The Esbjerg Stadium (), known as the Blue Water Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

stadium located within Esbjerg Idrætspark in

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport city and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban area, urban population of 71,554 (1 January ...

, Denmark. It is the home ground of

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional Association football, football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, Jylland, that plays in the Danish 1st Division, 1st division, the sec ...

and has a capacity of 16,942, of which 11,451 is seated. It is currently the second-biggest stadium in

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

, and the fourth-biggest in Denmark.

History

The Esbjerg Idrætspark was founded in 1926 and the football pitch, with a running track and area for shot put, high jump, pole vault and long jump, opened on 22 September 1929. In 1948, the adjacent Esbjerg Atletikstadion was constructed and opened. During 1951, the reconstruction of the football stadium began but the municipality ran out of funds and the project stopped. In 1955, a new grandstand was built and the new stadium was inaugurated. In 1999, the stadium was venue of the football tournament at the

European Youth Olympic Festival The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth (14 to 18 years old) athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the fi ...

. On account of the

2008 UEFA qualifier fan attack A Football hooliganism, fan attack occurred at the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying, Euro 2008 qualifying UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group F, Group F match between the national football (soccer), football teams of Sweden men's nat ...

resulting in the forbidding of play of UEFA qualifier matches for

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

within 250 km of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, the Esbjerg Stadium was mentioned as the only possible venue within

in which Denmark UEFA qualifier home games can be held as it is the biggest stadium in the country more than 250 km from Copenhagen. UEFA later changed the verdict, and on July 9, 2007 the

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Association (; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues, alongside the men's and women's national teams. Based ...

announced that the games against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

would be played in

Århus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

and the games against

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

would be played in Copenhagen.

National games

Esbjerg Stadium has twice been used as home ground for the Danish national team. Further it has been venue of several youth national matches:

Footnotes

References

External links

*
Blue Water Arena
at Sport & Event Park Esbjerg *
Renovation blog
Football venues in Denmark Esbjerg fB Buildings and structures in Esbjerg Sports venues in the Region of Southern Denmark 1955 establishments in Denmark Sports venues completed in 1955 {{Denmark-sports-venue-stub

History

National games

Footnotes

See also

References

External links