Sydney Football Stadium

The Sydney Football Stadium, which was built and opened to public in the year 1988 is located in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. This is a grass surfaced, 140 by 79 metres field sized stadium, which is commercially also known as Allianz Stadium.

The Sydney Roosters, NSW Waratahs and Sydney FC are the ground's major home teams. Also, football clubs like the Kangaroos, the Wallabies and the Socceroos play at the stadium once in a while.

The stadium has a venue capacity of 45,500, where as a seater capacity of 44,000. The stadium is owned and operated by the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust.

History

Sydney Football Stadium was built upon the former Sydney Sports Ground which was oval shaped and not ideal for football, which required a rectangular field.

It has been the home ground of Sydney Roosters since 1988. From the years 1988 to 1999 and 2002 to 2005, it also served as the home ground for the team South Sydney Rabbitohs.

In the year of 2002, the stadium was renamed Aussie Stadium, which was reverted to its original name five years later.

Later in 2012, Allianz Insurance secured the rights to the naming of the Sydney Football Stadium and hence presently the venue is known as Allianz Stadium.

Major Matches

The stadium regularly hosts the National Rugby League semi-finals and one preliminary final. It also holds the annual pre-season Charity Shield football match between South Sydney and St George Illawarra.

The Sydney Football Stadium has been the venue of some of Australian sport's greatest matches and moments. The final of the 1993 FIFA World Youth Cup between Brazil and Ghana was held at the stadium, with Brazil winning 2-1 against Ghana.

The 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifier match between Australia and Argentina featuring Argentine association football legend Diego Maradona was also played here. Despite the grounds increase in capacity since 1993, this match retains the record sporting attendance of 43,967 fans at the stadium.

It was used as the venue for the 2000 Summer Olympics Women's association football gold medal match between Norway and the United States. Norway defeated the USA 3-2 in front of 22,848 fans.

Controversies

Peter FitzSimons, a journalist from The Sunday Morning Herald, recently filed petition against the NSW Government questioning the need to knock down both the 17-year old Olympic Stadium and the three decades old Sydney Football Stadium, and put up new ones for a cost of $2.3 billion. His opinion that the money can be invested in much more worthy areas such as health and education has already gained mass support in social media.

Recent Matches

On 26th of August, 2017, NCAA DI FBS American college football season opening match between the Owls of Rice University and the Cardinal of Stanford University was held at the stadium. This is the highest level of college football competition in the United States which is organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The A-League Grand Final between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory was held at the stadium on 7th of May 2017 where Sydney FC won the match with a score of 4-2.

In the month of November, two pool stage matches of the Rugby League World Cup 2017 match were held between England and Lebanon as well as co-host country Australia and Lebanon.