Stade Mohammed V
| Stade Mohammed V | |
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| Fans at the Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca | |
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 Casablanca , Morocco
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| Coordinates | 33 ° 34 '58.3 " N , 7 ° 38' 48.5" W |
| owner | City of Casablanca |
| opening | 1955 |
| Renovations | 1981, 2000 |
| surface | Natural grass |
| capacity | 55,000 seats |
| playing area | 105 × 68 m |
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The Stade Mohammed V is a football stadium with an athletics facility in the Moroccan city of Casablanca . It has space for 55,000 spectators and serves as the home of the Raja Casablanca and Wydad Casablanca clubs .
history
The Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca , the largest city in Morocco , was built in 1955 and opened on March 6th of the same year. Since that day it has been used by the two top Moroccan clubs Raja Casablanca and Wydad Casablanca as a venue for home games. To date, Raja has been the Moroccan football champion nine times and has won the country's cup in northern Africa six times. The club was also able to win the CAF Champions League three times . The other user of the stadium, however, Wydad Casablanca, is even more successful than the city rival with twelve national championship titles. In terms of the number of cup wins, Wydad is also ahead with nine wins. However, Wydad could only win the African Champions League once.
When today's Stade Mohammed V opened in 1955, it was given the name Stade Marcel Cerdan . Marcel Cerdan (1916–1949) was a French boxer who was born in the French colony of Algeria . Just one year later, in 1956, the name of the stadium was changed again and from then on it was called Stade D'honneur , which translated means Stadium of Independence . This designation is due to the fact that Morocco gained independence from France and Spain in the same year . The first king of the new country was Mohammed V. However, he died in 1961. In 1981, in memory of the first king of independent Morocco, the largest stadium in the country was renamed Stade Mohammed V , as it is still called today.
The stadium's capacity is now 54,500. The stadium once had a capacity of over 80,000 spectators. In 2000, however, extensive renovations took place here, as Morocco applied to host the 2010 World Cup . The capacity of the Stade Mohammed V was reduced to 55,000 seats and some safety precautions were tightened. However, Morocco could not secure the hosting of the world tournament because South Africa won the race. Nevertheless, the Stade Mohammed V has already seen a major event. The African Cup of Nations in football took place here in 1988 , when Cameroon won the final against Nigeria with a 1-0 win in this stadium. The home team from Morocco was eliminated in the semifinals against the eventual African champions. In the Stade Mohammed V there are not only football games, but also concerts. At the concert of the American singer Rihanna in 2008, over 110,000 people came to the stadium as part of her Good Girl Gone Bad tour , setting a record number of spectators in the stadium since the capacity was reduced. The absolute attendance record dates back to 1997, when 115,000 spectators came to the stadium to watch Morocco's international match against Ghana in football.
Web links
- Picture gallery ( Memento from February 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Profile on goalzz.com