Address: Italy, Milan
Build date: 1925 year
Opening date: September 1926
Architect: Ulysses Stachchin
Capacity: 80,018 (2017)
Home team: Milan
Coordinates: 45 ° 28'40.9 "N 9 ° 07'26.4" E
Content:
Short description
Despite the fact that Milan, which is visited annually by hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world, has two of the greatest football teams that successfully play in the Champions League, there is only one stadium in the city to this day.
Bird's eye view of San Siro stadium
True, this stadium can be safely attributed to the most beautiful, comfortable and most spacious stadiums in the world. Naturally, any fan of such a popular game nowadays as football will immediately understand that this article will focus on the legendary San Siro stadium. By the way, the San Siro stadium has another name: "Giuseppe Meazza". It is the home arena for two football clubs Milan and Inter, which in almost every championship are fighting for the title of the best in all of Italy. This state of affairs says only one thing, that the stands of the world famous "San Siro" are always packed to capacity.
The matches with the participation of Milan or Inter are attended not only by fans of these strongest clubs of the Old World, but also by numerous tourists who have come to the capital of world fashion to get acquainted with its monuments of history and architecture. The San Siro stadium is rightfully recognized as one of the main attractions of Milan, and no fewer people dream of visiting it than the legendary La Scala opera house.
Stadiums with a long and interesting history have always been wildly popular not only among football fans, but also among travelers who are little familiar with this interesting game. The thing is that for the most part, the greatest arenas in the world are used not only for their intended purpose, they often host concerts of the world's most famous singers and musical groups. The San Siro stadium or the Giuseppe Meazza stadium is no exception. For example, in the summer of 1980, a concert venue was built on its field. On it, the only time in his entire career, Bob Marley gave a concert in Italy.
General view of the San Siro stadium
By the way, the names of the stadium, on the origin of which you should definitely dwell, are to this day the bones of contention between the fans of Inter and Milan. Inter fans are used to calling the home arena of their club - Giuseppe Meazza stadium, but Milan fans insist that the stadium be called San Siro. For this reason, in most popular sports publications, the authors, when covering a match, try to mention both names the same number of times. This is done with only one purpose - not to offend the army of zealous fans of "Inter" or "Milan". Although, in fairness it should be noted that the arena's official name, however, is "Giuseppe Meazza". "San Siro" is the outdated name of the stadium, which is only recognized by the fans of "Milan".
Giuseppe Meazza is the greatest Italian footballer who managed to become a two-time world champion in his career. Many might think that since Inter fans prefer the new name of the stadium, the world football legend played exclusively for Inter. This is not true, Meazza played not only for Inter, but also earned fame for Milan, but the story so happened that the club of the same name with the city likes the old name of the stadium, which has nothing to do with the name of the great Italian football player.
San Siro stadium - history
The construction of the stadium in the city of Milan started in 1925. Thanks to the efforts of the well-known architects Cujini and Staccine at that time, as well as a large construction team, the stadium was inaugurated in September 1926. It was named, as you might guess, San Siro. For those who are not familiar with the history of the greatest Italian city, it should be clarified that the home stadium for the Milan club, which was organized at the end of the 19th century, was named after a Catholic saint. And today in Milan you can find a small old church called "San Siro".
Any modern architect looking at the photo of the San Siro dated 1926 will easily conclude that the stadium was built in the so-called “English style”. A colossal amount was spent on its construction. In addition, the amount of construction materials is impressive: more than ten thousand tons of cement and almost 2,000 tons of metal for floors were used for the Milan home stadium. San Siro, which opened in 1926 and accommodated 35,000 football fans, was almost beaten to capacity in the first match between Milan and Inter. Despite the fact that most of the visitors were rooting for Milan, the club lost to Inter with a score of 6: 3. However, nine goals scored at once in one match made the audience literally roar with delight. The Milan stadium hosted its first official international match a year and a half after its opening: then the national football teams of Italy and Czechoslovakia played on its field with a score of 2: 2.
Stadium stands
One of the major renovations of the San Siro stadium took place in the late 1930s... In 1939, Milan's home arena boasted a seating capacity of 55,000. After a grandiose scale of work, a match between the national teams of Italy and England took place at the San Siro, which ended with the score 2: 2, which is already customary for the Milan arena.
After the end of World War II, Milan continued to delight and upset their fans, while Inter showed more or less stable results. In 1947, the home stadium of the "blue-blacks", which had the unpretentious name "Arena", simply could not accommodate everyone. The team needed to build a new stadium, which, of course, would have cost a lot, or split San Siro and Milan.
Such a rationalization proposal, as it were expressed during the existence of the Soviet Union, was surprisingly gladly accepted not only by the leaderships of the clubs, but also by the armies of fans. True, 55,000 people is too small a capacity for the home stadium of two Italian football giants at once. Therefore, at the same time, another important decision is made on a new reconstruction of the San Siro.
The second expansion of the arena lasted until 1955. During this period, the architects have developed the second tier, thanks to which the capacity of the legendary Milan stadium has grown to 82,000 people! One has only to imagine what happened at the matches between Inter and Milan, when the arena was divided into two parts, each of which was rooting for its own club. In addition to increasing its capacity, the stadium acquired ultra-modern, for those times, artificial lighting. In 1967, on the now legendary San Siro, a huge electronic scoreboard appeared.
After 12 years, they decided to rename the stadium: since 1979, it has received the name "Giuseppe Meazza". After much deliberation, the leaders of the clubs came to the logical conclusion that the football stadium should be named after the player who made Italy famous throughout the world and made a huge contribution to the development of football, which, incidentally, happened to the famous Spanish stadium Santiago Bernabeu. The change in the name of the stadium caused sharp discontent from the fans of the Milan club, who decided that almost the main shrine was being taken away from them. As mentioned above, the stadium was originally built for a club organized in the 19th century, and its name, in the opinion of the fans, should have remained unchanged: it does not matter that Meazza's striker once terrified Milan's rivals.The new painting of the seats did not help either, the scandals did not subside. Since 1979, the name of the stadium has been constantly contested not only between Milanese, but also in the media. Although, scandals and intrigues around football clubs and stadiums in Italy have become commonplace.
Stadium "Giuseppe Meazza" - a new story
The last and, according to experts, the largest reconstruction of the stadium took place before the 1990 FIFA World Cup... The football arena, named after Giuseppe Meazza, has a transparent roof made of durable polycarbonate and a third tier for fans. A little over 80,000 fans could now watch international and national championship matches (according to the new rules, all seats had to be seated), which still made the Milan stadium one of the largest in the world. However, the roof, which the architects were so proud of, caused additional costs: it was transparent, but it interfered with the natural light of the lawn, which caused constant problems with the field.
View of the stadium field
Mistakes in calculations also led to the fact that the stadium, which was packed to capacity, became unbearably stuffy within 10 minutes after the start of the match. In addition to the 55 million pounds spent on the reconstruction of the arena, almost half of this amount had to be spent on correcting all the shortcomings.
Giuseppe Meazza - Mecca for football fans
Nowadays, the stadium "Giuseppe Meazza" attracts attention not only during the matches between Milan and Inter, but even when you will not see fans in the stands. Near the stadium, you can constantly meet crowds of tourists who take memorable photos against the background of the “former” San Siro. Many of Milan's guests join excursion groups and enter the shrine of Inter and Milan to touch the legendary pitch with their palm, inspect the under-stands, players 'and referees' locker rooms.
However, the greatest interest among tourists is the first sports museum in Italy, located in "Giuseppe Meazza". In this interesting museum, which houses about 3,500 exhibits, the Champions League Cups, which at one time belonged to the Milan clubs, paintings by famous artists depicting famous players on their canvases, medals, pennants, flags and much more are exhibited. It is worth noting that most of the exhibits exhibited in the Giuseppe Meazza Sports Museum are unique, and it is almost impossible to evaluate them in monetary terms.
The home stadium of Milan and Inter more than once fondly remember the pop stars who were fortunate enough to give their concerts on this field. On "Giuseppe Meazza" the voices of Michael Jackson, the charming Madonna, the U2 group, Depeche Mode sounded and many other equally famous singers and musical groups. You can touch the legend, as mentioned just above, as part of one of the excursion groups that gather every day at gate number 14. The stadium is open for viewing from 10 am to 5 pm. However, one should take into account the fact that at the moment the lawn of the arena "Giuseppe Meazza" is mostly artificial, almost the same as on the Moscow "Luzhniki". This is due to the fact that the grass grows very poorly on the home field of Inter and Milan, which allowed Barcelona's management to file a complaint with UEFA. The special committee considered the protest of the eminent Spanish grandee and immediately ordered the management of Inter and Milan to put the lawn in order.
In 2016, the stadium "Giuseppe Meazza" will host the final of the most popular European football trophy - the Champions League Cup. For this reason, UEFA should have no complaints about the lawn and safety. By the way, at the moment the stadium has been awarded the highest category, but due to problems with the lawn, it has only four stars, and not five, as, for example, Camp Nou. However, the “lack” of one star does not in the least affect the popularity of the arena: it is indicated in almost any travel guide to Milan as the main attraction of the city.
To visit Milan, charming from the first acquaintance, and not to visit the stadium "Giuseppe Meazza" or "San Siro" (as you like) is an unforgivable mistake. If you visit the stadium during one of the matches, you can immediately feel that indescribable atmosphere and intensity of passions for which the country is famous all over the world, which resembles a charming and ultra-fashionable women's boot on a huge map of the world. After all, even if we compare the city of Milan with a person, which, by the way, is quite often done by impulsive Italian guides, then the heart of the city is La Scala; his soul is the cathedral of the Duomo, and his vocal cords and character are “Giuseppe Meazza”.
