Luzhniki Olympic Stadium

Luzhniki Olympic Stadium
The Luzhniki Stadium in June 2017
Earlier names
W. I. Lenin Central Stadium (until 1992)
Data
place	ul.Luzniki 24 119048 Moscow , Russia
Coordinates	55 ° 42 '56.2 "  N , 37 ° 33' 13.7"  E Coordinates: 55 ° 42 '56.2 "  N , 37 ° 33' 13.7"  E
classification	4th
owner	Moscow city
start of building	1955
opening	July 31, 1956 November 11, 2017
First game	July 31, 1956 Soviet Union - PR China 1: 0 November 11, 2017 Russia - Argentina 0: 1
Renovations	1978–1980 1995–1997 2014–2017
surface	Natural grass
capacity	80,000 seats
playing area	105 × 68 m
Events
Ice Hockey World Championship 1957 1980 Summer Olympics European Athletics Cup 1985 Moscow Music Peace Festival 1989 Russian Cup Final 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2007 1999 UEFA Cup final 2008 UEFA Champions League final World Athletics Championships 2013 Football World Cup 2018 Concerts

The Luzhniki Stadium (Grand Sports Arena) ( Russian Олимпийский комплекс Лужники (Большая спортивная арена)  / Olimpijski kompleks Luzniki (Bolshaya Sportivnaya Arena )) is the largest football stadium in Russia . It is located in the capital Moscow in the district of the same name and is a category 4 stadium, the highest classification of the European Football Association (UEFA) . In front of the stadium there is a statue of Lenin , which is one of the largest of its kind. After a renovation from 2014 to 2017, with a view to the 2018 World Cup , the Luzhniki Stadium offers 80,000 covered seats.

History of the stadium

The Luzhniki Olympic Stadium was completed on July 31, 1956 in a green area in the Moscow district of Luzhniki , about 10 km southwest of the Kremlin on the course of the Moskva River . It was opened under the name of the W. I. Lenin Central Stadium ( Russian Центральный стадион имени В.И.Ленина ). The opening game played the Soviet national soccer team against the Chinese national soccer team (1-0).

The stadium was also the venue for the last game of the 1957 Ice Hockey World Championship . It was fought between the Soviet Union and Sweden . The game ended 4: 4 (0: 2, 4: 0, 0: 2) and Sweden became world champions.

The Luzhniki Olympic Stadium in May 1980

The opening ceremony of the 1980 Summer Olympics

The stadium was expanded for the 1980 Summer Olympics and had a capacity of 103,000 (July 19, 1980).

On October 20, 1982, a good two years after the Games, at least 66 people were killed on the sidelines of a UEFA Cup game between Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem . For the meeting that was badly attended at the time, those responsible had only opened one grandstand and one entrance. Several hundred spectators wanted to leave the stadium shortly before the end of regular time when the score was 1-0 for the hosts. When another goal fell for the Muscovites in stoppage time, the spectators stormed back into the stadium and met numerous visitors who, in turn, were streaming towards the exit. When panic broke out among the guests , numerous people were seriously injured and trampled to death. According to official information, 66 people died, but the World Football Atlas puts the number of deaths at 340.

Exterior view of the Luzhniki Stadium (May 2007)

In 1989 the Luzhniki Stadium was again in the focus of the world public when it hosted the Moscow Music Peace Festival . For two days, rock bands from all over the world such as Bon Jovi , Black Sabbath and the Scorpions played to convey the message of world peace .

Between 1995 and 1997 the stadium was modernized and then offered space for 84,864 spectators. All seats are seats and the stadium is 100 percent covered. The floodlight system generates 1,450 lux .

On May 12, 1999, the Luzhniki was the scene of the final of the 1998/99 UEFA Cup between the Italian club AC Parma and the French team from Olympique Marseille . The game ended 3-0 in front of 61,000 spectators. It was the first time that the final of a European football tournament took place in Russia .

On 4 October 2006, the decision UEFA - Executive Committee that the final of the 2008 Champions League 2008 will be played in the Luzhniki Stadium. For the game on May 21, 2008, the artificial turf was finally replaced by natural turf. The all-English final between Manchester United and Chelsea London ended in front of 69,500 spectators in the sold-out stadium after goals from Cristiano Ronaldo (26th) and Frank Lampard (45th) with 1: 1 after extra time. In a highly dramatic penalty shootout, John Terry initially awarded a match point for Chelsea FC. In the second extension of the penalty thriller, Manchester's Dutch keeper Edwin van der Sar parried against Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka and became the match winner of the game.

Interior view of the Luzhniki Stadium (July 2008)

The Luzhniki was also a central part of Moscow's application for the 2012 Summer Olympics , which was ultimately awarded to London . The candidacy envisaged the reuse of most of the competition facilities that had been built for the 1980 Summer Olympics . In addition, the athletics competitions and the opening and closing ceremonies should take place in Luschniki.

On December 2, 2010, Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup . The Luschniki Olympic Stadium was selected as the largest of 12 stadiums for the World Cup, including for the final.

The Athletics World Championships were held in the Luzhniki Stadium from August 10th to 18th, 2013 . For this purpose, a new, now light blue, tartan track was laid in the stadium and the artificial turf was exchanged for a natural turf prescribed for the throwing competitions . After the title fights, the stadium was closed for renovation work for the 2018 World Cup.

The renovation of the stadium began in 2014 and was originally supposed to be completed in spring 2017. An initially envisaged expansion of the spectator capacity to up to 90,000 seats was discarded for reasons of monument protection because such an expansion would not have been possible without the complete demolition of the stadium. Ultimately, for reasons of cost, the decision was made in favor of a conversion concept in which the number of seats is reduced from around 84,000 by around 3,000 to around 81,000. The athletics facility was removed from the interior for a purely football stadium.

After extensive renovations, the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium was reopened on November 11, 2017 with a friendly international match between Russia and Argentina . The premiere in front of 78,750 spectators in the renovated stadium was won 0: 1 by Sergio Aguero's header in the 86th minute.

Stadium renovation gallery (2014-2017)

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  Renovations in the stadium interior in August 2015

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  The Olympic Stadium during the renovation in April 2016

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  The old grandstands of the sports facility with the athletics facility have been removed. A modern football stadium was built for the 2018 World Cup (March 2017)

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  The newly covered and inwardly extended roof construction on March 29, 2017

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  Interior view of the roof structure (March 2017)

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  The new seating of the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium (March 2017)

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  One of the new changing rooms (March 2017)

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  The stadium interior in September 2017

Todays use

The football club Spartak Moscow played its home games here until 2013. Since 2014 they have been competing in the Otkrytije Arena . Also Torpedo and the CSKA (now in 2016 inaugurated WEB Arena ) were users of the stadium. Furthermore, the Russian national soccer team sometimes evaded the stadium, which has rarely happened in recent years. After the € 350 million conversion into a football stadium, it will be used more often. The stadium was also used for other major events such as music concerts.

The following games took place in the stadium during the 2018 World Cup:

June 14, 2018, 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. CEST) - Group A
Russia	-	Saudi Arabia	5: 0 (2: 0)
June 17, 2018, 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. CEST) - Group F
Germany	-	Mexico	0: 1 (0: 1)
June 20, 2018, 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. CEST) - Group B
Portugal	-	Morocco	1: 0 (1: 0)
June 26, 2018, 5:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. CEST) - Group C
Denmark	-	France	0-0
July 1, 2018, 5:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. CEST) - round of 16
Spain	-	Russia	1: 1 n.V. (1: 1, 1: 1), 3: 4 in E.
July 11, 2018, 9:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. CEST) - semi-finals
Croatia	-	England	2: 1 n.V. (1: 1, 0: 1)
July 15, 2018, 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. CEST) - Final
France	-	Croatia	4: 2 (2: 1)

Awards

The 5-star award from UEFA at the Luzhniki Stadium

In 2002, the stadium was awarded five stars by UEFA , which was one of the prerequisites for being able to stand as a venue for a Champions League final. After several changes to the rating system, the stadium was initially classified by UEFA as an elite stadium, and now (since 2010) as a category 4 stadium.

See also

• List of the largest football stadiums in the world
• List of the largest stadiums in the world

Web links

Commons : Olympiastadion Luschniki  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Stadium website (Russian, English)
• Luzhniki Stadium. In: FIFA.com. 
• World Cup series part 12: Legendary stadium in a new outfit. In: stadionwelt.de. June 10, 2018. 
• Photos Olimpiyskiy stadium Luzhniki. In: stadionwelt.de. June 10, 2018. 
• Luzhniki. In: StadiumDB.com. June 8, 2017(English, picture gallery of the renovation work). 
• Torpedo Moscow vs. Rostselmasch Rostov-na-Donu 0: 1. In: groundhopping.de. July 2, 2002(visitor report from 2002). 
• Moscow - Luzhniki Stadium (81,030) - 2018 FIFA WC. In: skyscrapercity.com. (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} FIFA.com: Luzhniki Stadium
2. ↑ Radovan Jelínek, Jiří Tomeš u. a .: Football World Atlas . Translated from the Czech by Lothar Martin. Copress Sport, Munich, 2001, ISBN 3-7679-0651-1 , p. 16.
   Moscow: 33 years ago, but still unclear. In: StadiumDB.com. October 20, 2015, accessed on July 16, 2018 . Alex Raack : The Moscow stadium disaster. In: 11freunde.de . October 14, 2011, accessed July 16, 2018 . Alex Raack: Moscow stadium disaster in 1982: "Everything went wrong". In: one day on Spiegel Online . July 13, 2018, accessed July 13, 2018 . 
    
    
3. ↑ UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Ljubljana: Decision on hosts for club competition finals 2008 and 2009. (PDF, 61 kB) UEFA press release 114/2006, September 27, 2006, accessed on July 16, 2018 . 
4. ↑ 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow. In: stadionwelt.de. August 14, 2013, accessed July 16, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Conversion from spring 2014. In: stadionwelt.de. October 16, 2013, accessed July 16, 2018 . 
6. ↑ New stadium design should reduce costs. In: stadionwelt.de. December 2, 2013, accessed July 16, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Luzhniki opens with an international match. In: stadionwelt.de. March 1, 2017, accessed July 16, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Russia - Argentina 0: 1. In: weltfussball.de. Retrieved July 16, 2018 . 
9. ↑ Search for setlists: Luzhniki Stadium. In: setlist.fm. Retrieved July 16, 2018 .