Internazionale Milano website

San Siro
on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

San Siro
on

(AC Milan)
San Siro
on

(FC Internazionale Milano)
San Siro
at

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rout ...

Stadium Guide Article
{{WikidataCoord 1925 establishments in Italy 1934 FIFA World Cup stadiums 1990 FIFA World Cup stadiums A.C. Milan Football venues in Italy Inter Milan Italian fascist architecture Rugby union stadiums in Italy Museums in Milan Olympic stadiums Serie A venues Sports venues completed in 1926 Sports venues in Milan Stadiums that have hosted a FIFA World Cup opening match UEFA Euro 1980 stadiums Venues of the 2026 Winter Olympics