Estadio Raimundo Sampaio

The Estadio Raimundo Sampaio, more commonly known as Independencia (Portuguese: Independence), is a football stadium located in the Horto neighborhood of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It was built in 1950 for the FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil. Initially its capacity was 30,000 people, but after the reconstruction between 2010 and 2012, the capacity is approximately 23,000 people. It belonged to the defunct Sete de Setembro Futebol Clube, which is why the stadium is called Independence (the name of the team, September 7, is Brazil's Independence Day). The stadium is currently property of America Futebol Clube, but has been leased to the Minas Gerais state government for 20 years, as a counterpart to the injection of public resources to demolish the old stadium and build the new one.

Estadio Independencia is the second most important stadium in Belo Horizonte, behind only Mineirao. Its formal name honors Raimundo Sampaio, a former chairman of Sete de Setembro. America plays their home games in there.

History

Construction started in 1947, in preparation for the 1950 FIFA World Cup. The inaugural match was the World Cup match between Yugoslavia and Switzerland, won by the former by 3-0, and played on June 25, 1950. The first stadium goal was scored by Tomasevic. One of the most famous upsets in FIFA World Cup history was played here, the 1-0 upset by the United States over England at that 1950 World Cup.

After the construction of Mineirao, ownership of the stadium was transferred by the Minas Gerais government to Sete de Setembro.

Originally the stadium belonged to the Government of Minas Gerais, but with the inauguration of Mineirao in 1965, became the property of the club Sete de Setembro (the reason the stadium is popularly known as "Independence", according to the historical date). With the merger of this club with America, the latter became the owner. At this stage America won Campeonato Brasileiro Serie B in 1997 in the confrontation against Vila Nova-GO and in a mat

This page also has a version in other languages :  Индепенденсия Стадион (russian)