The Borg El Arab Stadium (), sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Army Stadium or El Geish Stadium - Alexandria (), is a stadium commissioned in 2005 in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

city of

Amreya Amreya () is a city in Alexandria Governorate, Egypt. Situated in the northern part of the country along the Mediterranean coast, it holds historical significance and serves as an essential industrial hub within the region. The city's name, Amreya ...

; 25 km west of

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, Egypt. It is the second largest stadium in Egypt (after

Misr Stadium Misr Stadium (, , aliases: Egypt Stadium), commonly known as the New Administrative Capital Stadium, is a stadium in Egypt's Olympic Sports City in the New Administrative Capital. It has a capacity of over 93,940 people, making it the largest st ...

) and the third largest in Africa (after

FNB Stadium First National Bank Stadium or simply FNB Stadium, also known as Soccer City and The Calabash, is an association football (soccer) and Rugby union stadium located in Nasrec, bordering the Soweto area of Johannesburg, South Africa. The site is m ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

) with a capacity of 86,000 and is an all-seater. It is also the 9th largest association football stadium in the world. It is located on the Cairo-

desert highway 10 km from

Borg El Arab Airport Borg El Arab International Airport is an international airport of Alexandria, Egypt. It is located about southwest of Alexandria, in Borg El Arab (alternate spellings: Borg Al Arab, Burg Al Arab or Burg El Arab). The airport also serves the n ...

and 15 km from Alexandria's city center. A running track runs around the pitch, and the ground has four

floodlight A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. It can provide functional area lighting for travel-ways, parking, entrances, work areas, and sporting venues to enable visibility adequate for safe task performance, ornament ...

s. Only one stand is covered by a roof. The stadium is 145

feddans A feddan () is a unit of area used in Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the feddan is the only ...

(609,000 sq m), is surrounded by a fence which is 3 km long, an internal road network measuring 6 km, a parking lot which could fit 5,000 cars and 200 buses. The stadium also has an airstrip. There are 136 electronic entrances. The main cabin is covered by an umbrella which covers 35% of the stadium's total area. The stadium is air-conditioned. There are 2 sub-stadiums for training and each ground can hold 2,000 spectators, includes 2 locker rooms and a stadium for Athletics. It also includes a hotel for 200 guests. The stadium also includes a building which contains 300 presses.

History

Background

The Stadium was originally commissioned as part of a 5 international-standard stadiums project for Egypt's bid to host the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

. After the Egyptian bid to host the World Cup failed, the stadium became the home stadium of the Egyptian national team alongside the

Cairo International Stadium The Cairo International Stadium (), formerly known as Nasser Stadium, is an Olympic-standard, multi-use stadium with an all-seated capacity of 75,000. The architect of the stadium is the German Werner March, who designed the Olympiastadion (Berli ...

. Alongside the national team, Alexandria-based side

Smouha Smouha () is an upper-class district in the centre of Alexandria, Egypt. It is home to the Security Directorate of Alexandria and the Smouha Sporting Club, Smouha's central roundabout (Victor Emmanuel Square) connects between other areas in Alexa ...

started to play their home matches on the stadium instead of

Alexandria Stadium Alexandria Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium in the Moharram Bey district of Alexandria, Egypt. It was opened in 1929 by Fuad I of Egypt, King Fouad I. It is the oldest stadium in Egypt and Africa. After its remodeling and renovations in 20 ...

since 2016; while

Al Ahly Al-Ahly Sporting Club (), commonly known as Al-Ahly, is an Egyptian professional sports club based in Cairo, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional football team which currently plays in the Egyptian Premier League, the highest ...

, Al Ittihad, Al Masry and

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

also played some of their home matches their due to different reasons.

Opening

To utilize the new stadium, Egypt chose Borg El Arab stadium to be among the stadiums hosting the

2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was hosted by Egypt from 24 September to 16 October 2009. The tournament was initially going to take place between 10 and 31 July. However, the 2009 FIFA Confede ...

. In an inspection tour to check Egypt's readiness, Jack Warner, FIFA Vice-president and head of the inspection delegation, said, "It is a fantastic stadium. It is one of the best in the world". The stadium, however, hosted only one match in that tournament, which was the opening match between

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 ...

and

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as well as the opening ceremony of the competition. FIFA President

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

expressed his delight to be at the "fantastic" stadium of Borg El Arab as he watched the visuals and lights show of the opening ceremony.

Description

Location

Borg El Arab is located 7 kilometers away from the 31 kilometers mark at the Cairo-

desert high road. It is also about 10 kilometers away from

. The site is also 1.5 km away from the train station at king Mariot. The area of land specified for this project is 600,000 m² (145 acres) divided as follow: 30% for facilities, 30% for roads and waiting areas, 40% for green areas. This project is planned to be the building brick for a full Olympic Village integrated.

Entrances and exits

A 3.5 km long fence surrounds the entire stadium. There are 10 gates and 80 shops with a total surface area of 4 thousand square meters. The main stadium is surrounded by 1.2 km long fence that controls the spectators entrance. This fence contains 17 gates and a total of 136 electronic machine that allow the entry of 800 spectators per minute. Beyond the gates, there are 76 staircases divided into 22 up to the upper stands, 18 down to the special cabins, 36 down to the lower stands. Other entrances exist for the VIP, handicap, and for people with special needs. The stadium contains 8 elevators: two elevator for VIP, two for journalists, two for shipments and goods, and other two for people with special needs.

Pitch

The geographical direction of the pitch is about 12 degrees north west in order to be along the direction of the wind. The reason for that is to avoid any obstruction to the movement of the ball or the players according to the requirements of the International Federation of Football Associations (

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

). The pitch dimensions is 105 * 70 meters. In addition to the pitch, the stadium is equipped to host Olympic Games activities; 8

running track An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditions. Historically, v ...

lanes, water blocker for

steeplechase SteepleChase Records is a jazz record company and label based in Copenhagen, Denmark. SteepleChase was founded in 1972 by Nils Winther, who was a student at Copenhagen University at the time. He began recording concerts at Jazzhus Montmartre, ...

, two sand pit for

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

, one sand pit for

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the tr ...

. The main stadium is equipped with twin light towers positioned at the north-eastern and south-eastern stands of the stadium. In addition, lighting sources are installed along the sunshade. Two results panel and 13 prepared positions for cameras are ready. In addition to the pitch, there are two training fields with a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 2000 spectators per field. Both fields occupy a total area of 3,000 m², where each field includes athletics track. Both training fields are equipped with lighting towers.

Seating capacity

Borg El Arab's main stands can accommodate for 86 thousand spectators on the upper and lower levels. While the exclusive VIP cabin has 22 seats, the terrace can accommodates for 300 spectators. The terrace and first class stand, which represents 35% of the total stadium seating capacity, are covered with a metal sunshade.

Available services

Four rooms for clothes changing, with restrooms and showers included in each, are available for the players. For the spectators, there are 32 restaurants and 68 restrooms (a total of 386 toilets; 337 for men, 43 for women, and 6 for people with special needs). Twenty five percent of the stadium is air conditioned. The stadium includes a hotel for the players that includes 200 bed which are air conditioned. The hotel includes a conference hall, a cafeteria, restaurant, swimming pool, a gymnasium and provider of elevators. In addition for the hotel, there is also an administrative building and a housing centre for the stadium's workers. The stadium includes an internal road network that is 6 km long, car parking capacity of 5 thousand cars, and 200 buses and a helicopter landing pad with capacity of 4 aircraft.

Gallery

File:Borg El Arab Stadium 2.jpg, A view of the stadium during a match for the Egypt National Team File:Borg El Arab Stadium - EGY v TOG 1.jpg, Borg El Arab Stadium before a friendly match in March 2017. File:Borg El Arab Stadium - EGY v TOG 2.jpg, Borg El Arab Stadium during a friendly match in March 2017. File:Borg El Arab Stadium, 2017.jpg, Borg El Arab stadium before a match in the

2017 CAF Confederation Cup The 2017 CAF Confederation Cup (officially the 2017 Total CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 14th edition of the CAF Confederation Cup, Africa's secondary club football competition organized by the Confederation of African Foot ...

in April 2017. File:Borg El Arab Stadium 1.jpg, Borg El Arab Stadium during a match in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in October 2017. File:Borg el arab stadium.jpg, A view of Borg El Arab Stadium in 2005. File:Borg El Arab Stadium under construction 1.JPG, A view of the stadium while it was under construction in November 2005. File:Borg El Arab Stadium under construction 2.JPG, A view of the stadium while it was under construction in November 2005. File:3_Borg_El_Arab_Stadium.jpg,

References

External links

*
Photos of Stadiums in Egypt
a
cafe.daum.net/stade
{{Coord, 30, 59, 51.44, N, 29, 43, 23.71, E, type:landmark, display=title Football venues in Egypt

Sports venues in Alexandria 2009 establishments in Egypt Sports venues completed in 2009 Al Ittihad Alexandria Club Smouha SC 21st-century architecture in Egypt