Karaiskakis Stadium

The Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium (Greek: Στάδιο Γεώργιος Καραϊσκάκης), commonly referred to as the Karaiskakis Stadium (Greek: Στάδιο Καραϊσκάκη, [staðio karaiˈskaki]), is a football stadium in Piraeus, Attica, Greece, and the home ground of the Piraeus football club Olympiacos. With a capacity of 32,115, it is the largest football-only stadium and the second largest football stadium overall in Greece. It is named after Georgios Karaiskakis, a military commander of the Greek War of Independence, who is considered a national hero and was mortally wounded in the area.

History

It was used during the Athens 1896 Summer Olympics, as the Neo Phaliron Velodrome, where Frenchman Paul Masson took the three track cycling gold medals.

It was renovated during the 1960s and hosted the European Winners' Cup Final of 1970-1971, the first European football Final that held in Greece, between Chelsea and Real Madrid. First leg 1-1, second 2-1 and Chelsea won the trophy. The stadium was completely rebuilt in 2004 into a 32,115 capacity, all seater stadium, ready for the football competition of the 2004 Summer Olympics.

The stadium was totally demolished and built again from the beginning, facing a different direction. This complete reconstruction took a record time of only 14 months, finishing just in time for the Olympic Games. After the last deal ended in 1998, Olympiacos is using the stadium once again, on a 49-year lease from 2003 until 2052 and is traditionally identified as the club's true home. In 2002, the president and owner of Olympiacos Socratis Kokkalis, when announced the project to rebuild Karaiskakis, expressed his wish for the new stadium to be also used by Ethnikos F.C., if they wanted, as Karaiskakis is the historic home of both Olympiacos and Ethnikos. Therefore, in the contract signed by the Hellenic Olympic Committee, the owner of the stadium, and Olympiacos, a clause was included, stating that should Ethnikos wish to return to the stadium, they may do so without sharing any signific

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