Steaua Stadium ( ro, Stadionul Steaua), informally also known as Ghencea, was 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 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, which served as the home of Steaua București. It was inaugurated on 9 April 1974 when Steaua played a friendly game against

OFK Belgrade OFK Beograd ( sr-Cyrl, ОФК Београд – Омладински фудбалски клуб Београд, English: ''Belgrade Youth Football Club'') is a Serbian professional football club based in Belgrade, more precisely in Karaburma, ...

, 2–2.

Gheorghe Tătaru Gheorghe Tătaru (5 May 1948 – 19 December 2004), also known as Tătaru II, was a Romanian football striker. He played seven years at Steaua București. He was the younger brother of Nicolae Tătaru, who also played professional football at ...

was the first player to score in the stadium. The stadium was entirely demolished in 2018, and was replaced with a new all-seater stadium opened in 2021.

History

At the time it was one of the first ''football-only'' stadiums ever built in

, as there are no athletic (track and field) facilities, and the stands are very close to the pitch. The original capacity was 30,000 on benches, but in 1991 when the plastic seats were installed, the capacity dropped to 28,365, along with 126 press seats, 440 seats in VIP boxes and 733 armchairs. The floodlighting system with a density of 1400 lux was inaugurated in 1991. The stadium was renovated in 1996 and 2006 in order 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 ...

. It was renovated again in 2020 for €94.7 million in a project that brought its seating capacity to 31.254.

Romanian national football team

The following

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

matches were held in the stadium:

Important matches

Photo gallery

Image:Steaua-Craiova 2010 Tribuna Oficiala.JPG, Official Stand in 2010 Image:Steaua-Craiova 2010 during half-time.JPG, Half-time at Ghencea Image:Steaua-Craiova 2010 before the match.JPG, Steaua vs. U Craiova Image:Unirea Urziceni-Zenit St. Petersburg 2010.jpg, Unirea Urziceni in Champions League Image:Unirea Urziceni-Zenit St. Petersburg UCL 2010.jpg, Unirea Urziceni vs. Zenit Sankt Petersburg Image:Steaua north.JPG, Steaua vs. Dinamo Image:Steauasupport.jpg, Steaua fans at Ghencea Image:Ghenceaentrance.jpg, Stadium main entrance Image:Ghencea 2007.JPG, Stadionul Ghencea in 2007

References

External links