Makario Stadium (), is an all-seater

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. It was the largest and main sports venue of the capital up to the construction of the

GSP stadium The GSP Stadium () is a association football, football stadium in Strovolos, Nicosia District, Cyprus. Although small by international standards, it is the largest stadium in Cyprus, with a capacity of 22,859 and was opened in 1999. It serves as ...

in 1999. At present it is mostly used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

matches and is the home ground of Olympiakos Nicosia, Digenis Morphou, and Ethnikos Assia. The stadium holds 15,590 seated spectators. The playing field is surrounded by a running track and can be adapted to hold most track and field events. Apart from corporate boxes and the press centre, there are no coverings for spectators. It is built in the Nicosia suburb of Makedonitissa, close to the grounds of the Cyprus State Fair, with which it shares a large car park. Over the years it has served as the home ground for Nicosia teams such as

AC Omonia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (; ''Athlitikós Sýllogos Omónoia Lefkosías''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (also Romanization of Greek, transliterated as Omonoia), is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional multi-sport club, esta ...

, APOEL and Olympiakos. The Cypriot national team has also played home matches there in the past. All those teams have now relocated to the New GSP stadium. The ultras of APOEL (PANSYFI - AU79) and Omonia ( Gate-9) were formed during the years their teams played at the stadium. The Makario was built in 1978 and is named after Makarios III, the Ethnarch of Cyprus;

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

and first President of Cyprus. It has hosted many

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

and Super Cup finals and was the main venue for the 1989 Games of the Small States of Europe. The record for the highest attendance at the stadium was 30,000 spectators on 6 November 1985, for the match between Omonia Nicosia and Anderlecht in the 1985–86 European Cup last-16 round. Publications of the time state that there were 34,000 spectators at the Makarios stadium, which is a record number of fans in Cypriot stadiums.

References

Athletics (track and field) venues in Cyprus Sport in Nicosia Football venues in Cyprus Multi-purpose stadiums in Cyprus Buildings and structures in Nicosia Sports venues in Cyprus Doxa Katokopias FC {{Cyprus-sports-venue-stub