Pancho Aréna is a stadium in
Felcsút,
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, 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 and ...
. It is primarily used for
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 ...
matches and serves as the home stadium for
Puskás Akadémia FC. Between 2015 and 2018, the stadium also hosted the three-time champions
Fehérvár FC due to the reconstruction of
Sóstói Stadion.
History
The stadium officially opened on 21 April 2014, featuring the final of the
2014 Puskás Cup.
On 26 April 2014, the first
Hungarian League match was played at the stadium between
Puskás Akadémia and
Videoton. The match ended with 3–1 away win.
On 30 June 2016, the first
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...
match took place at the stadium when
Videoton FC Videoton may refer to:
*Videoton (company)
Videoton, officially VIDEOTON HOLDING Ltd., is a privately owned company group based out of Székesfehérvár, Hungary, and specializing in contract manufacturing, mainly electronics manufacturing servic ...
, now
MOL Fehérvár FC, and
FC Zaria Bălți met in the qualifying rounds of the Europa League. It occurred in Pancho Aréna due to the demolition of Videoton's home stadium,
Sóstói Stadion.
Pancho Aréna was listed among the top three most beautiful stadiums of the world according to stadiumdb.com: "The wood-lined curved interior to the stand gives spectators the feeling that they are attending a Sunday church service, not a football match. The 3,500 seater stadium opened in 2014 and was the brainchild of local architect
Imre Makovecz".
On 26 March 2018, the first international match was played at the stadium when
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
hosted
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
in a friendly match. The match ended with a 2–1 win for Bulgaria.
On 31 October 2023, it was announced that the
Israel national football team
The Israel national football team () represents Israel in men's international Association football, football, and is governed by the Israel Football Association. They have been members of the European Confederation UEFA since 1994.
Israel qua ...
would play their remaining
UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying
The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...
matches against
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
and
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
at the stadium, a decision influenced by the ongoing
Gaza war
The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...
. On 15 November 2023, Israel hosted Switzerland and drew at the stadium. On 18 November 2023, Israel hosted Romania in the
UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying
The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...
match. Romania beat Israel 2-1 and qualified for the
UEFA Euro 2024
The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...
.
Controversy
Many allegations of corruption have surfaced regarding the stadium, as Hungary's current prime minister,
Viktor Orbán
Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...
(known for his passion for football), spent much of his childhood in the village. Pancho Arena was built just meters away from his Felcsút estate. Although the stadium was not constructed directly using government funds, companies that provided the majority of the funding won several high-value public procurement procedures during Orbán's prime ministership. Additionally, Orbán's government passed laws granting benefits to companies supporting sports investments. Allegations were fueled by the fact that the stadium seats 3,500 people, while the total population of the village is under 1,700.
Milestone matches
Milestone matches (youth squad)
International
Attendances
Puskás Akadémia only played three matches at the Pancho Aréna during the
2013–14 season.
This table includes only domestic league matches.
Gallery
File:Pancho Aréna légi fotó.jpg, Aerial view
File:Pancho Aréna főbejárata.jpg, The main entrance
File:Pancho Aréna Felcsút főutcája felől.jpg, The Pancho Aréna from the Főutca of Felcsút
File:Pancho Aréna gyep az utca felől nézve.jpg, The interior
File:Pancho Aréna a kisvasút felől.jpg, The view of Pancho Aréna from the Vál-völgyi train
File:Pancho Aréna tetőzet részlet.jpg, The roof of the Pancho Aréna
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pancho Arena
Football venues in Hungary
2014 establishments in Hungary
Sports venues completed in 2014