The Nicaragua National Football Stadium (Estadio Nacional de Fútbol) in

Managua ) , settlement_type = Capital city , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Nicar ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

, is home to the

Nicaragua national football team The Nicaragua national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Nicaragua) represents Nicaragua in men's international football and is controlled by the Nicaraguan Football Federation. Nicaragua achieved its first qualification to a major in ...

. The official

ribbon-cutting ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

, attended by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, occurred on April 14, 2011. The first official game was a men's national team match featuring Nicaragua and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

in a

FIFA World Cup 2014 The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

qualifying match, on September 6, 2011.

Overview

Envisioned to be built as the most modern stadium in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, only the first stage of construction has been completed as of April 2011. This first stage included building of the playing surface,

locker room A locker is a small, usually narrow storage compartment. They are commonly found in dedicated cabinets, very often in large numbers, in various public places such as locker rooms, workplaces, elementary schools, middle and high schools, trans ...

s for teams and officials, and a main grandstand. Second and future stages include end zone stands (under construction) as well as a media center and press box. The national Football stadium is sometimes confused with the old National Stadium, Estadio Dennis Martinez in central Managua. That stadium was built in 1948, primarily as a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

stadium. And it was in fact a stadium used by the national team before the construction of the current stadium. Football has a growing popularity among Nicaraguans and has forced its voice in securing a new stadium of its own.

References

External links

* http://www.fenifut.org Football venues in Managua Buildings and structures in Managua {{Nicaragua-sports-venue-stub