Generali Ceska pojistovna Arena

The Generali Ceska pojistovna Arena, previously, and still commonly known as Letna Stadium (Czech: Stadion Letna [ˈstadjon ˈlɛtnaː]), is a football stadium in Prague. It is the home venue of Sparta Prague and occasionally hosts the matches of the Czech Republic national football team. The stadium's capacity is 18,887 people.

History

The first wooden stadium at its location opened in 1921, in 1930 it hosted the third Women's World Games. The stadium burned in 1934 and a new main reinforced concrete grandstand was built in 1937. In 1969 all the other grandstands were replaced by reinforced concrete ones and capacity was extended to 35,880 spectators. The 1994 reconstruction into its present form saw Letna closed for nine months, till the stadium met all international standards. The running track was removed and all spectator places were now seated.

Letna has frequently hosted international matches, in October 1989 the venue saw a crowd of 34,000 watch home side Czechoslovakia defeat Switzerland in a qualifying match for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Letna continued as an international stadium, hosting matches of the Czech Republic national football team from 1995, including qualification matches for UEFA Euro 1996, in which the Czechs defeated the Netherlands and Norway.

The playing surface was renovated in 2001, including the installation of a new under-soil heating and watering system and grass from Germany. This necessitated Sparta playing league matches at the end of the 2000–01 season at the nearby Stadion Evzena Rosickeho.

Sparta was hit by a 55,000 CHF fine from European football governing body UEFA in 2001 following racist slurs from the crowd targeted at black Brazilian Luis Robson in a UEFA Champions League match at Letna against Spartak Moscow. It was, at the time, the biggest fine ever handed out by UEFA to a club for racist chanting.

Since 2002, the stadium have a heated turf. In 1994 the stadium was reopened after a complete

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