Chahid Hamlaoui Stadium () is a multi-use

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I * Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine g ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. It is currently used mostly 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. The stadium has an actual capacity of 22,968 people. It serves as the home ground of

CS Constantine Club Sportif Constantinois (), also known as CS Constantine or simply CSC for short, is an Algerian football club based in Constantine, Algeria. The club was founded in 1898, and its colours are green and black. Their home stadium, Chahid Hamla ...

and

MO Constantine Mouloudia Olympic of Constantine (), known as MO Constantine or simply MOC for short, is an Algerian football club based in Constantine, founded in December 1939 by the reformer Abd al Hamid Ben Badis. The club colors are white and blue. Thei ...

History

Two years after the start of its construction in 1971, the largest stadium in Constantine opened its doors on the 11th anniversary of the country's independence, on July 5, 1973. Named after Chahid Slimane Daoudi called Hamlaoui, a nationalist militant who died during the Algerian war. The first match in this stadium took place on Wednesday, April 3, 1974, during the final of the military championship. November 17, 1978, the Chahid-Hamlaoui stadium hosted the first friendly match of the Algerian national team, which met its Congolese counterpart, this match ended with a victory for the Greens by 3–0. In the early 1980s, the Chahid-Hamlaoui stadium hosted the matches of the Algerian national team during the 1982 World Cup qualifiers, where it witnessed the first qualification in the history of the Algerian team for the World Cup. The stadium hosted the matches of Sudan, Niger, and finally, Nigeria, all of which saw victory for Algeria, including the last game against Nigeria, with the two goals of

Lakhdar Belloumi Lakhdar Belloumi (; born on 29 December 1958) is an Algerian former football player and manager. A former attacking midfielder, he is widely considered the best Algerian player of all time and one of the best players in Africa. He is said to hav ...

and

Rabah Madjer Rabah Mustapha Madjer (; born 15 December 1958) is an Algerian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He reached stardom as a Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Po ...

. In 2007, it benefited from renovations including the installation of a natural lawn as well as the rehabilitation of its changing rooms. The work was carried out in particular to improve the conditions of the stadium's residents, but also to see the Algerian national team evolve. In 2020, the stadium benefited from a major rehabilitation project in anticipation of the

2022 African Nations Championship The 2022 African Nations Championship, known as the 2022 CHAN for short and the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship for sponsor (commercial), sponsorship purposes, was the 7th edition of the biennial association football tournament organ ...

, organized by Algeria between 8 and 31 January 2023. The rehabilitation works included the construction of a natural grass lawn, the placement of a giant screen with a high-quality image, the restoration of the stands, the reinforcement of the roof, the development of new entrances and aisles of this structure, as well as the endowment portals by electronic ticketing equipment.

Tenants and events

2022 African Nations Championship

The stadium was renovated in 2022 to host some of the games of the

. It hosted three matches of

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...

and one match in the

quarter-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, though it was initially planned to host five games at the group stage. But Morocco, one of the teams at group c, had withdrawn from the tournament on 12 January 2023, after hosts Algeria refused to allow the squad to take a

direct flight A direct flight in the aviation industry is any flight between two points by an airline with no change in flight numbers, which may include one or more stops at an intermediate point(s). A stop may either be to get new passengers (or allow some ...

from

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

via their national

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

and official carrier sponsor,

Royal Air Maroc Royal Air Maroc (RAM, ; ; ) is the Morocco, Moroccan national carrier, as well as the country largest airline, ranking among the largest in Africa. RAM is wholly owned by the Cabinet of Morocco, Moroccan Government, and has its headquarters o ...

. As a result, the three games of Morocco at the group got canceled.

Algeria national football team matches

The Stade Mohamed Hamlaoui has hosted six games of the

Algeria national football team The Algeria national football team () represents Algeria in men's international Association football, football, and is governed by the Algerian Football Federation. The team plays their home matches at the Stade du 5 Juillet, 5 July Stadium in ...

, against

China PR China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...

and

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

in 1980,

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

in 1981,

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in 1989, and the

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

in 1990. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

References

External links