AEK Arena

AEK Arena – Georgios Karapatakis (Greek: ΑΕΚ Αρένα – Γεώργιος Καραπατάκης) is a football stadium in Larnaca, Cyprus. Completed in 2016, it is the home ground of AEK Larnaca and has a total seating capacity of 7,400.

History

AEK Arena was built on land owned by the GSZ Stadium. AEK Larnaca and GSZ have agreed to build a stadium on this land. The stadium is owned by AEK Larnaca, and was built by its own cost. The responsibility of the construction was assigned to Balltown Holdings (Public) Ltd, which was founded for this purpose by AEK.

The construction of the stadium was planned to be done in two phases. The first phase began on 7 September 2015. Initially, only 3 of the 4 stands would be built. However, in the course of the implementation of the project, a mandate was given to build the fourth stand.

The stadium was inaugurated on Monday 17 October 2016 with the match between AEK and Aris for the 7th matchday of the 2016–17 Cypriot First Division. AEK won the match with 4–0 score. The first goal which achieved in AEK Arena was scored by Jorge Larena. The official inauguration took place on 27 November 2016.

The first match of European competition was held on 29 June 2017 for the first qualifying round of Europa League 2017–18, when ΑΕΚ faced Lincoln Red Imps F.C. AEK won the match with 5–0 score.