Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (also known as Fatorda Stadium) is a

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 ...

Margao, Goa Margao (, ) is the commercial capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Goa. It stands on the banks of the river Sal River (India), Sal. It is the district headquarters of South Goa district, South Goa, and administr ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The venue has been used to host both

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 ...

and

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

matches. It is Goa's only international stadium and has a seating capacity of 19,000. It has hosted 9 One Day Internationals (ODIs) in cricket and hosted various football tournaments, including multiple Indian Super League finals,

I-League The I-League is the men's second professional football division of the Indian football league system behind the Indian Super League. Administered by the All India Football Federation, it is currently contested by 13 clubs. It operates as a s ...

, I-League 2,

AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...

, and

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

. The venue was established in 1989 and is owned and operated by the Sports Authority of Goa. It is currently the home stadium of

FC Goa Futebol Clube de Goa is an India, Indian professional association football, football club based in Fatorda, Goa, that competes in the Indian Super League (ISL), the top tier of Football in India, Indian football. The club was established on 2 ...

. In the 2020–21 Indian Super League, it was used as one of the centralized home grounds because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

History

Beginning

Fatorda stadium was built in a record six months by the then Sports Minister Monte (D') Cruz. It was opened in 1989 as a

-only stadium but in less than a year was redeveloped to include

. On 25 October 1989 the first cricket ODI was played between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Nehru Cup The Nehru Cup was an international football tournament organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), named after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was launched in 1982, but was not held from 1998 to 2006. After ...

Football clubs using the stadium

In 2006, before the

2007–08 I-League The 2007–08 I-League kicked off on 24 November 2007 at the Fatorda Stadium, Margao, Goa. The first match of the season was played between the two Goan clubs Dempo and Salgaocar. The top team in the I-League qualified for the qualifying ...

, all four Goan clubs ( Dempo S.C., Churchill Brothers S.C., Salgaocar S.C., and

Sporting Clube de Goa Sporting Clube de Goa (simply known as Sporting Goa and abbreviated as SCG) is an Indian professional association football, football club based in Panaji, Goa. The club competes in the I-League 2, the third tier of the Indian football league s ...

) announced that The Fatorda would be used as the home for all four teams'

matches. In the next season of I-League,

Vasco S.C. Clube de Desportos Vasco da Gama (simply known as both Vasco Sports Club, and Vasco SC) is an Indian professional football club based in Vasco da Gama, Goa, part of the same named multi-sports club. Incorporated in 1951, the club is nickname ...

too used the stadium as home ground. The

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is a professional association football league in India and the highest level of the Indian football league system. Administered by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner Football Sport ...

club

have been tenants of the stadium since 2014.

Facilities

In 2014 it was upgraded according to the latest

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 ...

specifications. It is designed with a 20,000 seating capacity. The stadium complex provides two levels of fan seating arrangement along with a VIP area. Facilities include arena lighting, natural turf, broadcast room, TV studio, player dressing rooms, match delegates area, doping control rooms, medical rooms for players and spectators, VIP lounge, corporate boxes, media tribune and media working stations, press conference area, mixed zone area, CCTV cameras, a swimming pool, multipurpose gymnasium and parking facilities. It is regarded as one of the most well maintained football grounds in the Indian subcontinent. On 1 October 2022, it was announced that India's First Hybrid Pitch will be installed in this Stadium ahead of FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2022.

List of centuries

Key

* * denotes that the batsman was

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

. * Inns. denotes the number of the innings in the match. * Balls denotes the number of balls faced in an innings. * NR denotes that the number of balls was not recorded. * Parentheses next to the player's score denotes his century number at Edgbaston. * The column title Date refers to the date the match started. * The column title Result refers to the player's team result.

One Day Internationals

International cricket five-wicket hauls

Key

ODIs

Football

This venue has long been a mainstay of Indian football, having played host to many international games, including

's qualifiers for both the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

and

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second-oldest c ...

. The stadium has also been used as a home venue for the Goan clubs in AIFF competitions: Churchill Brothers S.C., Dempo S.C.,

, Salgaocar S.C.,

and

It hosted the semifinals and final of the football event during the 2014 Lusofonia Games. The matches of 2016 BRICS U-17 Football Cup, the first edition of the tournament, were played at the stadium and Brazilian U-17 team won the trophy. It was chosen one of the six stadiums to host the

2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 17th FIFA U-17 World Cup, a biennial international association football, football tournament contested by men's under-17 national teams. Organised by FIFA, the tournament took place in India from 6 to 28 Octo ...

matches in India. It has hosted the finals of

twice in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

. In

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, the stadium hosted the

Group E Group E may refer to: * E-Group: E-Groups are unique architectural complexes found among a number of ancient Maya settlements * Group E (vase painting), a group of Attic vase painters of the black-figure style, active between 560 and 540 BC. * On ...

matches of the

, in which

competed.

Cricket

Although the stadium was originally built to be a football venue, over the past few years it has been increasingly used to host international cricket matches. Since hosting its first ever international in 1989 between

and

, it has played host to seven further One Day Internationals, the most recent being between

and Sri Lanka in 2007. The allocation of cricket matches to the stadium has often upset the Goan football community as it renders them unable to use the venue for hosting football.

Lusofonia Games

The Stadium was renovated for the 2014 Lusofonia Games, which was conducted in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

. The opening and closing ceremonies of these Games were held at this venue. Football matches of the Lusofonia Games were also held here.

Average attendances

References

External links

Fatorda Stadium
– ESPNcricinfo {{I-League venues Cricket grounds in Goa Football venues in Goa Rugby union stadiums in India Sports venues in Goa Multi-purpose stadiums in India Dempo SC Churchill Brothers FC Goa Salgaocar FC Sporting CG Indian Super League stadiums 1989 establishments in Goa Sports venues completed in 1989 Buildings and structures in Margao 20th-century architecture in India