<\/p>\n

Key facts<\/h3>\n

Club: none | Opening: 1930 | Capacity: 50,093 seats<\/p>\n

History and description<\/h3>\n

Stade Roi Baudouin (French), Koning Boudewijnstadion in Dutch or King Baudouin Stadium in English, is the largest stadium of Belgium and the stadium where the Belgian national team play most of their\u00a0home matches.<\/p>\n

Construction of the Stade Roi Baudouin, then still called Stade du Centenaire, came forth out of a desire of\u00a0the city of Brussels to have a stadium that could cater for \u201cevery sport\u201d. Construction started in 1929 and on 23 August 1930, 100 years after Belgian independence (hence the name Stade du Centenaire), the stadium was officially inaugurated.<\/p>\n

Three weeks later, on 14 September, and with King Leopold in attendance, a derby between the national teams of Belgium and the Netherlands was the first game\u00a0played at the stadium. The bowl-shaped stadium could hold over 70,000 spectators at that time.<\/p>\n

Soon after the Second World War the stadium got renamed Heysel Stadium after the local area and the plateau it was built on.<\/p>\n

The Heysel Stadium underwent its first major redevelopment in 1974, when a new all-seater covered stand got built. In those years the stadium regularly hosted European Cup finals, however by the mid 1980s the state of the stadium had severely deteriorated, contributing to the Heysel stadium disaster<\/a> of 1985.<\/p>\n

That year the final of the European Cup between Juventus and Liverpool was to be contested at the stadium. An hour before the match English fans started rioting, and when a group of Liverpool supporters charged the Juventus fans, the Juventus fans retreated and were pushed towards a side perimeter wall. Trying to escape by climbing over the wall, the wall collapsed, and 39 people died. Even though the match continued to be played, English teams were subsequently banned from European competitions for 5 years.<\/p>\n

It took a few years though before the city of Brussels finally decided to extensively renovate the stadium. This happened in 1994 and at the same time the stadium\u00a0was renamed Stade Roi Baudouin \u2013 Koning Boudewijnstadion.<\/p>\n

In 2000, Stade Roi Baudouin hosted the opening match of Euro 2000<\/a> along with two more matches in the group stage, a quarter-final, and the semi-final between France and Portugal (2-1).<\/p>\n

Apart from the disaster final in 1985, three more European Cup finals<\/a> were played at the stadium: the first in 1958 between Real Madrid and AC Milan (3-2), the second in 1966 between Real Madrid and Partizan Belgrade (2-1), and the third in 1974 between FC Bayern and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid (1-1 and 4-0 in the replay).<\/p>\n

On top of this the stadium hosted four Cup Winners\u2019 Cup finals: the first in 1964 between Sporting and MTK Hung\u00e1ria, the second in 1976 between Anderlecht and West Ham United, the third in 1980 between Valencia and Arsenal, and the last in 1996 at the newly renovated stadium between Paris Saint-Germain and Rapid Wien.<\/p>\n

Despite the renovation in the 1990s, Stade Roi Baudouin has significantly aged over time and the city of Brussels therefore started to study the possibility of either redeveloping the current stadium or building a new one. In the end, they chose the latter option in partnership with local side Anderlecht.<\/p>\n

After a difficult and protracted process, the different parties finally came to an agreement by\u00a0the end of 2015. Construction of the new Eurostadium<\/a>\u00a0was expected to start in the summer of 2016 and to be completed in 2019, in time for the Euro 2020<\/a> championships, but new delays have thrown doubt on the realisation of the project.<\/p>\n

If the Eurostadium gets built, Stade Roi Baudouin is set to be demolished in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t

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(photos of the present Stade Roi Baudouin below)<\/p>\n

How to get to Stade Roi Baudouin<\/h3>\n

Stade Roi Baudouin \u2013 Koning Boudewijnstadion is located in the north of the city of Brussels, about 6 kilometres from Brussels\u2019 city centre.<\/p>\n

Three metro<\/a> stations lie within walking distance of the stadium: Heysel, Roi Baudouin, and Houba-Brugmann, of which the first two are the closest. They can be reached with line 6 which circulates the centre of Brussels and also passes\u00a0railway station Gare du Midi (Zuidstation).<\/p>\n

Stade Roi Baudouin can be easily reached by car from the Brussels ring road. Take exit 8 (Wemmel) from the northern part of the ring and drive a few hundred metres south. The stadium will be on your left.<\/p>\n

Address: Marathonlaan 135\/2, 1020 Bruxelles – Brussel.<\/p>\n