Empire Stadium (Gżira)

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Empire Stadium
Hell of Gzira
The former playing area is now covered with weeds
Former playing area
Earlier names

Empire Sports Ground

Data
place MaltaMalta Gżira , Malta
Coordinates 35 ° 54 '8.9 "  N , 14 ° 29' 33.3"  E Coordinates: 35 ° 54 '8.9 "  N , 14 ° 29' 33.3"  E
opening November 4, 1922
Renovations 1951
Extensions 1933
surface sand
capacity 30,000 seats
Events
Exterior view (former main stand)

The Empire Stadium was until 1981 by the Ta 'Qali National Stadium has been replaced, the national stadium of Malta . It stands on the site of the Empire Sports Ground in Gżira , opened in 1922 , which replaced the Mile End Ground , which opened ten years earlier, as the venue for the Maltese football championship . It was best known for its playing field made of rolled sand. In addition to international soccer games, dog races were also held here in the 1930s.

history

With the increasing popularity of football in Malta in the 1920s, the desire for suitable venues also increased. Finally, an investor was found in Carmelo Scicluna. In 1922 he had the Empire Sports Ground built in Gżira. Due to the increasing professionalism and popularity, the Empire Sports Ground soon no longer met the requirements and so a medium-sized stadium was built just eleven years after the opening of the ground, which was modeled on the modern stadiums of the English motherland. The venue, now called Empire Stadium, had 30,000 spectator seats and a hard-rolled sand court as a play area. This unusual surface made it difficult for the European teams to keep their usual style of play at the Empire Stadium. It also earned the stadium the nickname “Hell of Gżira”. In addition to the teams of the first Maltese football league , the national team also played their games here.

Games

First international match

On February 24, 1957, the first international match for Malta (Malta was still a British colony) took place at the Empire Stadium. The home team lost to Austria 2-3.

The "Century Game"

No other international match of the Maltese national soccer team attracted so much attention and such audience interest as the international match against England on February 3, 1971; the former colonialists, from whom Malta gained independence around seven years earlier.

The British have had a significant influence on the game in Malta, as in many other countries, and various English club teams have already made guest appearances, but never before the national team .

The kick-off took place at three in the afternoon, but already at ten in the morning numerous people made their way to the stadium, which was bursting to full shortly after opening at twelve noon. Although the stadium was designed for around 15,000 visitors, there were more than 30,000 spectators in it well before kick-off. The audience knew how to pass the long time leading up to the kick-off by throwing oranges at the English cheerleaders and singing slogans against the English. During the game, every mistake by the English team was acknowledged with shrill whistles and every back pass was cheered frenetically. England won the game with a goal from Martin Peters in the 35th minute, but England goalkeeper Gordon Banks also played a decisive role in the away win, defusing a shot from Joe Cini just before the end of the game .

A historic victory

On February 23, 1975, Malta achieved its first international win in a European Championship qualification by beating Greece 2-0 . This victory was also received with joy in the Federal Republic of Germany at the time, because Greece and Germany fought head-to-head in qualifying for group victory and participation in the finals ; the two direct comparisons ended in a draw and Germany won Group 8 by two points - at that time the two-point rule still applied to a win - ahead of the Greeks.

European Cup

German-speaking teams that played on the local clay court were twice the Grasshopper Club Zurich , which initially won the 1976/77 UEFA Cup (after a 7-0 win on home soil) 2-0 against the Hibernians Paola and two years later in the 1978/79 European Cup, with a 5-3 win against FC Valletta (after an 8-0 win in Switzerland), the Empire Stadium had the highest-scoring game in European history . In the 1965/66 European Cup Winners' Cup , Borussia Dortmund beat Floriana FC 5-1 on the way to winning the title (the second leg in Dortmund ended 8-0). Eintracht Frankfurt also played in the 1977/78 UEFA Cup on the local pitch and did not get past the Sliema Wanderers 0-0, which was not necessary after the 5-0 home win, however, to advance. But even very big teams in European club football did not get beyond a goalless encounter, such as Manchester United on their way to winning the European Cup in 1967/68 against Hibernians Paola, but secured themselves 4-0 in the second leg as did the advancement three years later, as did the later finalist Real Madrid in the 1970/71 European Cup Winners' Cup , who also did not get more than 0-0 against the Hibernians at the Empire Stadium, but won the second leg in front of a home crowd 5-0.

Other big names in European football that have made guest appearances here include Juventus Turin (6-0 win against Marsa FC in the 1971/72 UEFA Cup ) and FC Barcelona (2-0 win against Sliema Wanderers in the UEFA Cup 1980/81 as well) Inter who entered here twice and with a 1: 0 victory against the FC Valetta in the UEFA Cup 1972/73 and a 3: 1 win against Floriana FC in European Cup the cup winners 1978/79 held harmless.

The greatest successes of Maltese football include victories like the 1-0 Sliema Wanderers against Panathinaikos Athens in the European Cup of National Champions 1965/66 (after a 1: 4 in Greece) and the 2-1 Wanderers against Boavista Porto in the European Cup Winners' Cup 1979/80 (second leg 0: 8) and a 1-0 win for Floriana FC against Ferencváros Budapest in the European Cup Winners' Cup 1972/73 (second leg 0: 6).

The first major success of Maltese football came in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1968/69 , when the Sliema Wanderers were able to prevail against the Luxembourg cup winner US Rumelange . After a 2-1 draw in Luxembourg, a 1-0 win at the Empire Stadium was enough for the Wanderers due to the away goals rule for a Maltese team to get into the second round of a European football competition for the first time due to a sporting qualification after Hibernians FC had already won the 1962/63 European Cup the second round because of the failure of his first round opponent, Olympiacos Piraeus , could reach. A double success for Maltese football came in the 1971/72 season, when the Wanderers were able to prevail in the European Cup against the Icelandic representative ÍA Akranes . Because the Icelandic champions had relinquished their home rights, both games took place at the Empire Stadium, which ended 4-0 and 0-0 in favor of the Wanderers. In the second round, Sliema Wanderers failed at last year's finalist Celtic Glasgow , who also made it to the semi-finals in the current competition, with 0: 5 and 1: 2. In qualifying for the European Cup Winners' Cup in the same season , Hibernians Paola beat another Icelandic team - Fram Reykjavík , who had also given up their home rights - 3-0 and 0-2. In the first round, the Hibernians then failed somewhat unhappily with 0-0 and 0-1 against Steaua Bucharest .

closure

After falling out between the Maltese football association MFA and the government of the island state, the government and MFA each hosted their own international matches in the 1970s. This ultimately led to the government building a new, “own” stadium, the Ta 'Qali Stadium in Attard, without the MFA having a say . After the association and government had come to an agreement, the MFA decided to move to the much more modern and attractive Ta 'Qali stadium.

The international history of the stadium ended with the games of the first round of the 1981/82 European Cup season, when, as usual, the Maltese clubs were eliminated. Champion Hibernians FC started on September 16, 1981 with a respectable 1: 2 defeat in front of 5000 spectators against Red Star Belgrade in which the guests only scored the winning goal, which many regarded as not necessarily deserved, at the last minute. On September 23, the Cup winners of FC Floriana followed in the European Cup with a 1: 3 defeat against the eventual finalist Standard Liège . In the second leg, Hibernians and Floriana lost on grass with 1: 8 and 0: 9 respectively. International history came to an end on 30 September with the Sliema Wanderers' UEFA Cup second round match against Aris Thessaloniki with a 2-4 defeat - after a 4-0 defeat in Greece - which was attended by 1,800 people.

In the decades that followed, the Empire Stadium was largely left to its own devices and fell into disrepair. The sand place was soon no longer visible under the wild grass.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carmel Baldacchino: Goals, Cups and Tears - A History of Maltese Football, Vol. 6: 1968–1978 The Last Days of the Empire Stadium , Bugelli Publications, Malta 1997, p. 112
  2. ^ Carmel Baldacchino: Goals, Cups and Tears - A History of Maltese Football, Vol. 6: 1968–1978 The Last Days of the Empire Stadium , Bugelli Publications, Malta 1997, p. 113
  3. ^ Carmel Baldacchino: Goals, Cups and Tears - A History of Maltese Football, Vol. 6: 1968–1978 The Last Days of the Empire Stadium , Bugelli Publications, Malta 1997, p. 117
  4. ↑ Carmel Baldacchino: Goals, Cups and Tears - A History of Maltese Football, Vol. 6: 1968–1978 The Last Days of the Empire Stadium , Bugelli Publications, Malta 1997, pp. 118f