Toše Proeski National Arena ( mk, Национална арена "Тоше Проески") is a sports stadium in

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

. It is currently used mostly 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 ...

matches, but sometimes also for music concerts or athletics. It is the home stadium of ФК ВАРДАР(FC VARDAR) from

, which compete in the

Macedonian First League The Macedonian First Football League ( mk, Прва македонска фудбалска лига, ''Prva Мakedonska Fudbalska Liga''), also called Macedonian First League, 1. MFL, and Prva Liga, is the highest professional football competiti ...

, as well as the home ground of the

North Macedonia national football team The North Macedonia national football team ( mk, Фудбалска репрезентација на Северна Македонија, Fudbalska reprezentacija na Severna Makedonija) represents North Macedonia in men's international footbal ...

on almost all occasions (the other venues rarely chosen being the

Goce Delčev Stadium ''Goce'' is an opera composed by Kiril Makedonski (1925–1984), written by Venko Markovski and dedicated to Gotse Delchev. The work was commissioned to be the very first opera performed by the Macedonian National Opera Company. It premiered o ...

Prilep Prilep ( mk, Прилеп ) is the fourth-largest city in North Macedonia. It has a population of 66,246 and is known as "the city under Marko's Towers" because of its proximity to the towers of Prince Marko. Name The name of Prilep appear ...

, or

SRC Biljanini Izvori SRC Biljanini Izvori ( mk, СРЦ "Билјанини извори") is a multi-purpose stadium in Ohrid, North Macedonia. It has a seating capacity of 3,980 and is the home ground of FK Ohrid Lihnidos, FK Voska Sport and ŽFK Biljanini Izvori. ...

Ohrid Ohrid ( mk, Охрид ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the List of cities in North Macedonia, eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording ...

). The stadium was previously known as the City Park Stadium ( mk, Cтадион Градски парк; Stadion Gradski Park ) until 2009 and Philip II National Arena ( mk, Национална арена "Филип Втори") until 2019. By an executive decision of

the government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

adopted on 9 April 2019, the National Arena was to be renamed "National Arena Todor Proeski" in honour of the Macedonian pop icon Todor "Toše" Proeski and as result of the

Prespa agreement The Prespa agreement,; In mk, Договорот од Преспа, translit=Dogovorot od Prespa or Преспански договор, ''Prespanski dogovor'' also known as the Treaty of Prespa, the Prespes deal or the Prespa accord, is an agre ...

's obligation to ''de-

antiquization Antiquization ( mk, антиквизација), otherwise known as ancient Macedonism ( mk, links=no, антички македонизам), is a term used mainly to critically describe the identity policies conducted by the nationalist VMRO- ...

''. With the capacity of just over 33,000, the National Arena is the largest stadium in the country and one of the largest in

Southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...

. The stadium hosted the 2017 UEFA Super Cup.

Reconstruction and expansion

The project for the City Park stadium was designed in 1975 by architects Dragan Krstev and Todorka Mavkova from ''Beton''Construction Company. The South Stand started with construction in 1977. Construction of the South stand took 2 years and it was finished in 1978.The whole stadium suppose to be finished the same year.Somehow the money from the budget were transferred to the federal budget and used for other projects. The reconstruction and expansion started after a long delay in project implementation in January 2008. The construction of a new north stand was finished in August 2009 and was put in use on 2 August 2009, the Macedonian national holiday " Ilinden". Ten days later, on 12 August, the

played a friendly match against then European Champions

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, as part of the 100-year anniversary of football in the country. The reconstruction of the southern stand started in 2009, which was put into operation on 30 July of that year for the match between

FK Rabotnički FK Rabotnichki ( mk, ФК Работнички) or more commonly Rabotnički (old transliteration) and Rabotnicki is a football club that plays at the Toshe Proeski Arena in Skopje, North Macedonia. They currently compete in the Macedonian First ...

and

Liverpool FC Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

. On 8 September 2009, the construction of the new western and eastern stands started. The two new stands were open for the public on 24 April 2011. By mid July 2012, the majority of the stadium was completed with the reconstruction of the new pitch and athletic track. On 25 July 2012,

FK Vardar FK Vardar Skopje ( mk, ФК Вардар Скопје), or simply Vardar, is a football club based in the capital city of Skopje, North Macedonia, North Macedonia. The club was founded in 1947 and currently competes in the Macedonian Second Foo ...

played

FC BATE Borisov FC BATE Borisov (russian: link=no, ФК БАТЭ Борисов, ''FK BATE Borisov'' ; be, ФК БАТЭ Барысаў, ''BATE Barysaw,'' ) is a professional Belarusian football team from the city of Barysaw. The club competes in the Belarusi ...

in the second qualifying round of 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 competit ...

to re-open the stadium. On 8 September 2012, the Independence Day of North Macedonia, a celebration was held when almost 50,000 visitors attended the event (in the stands and on the field). This event set the record of attendance for the stadium. :(Main Stand)-NORTH Stand-(10.338) VIP-(494),PRESS (284),Wheelchairs(48) :SOUTH Stand-(10.713) :WEST Curve-(5.962) :EAST Curve-(5.962) :Total Capacity:33.011

Construction cost

Since 2008, the stadium has seen investment of about two billion denari, or €32 million. The second phase, which got underway in November 2011, saw the reconstruction of the pitch and athletic track. The athletic track around the pitch, from the original 6 was extended to 8 running tracks and it uses

Tartan track Tartan Track is a trademarked all-weather synthetic track surfacing made of polyurethane used for track and field competitions, manufactured by 3M. It lets athletes compete in bad weather without serious performance loss and improves their resu ...

surface. Total cost for this phase is €3.5 million. The stadium was finished in 2013 with the completion of a new illuminated outer facade. The total construction cost for all actions related to the stadium in the period 2008–2013 reached over €60 million.

Notable matches

1985–86 UEFA Cup The 1985–86 UEFA Cup was the 15th season of the UEFA Cup, an annual club football tournament organised by UEFA. It was won by Real Madrid, who beat 1. FC Köln 5–3 on aggregate in the final. It was the first season in which English clubs were ...

First round, Second leg – 2 October 1985 between FK Vardar and FC Dinamo București. * 1987–88 European Cup First round, Second leg – 30 September 1987 between FK Vardar and FC Porto. * 1992–93 Macedonian Cup Final – 23 May 1993 between FK Vardar and FK Pelister. *

UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying Qualifying for UEFA Euro 1996 took place throughout 1994 and 1995. Forty-seven teams were divided into eight groups, with each team playing the others in their group both home and away. The winners of each group and the six best runners-up qualif ...

– 7 September 1994 between Macedonia and Denmark. *

– 12 October 1994 between Macedonia and Spain. * 2000–01 UEFA Cup First round, First leg – 14 September 2000 between FK Pobeda and AC Parma. * 2003–04 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round, Second leg – 6 August 2003 between FK Vardar and CSKA Moscow. * 2003–04 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round, First leg – 13 August 2003 between FK Vardar and AC Sparta Prague. *

UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying Qualification for the 2004 UEFA European Championship took place between September 2002 and November 2003. Fifty teams were divided into ten groups, with each team playing the others in their group twice, once at home and once away. The top te ...

– 6 September 2003 between Macedonia and England. * 2003–04 UEFA Cup First round, Second leg – 15 October 2003 between FK Vardar and AS Roma. *

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South Americ ...

– 9 October 2004 between Macedonia and Netherlands. * 2005–06 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round, First leg – 27 July 2005 between FK Rabotnički and Lokomotiv Moscow. * 2006–07 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round, Second leg – 23 August 2006 between FK Rabotnički and LOSC Lille. *

2007–08 UEFA Cup The 2007–08 UEFA Cup was the 37th edition of the UEFA Cup, UEFA's second-tier club football tournament. The final was played at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, England on 14 May 2008 between Rangers of Scotland and Zenit Saint Pet ...

First round, First leg – 20 September 2007 between FK Rabotnički and Bolton Wanderers. * UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying – 17 November 2007 between Macedonia and Croatia. *

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (O ...

– 6 September 2008 between Macedonia and Scotland. * 2010–11 UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round, First leg – 29 July 2010 between FK Rabotnički and Liverpool. *

UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 was a series of parallel association football competitions held over 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012, held in Poland and Ukraine. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held ...

– 4 June 2011 between Macedonia and Republic of Ireland. * 2011–12 UEFA Europa League Play-offs, Second leg – 25 August 2011 between FK Rabotnički and SS Lazio. * 2012–13 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round, Second leg – 25 July 2012 between FK Vardar and BATE Borisov. * 2015–16 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round, Second leg – 21 July 2015 between FK Vardar and APOEL. * 2015–16 UEFA Europa League Play-offs, First leg – 20 August 2015 between FK Rabotnički and Rubin Kazan. *

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

– 8 September 2015 between Macedonia and Spain. *

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

– 9 October 2016 between Macedonia and Italy. *

2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification The 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 football competition that determined the 11 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Poland in the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship tournament ...

– 11 October 2016 between Macedonia and Scotland. * 2017 UEFA Super Cup – 8 August 2017 between Real Madrid and Manchester United * 2017–18 UEFA Europa League Play-offs, First leg – 17 August 2017 between FK Vardar and Fenerbahçe. * 2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage – 14 September 2017 between FK Vardar and Zenit Saint Petersburg. *

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs The play-offs of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament decided the last four teams that qualified for the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, to be staged across Europe in June and July 2021. Unlike previous editions, the participants of the play- ...

semi-finals – 8 October 2020 between North Macedonia and Kosovo.

Concerts

*1995 –

Lepa Brena Fahreta Živojinović (; ; born 20 October 1960), known by her stage name Lepa Brena (), is a folk singer, actress, and businesswoman. She is the best-selling female recording artist from the former Yugoslavia. Lepa Brena grew up in Brčko, Bosni ...

held a concert in front of 35,000 people. *1996 –

Dragana Mirković Dragana Mirković ( sr-cyr, Драгана Мирковић, ; born 18 January 1968) is a Serbian pop-folk singer and entrepreneur. She rose to prominence in the eighties as a member of the popular collective Južni Vetar. Today, Mirković is reco ...

held a concert in front of 15,000 people. *2004 –

Toše Proeski Todor "Toše" Proeski ( mk, Тодор "Тоше" Проески, ; 25 January 1981 – 16 October 2007) was a Macedonian multi-genre singer and songwriter. Considered a top act of the local Macedonian and Balkan music scene, Proeski's music w ...

held a concert in front of 10,000 people. *2005 – Svetlana Ražnatović held a concert in front of 30,000 people. *2006 –

held a concert in front of 30,000 people. *2007 –

held a concert in front of 50,000 people. *2007 –

Pink Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...

held a concert in front of 20,000 people. *2007 – Tarkan held a concert in front of 6,000 people. *2009 –

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...

held a concert in front of 15,000 people. *2012 –

Garo Garo may refer to: People and languages * Garo people, a tribal people in India ** Garo language, the language spoken by the Garo tribe Places * Kingdom of Garo, a former kingdom in southern Ethiopia * Garo, Colorado * Garo Hills, part of the Ga ...

& Tavitjan Brothers with the project Macedonian heart beats in 7/8 featuring

Nina Badrić Nina Badrić (; born 4 July 1972) is a Croatian pop singer and songwriter. She began performing in the early 1990s, and competed in " Dora" – the Croatian selection for Eurovision Song Contest 4 times. She won 7th place in 1993 with "Ostavljam ...

Željko Bebek Želimir "Željko" Bebek (born 16 December 1945) is a Bosnian and Croatian vocalist and musician most notable for being the lead singer of former Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme from 1974 to 1984. He also has a successful career as a solo artis ...

Dado Topić Adolf "Dado" Topić (born 4 September 1950, Siverić at Drniš) is a rock musician from Croatia and the former Yugoslavia. He was the lead singer and founder of Time, a 1970s progressive rock band. From 1970 to late 1971, he was also the lead sin ...

Tereza Kesovija Tereza Ana Kesovija (; born 3 October 1938) is an internationally acclaimed Croatian recording artist. She was one of the most recognizable figures on the music scene in former Yugoslavia, and is renowned for her wide vocal range and operatic sty ...

Josipa Lisac Josipa Lisac (; born 14 February 1950) is a Croatian pop rock singer. Biography During the 1960s, Lisac was the vocalist of the group Zlatni Akordi. Her first solo album, '' Dnevnik jedne ljubavi'' (''The Diary of a Love''), recorded in 1973, was ...

Kaliopi Kaliopi Bukle ( mk, Калиопи Букле, ; born 28 December 1966), known professionally as Kaliopi, is a Macedonian singer-songwriter. In her career, Kaliopi has progressed from singing lead vocal with her eponymous band in 1980s Yugoslavi ...

Hari Varešanović Hajrudin "Hari" Varešanović (; born 16 January 1961) is a Bosnian musician. Known for his impassioned lyrical tenor vocals, distinct stage presence and specific brand of poetic lyrics, Varešanović remains the vocal soloist, primary compose ...

Sergej Ćetković Sergej Ćetković ( sr-cyrl, Сергеј Ћетковић, ; born 8 March 1976) is a Montenegrins, Montenegrin recording artist. He lives and works in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Ćetković represented Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Co ...

Goran Karan Goran Karan (born 2 April 1964) is a Croatian vocalist. He specializes in songs influenced by Dalmatian folk music and is known for his powerful and refined tenor voice. Karan's collaboration with composer Zdenko Runjić led to some of his most acc ...

Jelena Tomašević Jelena Tomašević ( sr-cyr, Јелена Томашевић, ; born November 1, 1983) is a Serbian pop singer of international career famed for her strong vocal performances. She has won numerous awards for her songs and represented Serbia at 20 ...

Antonija Šola Antonija Šola (; born 5 June 1979) is a Croatian musician, singer-songwriter, lyricist, actress and music producer. She is known for playing a main role of " Tina Bauer-Fijan" in first Croatian soap opera Zabranjena ljubav (2004-2008). In addi ...

, and Aki Rahimovski, held a concert in front of 61,000 people honoring the 21 years of Macedonian independence. *2014 –

Željko Joksimović Željko Joksimović ( sr-Cyrl, Жељко Јоксимовић, ; born 20 April 1972) is a Serbian vocalist, composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He plays 12 different musical instruments including accordion, piano, guitar ...

held a concert in front of 50,000 people. *2016 –

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

held a concert in front of 15,000 people. *2019 –

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-eart ...

held a concert in front of an undisclosed number of people

Gallery

File:UEFA Super Cup 2017 - Skopje, Macedonia 06.jpg, Uefa Super Cup 2017 File:UEFA Super Cup 2017 - Skopje, Macedonia 02.jpg, Uefa Super Cup Ceremony File:UEFA_Super_Cup_2017_-_Skopje,_Macedonia_10.jpg, Ronaldo's free kick File:Philip II Arena 2017-1.jpg File:SStandPhilipIIArena.jpg, View from the south stand File:National Arena Skopje.jpg, Exterior shot File:Philip II Arena-Skopje.jpg, Arena View Estadio Filip II, Skopie, Macedonia, 2014-04-16, DD 61.JPG, View from

Skopje Fortress The Skopje Fortress ( mk, Скопско кале, translit=Skopsko kale; ; tr, Üsküp Kalesi), commonly referred to as Kale (from ''kale'', the Turkish word for 'fortress'), is a historic fortress located in the old town of Skopje, the capital ...

File:Skopje bulevard kliment ohridski.jpg, Skopje view of Kliment Ohridski boulevard and Toše Proeski Arena

References