Mogadishu Stadium ( Somali: Garoonka Muqdisho) is a

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 ...

Mogadishu Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...

, Somalia. During the

Somali Civil War The Somali Civil War (; ) is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed ...

, the stadium was heavily damaged by foreign troops who used the structure as a base. The stadium has been completely rebuilt and artificial turf was laid on 27 March 2020.

History

The facility was constructed in 1977 during the

Siad Barre Mohammed Siad Barre (, Osmanya script: , ''Muhammad Ziād Barīy''; 6 October 1919 – 2 January 1995) was a Somali military officer, politician, and revolutionary who served as the third president of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 Janu ...

administration, with the assistance of Chinese engineers. Although Mogadishu Stadium was mainly used for hosting sporting activities, presidential addresses and political rallies were also held there.''Daily report: People's Republic of China'', Issues 53-61, (National Technical Information Service: 1986) The first game ever held at the stadium occurred soon after construction completed during 1978 between the Somali national team and a Chinese club Leonen. In 1987, the popular singer Magool staged the famous "Mogadishu and Magool" concert at basketball hall (adjacent to football stadium) which is part of this wide sports facility/village. It was among the largest such musical events held at the time, with thousands of people in attendance.

Civil War

Following the start of the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

in the early 1990s, the stadium was used as a base by various armed factions. A few football matches from that period were intermittently staged, but the facility remained under the control of militants. During UNOSOM II, American and Pakistani forces used the stadium as a base and caused significant damage. Following the UN withdrawal in 1995, the Somali Football Federation repaired most of the destruction and games resumed. During 2006,

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 ...

financed the installation of a new artificial pitch at the Mogadishu Stadium. However, the venue along with other local facilities gradually incurred infrastructural damage over the following years. During the 2007–2009 occupation of Mogadishu, the Ethiopian National Defence Force used the stadium as a military base. In those two years Ethiopian troops caused far more damage to the structure than the American and Pakistani UNOSOM forces based there over a decade earlier. When Ethiopian troops withdrew in January 2009, more than 50% of the stadium was destroyed. The day following the Ethiopian withdrawal from the city on 14 January 2009, the Somali Football Federation inspected and assessed the stadium for use. Remnants of the Islamic Courts Union would hand over the stadium to the SFF after announcing that the stadium was meant for recreational and not military use. In the months following, Al-Shabaab seized control of the stadium and used it as a base of operations. When the group laid siege to much of Mogadishu and other southern areas in 2008, it prohibited sporting activities. In August 2011, during the 2010's Battle of Mogadishu, the Somali National Army (SNA) backed by

AMISOM The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was a Multinational force formed by the African Union. The operation deployed to Somalia soon after the Islamic Courts Union was deposed by troops from Ethiopia during War in Somalia (2006–2009), ...

troops recaptured the capital and stadium from the militants.

Reconstruction

In 2013, the newly established famous

Federal Government of Somalia The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS; , DFS; ) is the internationally recognised government of Somalia, and the longest running attempt to create a central government in Somalia since the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic in 1991. It ...

began renovating the stadium in conjunction with Chinese officials. By 2015, the artificial turf had been refurbished. The stadium also began again serving as one of the main sporting venues in the capital for Somali League football matches.

Renovations

In September 2013, the Somali federal government and its Chinese counterpart signed an official bilateral cooperation agreement in Mogadishu as part of a five-year national recovery plan in Somalia. Under the terms of the accord, the Chinese authorities were slated to reconstruct several major infrastructural landmarks in the Somali capital and elsewhere, including the Mogadishu Stadium. The renovation was completed in 2020 and it hosted the sixtieth anniversary of independence on 1 July 2020.

Capacity and facilities

Mogadishu Stadium has a capacity of 65,000 spectators. It features a tournament ground, as well as grounds for

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

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 ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

Attendance record

In July 2021, 65,000 people showed up for a domestic top-flight football league game between Horseed FC and Mogadishu City Club at the Mogadishu Stadium. It was the best-attended Somali league game ever.https://wardheernews.com/tanks-gone-somalis-fill-mogadishu-stadium-with-65000-fans-for-first-time-since-2004/

Notes

References

*''Daily report: People's Republic of China'', Issues 53–61, (National Technical Information Service: 1986) *{{cite web, last=National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, title=Mogadishu - Coordinates, url=http://geographic.org/geographic_names/name.php?uni=-4571503&fid=5782&c=somalia, publisher=Geographic.org, access-date=19 October 2012 Football venues in Somalia Athletics (track and field) venues in Somalia

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

Football venues in Mogadishu