Salt Lake Stadium

The Salt Lake Stadium, also known as Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Kreedangan is the largest stadium in India by dragging capacity. It is located in the Salt Lake City, Kolkata and has a spectator capacity of 85,000.

The stadium is owned by the Indian Football Association and covers an area of 76.4 acres (3,09,200 m²). The stadium has been renovated in 2011 to meet the latest technological advancements.

The Salt Lake Stadium is the home ground to a number of teams like the Indian national football team, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Mohammedan Soccer Club and ATK.

History

The stadium was inaugurated in the month of January, 1984 and it hosted its first-ever match in the Nehru Gold Cup, 1984 just one day later. The tournament was won by Poland where it beat China 1-0.

Major Matches

Since its inaugural event, the Salt Lake Stadium has hosted many international matches belonging to international tournaments.

Some of such tournaments were the 1985 Pre-World Cup Tournament, 1987 South Asian Federation (SAF) Games, the 1988 USSR Festival, Super Soccers in 1986, 1989, 1991 and 1994.

The 1997 Federation Cup match between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan recorded its highest attendance till date with 1,31,178 spectators.

The stadium was one of the major venue for the 2017 U-17 FIFA World Cup, the first FIFA event India has ever hosted.

Controversies

There was a serious outrage of fans against the stadium management during the FIFA U-17 World Cup. A group called Golden Card members, who had contributed ₹10,000 in the year 1982 when the stadium was under construction under the conditions that each member would be given free tickets to the matches at the stadium was denied tickets after 35 years.

The Government of West Bengal and the stadium management were held responsible for this and the Golden Card holders were denied the FIFA event. This brought down the name of the stadium.