The Baku National Stadium is the largest stadium in Azerbaijan with 69,870-seat capacity. This grass surfaced stadium was designed and constructed to meet the international standards for stadiums set by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) as well as the International Association of Athletics Federations(IAAF).
This stadium is the home to Azerbaijan's national football team which plays most of its matches at this very stadium. The stadium was open to the public on 6th March 2015, making this comparatively a new stadium.
The stadium has a total layout area of 617,000 square metre, with VVIP, VIP - CIP Suites total 127 each with 720 spectator's capacities as well as a warm up area with a seating capacity of 1800.
History
The ceremony of laying the foundation of the Baku Olympic Stadium took place on 6th of June, 2011, which also marked the day of celebration of the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijani football.
The ceremony was attended by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as well as other prominent members of the global football community including Sepp Blatter, the then FIFA President and the UEFA President Michel Platini.
However, the construction of the stadium started only in November 2012 beginning with the excavation and backfilling of the stadium area.
Baku was awarded a chance to host the first European Games held in 2015. The opening ceremony was held at the stadium on 12th June and the stadium mainly hosted the athletic events of the games.
Major Matches
Since Baku Olympic Stadium fulfils FIFA's and UEFA's highest technical recommendations for football stadiums, it is qualified to arrange tournaments and qualification games in European Football Championships.
The stadium has hosted all of group stage matches of Azerbaijani football club, Qarabag Futbol Klubu in the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League.
Recent and Future Matches
Azerbaijan national team won against Norway team for a winning score of 1-0 for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers match on 8th of October 2016 at this stadium.
The first UEFA Champions’ League group stage was held on 27th of September 2017, which saw a record attendance of 67,200 fans that came over to see the match between Qarabag and Roma Clubs. The Qarabag team lost against Roma for the match score 1-2.
The stadium will be hosting the Quarter-finals and Group stage matches of the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament. This is expected to gain a lot of spectators in to the stadium which has world class facilities.
