The Stadium Municipal d'Albi is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...

Albi Albi (; ) is a commune in France, commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department, on the river Tarn (river), Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is currently used for

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

as the home of

SC Albi Sporting Club Albigeois is a professional French rugby union club playing the third-level Nationale. During the past years it went back and forth between Top 14, the highest level of the French league system and the second-level Rugby Pro D2. ...

. After an expansion project completed in 2007, the stadium holds 13,000 with 8,000 seated.

History

Built and opened in 1964 the ground immediately became the home of the towns two rugby clubs

Racing Club Albi XIII Albi Rugby League XIII originally called Racing Club Albigeois XIII and more recently also known as RC Albi XIII are a semi-professional rugby league team based in Albi in the Occitanie region in southern France. Formed in 1934 the club compete ...

and Sporting Club Albi. The ground is also used for athletic meetings. The ground originally had a main cantilever stand which held 1,800 seated spectators and a smaller unseated stand for 1,200, at either end there were semi-circular standing terraces. Initially called Le Stadium, in 1977 the ground hosted the French rugby league championship Final despite the fact that

were in the final against

AS Carcassonne Association Sportive of Carcassonne are a semi-professional rugby league football club based in Carcassonne in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie in the south of France. They play in the French Super XIII and are one of th ...

the 'home' side won 19–10 in front of 18,325 fans, which was and still is the record attendance. It hosted its first international rugby league match in 1979 when the

France national rugby league team The France national rugby league team represents France in international rugby league matches. They are referred to as ''les Chanticleers'' or less commonly as ''les Tricolores''. The team is run under the auspices of the French Rugby League Fed ...

beat the Papua New Guinea rugby league team 16–9. In 1987 the end terracing's were flattened to make way for an Olympic standard eight lane athletic track. At the

2000 Rugby League World Cup The 2000 Rugby League World Cup was the twelfth Rugby League World Cup, World Cup for men’s national rugby league teams, held between 28 October and 25 November and hosted between the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland and France. ...

the ground played host to two group 3 matches

beat

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

56–6 in front of a crowd of 7,696 and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

beat

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

30–22 in front of a crowd of 3,666. The ground was renovated in 2006 and expanded in 2007 giving it its current capacity of 13,058.

Rugby League Internationals

French Rugby League Championship (Elite 1) Finals

Lord Derby Cup Finals

References

Rugby league stadiums in France Rugby union stadiums in France Multi-purpose stadiums in France Athletics (track and field) venues in France Sports venues in Tarn (department) Sports venues completed in 1962 {{France-sports-venue-stub