PikiWiki_Israel_59466_sami_ofer_stadium (cropped 3)

Sammy Ofer Stadium ( he, אצטדיון סמי עופר), also known as Haifa Municipal Stadium (), is a 30,858 seats

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropoli ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Construction began in late 2009 and was completed in 2014. The stadium was developed and built by the Haifa Economic Corporation, managed by Adv. Gal Peleg. Currently, the stadium is used mostly for football matches, hosting the home games of

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa ( he, מכבי חיפה) is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Footbal ...

and

Hapoel Haifa Hapoel Haifa Football Club ( he, מועדון הכדורגל הפועל חיפה, ''Moadon HaKaduregel Hapoel Haifa'') is an Israeli football club located in the city of Haifa. The club won one championship (1998–99) and 4 Israeli cups ( ...

The stadium replaced

Kiryat Eliezer Stadium The Haifa Municipal Stadium ( he, האצטדיון העירוני חיפה, ''Etztadion HaIroni Haifa''), more commonly known as Kiryat Eliezer (), was a multi-use stadium in the Kiryat Eliezer neighborhood of Haifa, Israel. It was mostly used fo ...

, which was closed in 2014 and demolished in 2015. The stadium is named after the late Israeli billionaire

Sammy Ofer Sammy Ofer ( he, שמואל "סמי" עופר; born Shmuel Herskovich; 22 February 1922 – 3 June 2011) was an Israeli shipping magnate and one of the richest men in the country. Early life Shmuel Herskovich was born in 1922 in Galați, Romania ...

(1922–2011), who donated $20,000,000 to build the stadium. Ofer's contribution was 19% of the total cost of the stadium. The stadium also serves the

Israel national football team The Israel national football team ( he, נבחרת ישראל בכדורגל, ) represents Israel in international football, and is governed by the Israel Football Association (IFA). Israel's national team is the direct successor of the ...

for some select home matches.

History

PikiWiki Israel 33070 World Peace Statue in Haifa

On September 16, 2008, the Haifa Construction Committee approved the stadium's plans and gave it the green light. In August 2009, official plans for the stadium were released. In September 2009, it has been announced that the works on building the foundations of the stadium would begin at the end of September 2009. The first official match ever at Sammy Ofer Stadium was played on August 27, 2014.

hosted Hapoel Acre (

Toto Cup The Israel Toto Cup ( he, גביע הטוטו, ''Gvia Ha'Toto'') is an association football tournament that features clubs in the two highest divisions in Israel: the Israeli Premier League (Ligat ha'Al, Ligat Ha'Al), and the second division Liga ...

) and won 2–0. The first historic goal in the new stadium was scored by Hapoel Haifa striker Tosaint Ricketts. The first league match was played on September 15, 2014.

hosted Bnei Sakhnin, who they defeated by a score of 4–2. The historic first goal by a Maccabi Haifa player was scored by Israeli national team midfielder

Hen Ezra Hen Ezra ( he, חן עזרא, born 19 January 1989) is an Israeli footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Maccabi Netanya. Career Ezra played in the youth teams of Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Beitar Tubruk. In 2007, he moved to Maccabi ...

during stoppage time of the first half. Over 28,000 supporters were in attendance. The first

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

match was played on September 30, 2015 by

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

against

Dinamo Kiev Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was offic ...

, Dinamo won 2–0 with goals by

Andriy Yarmolenko Andriy Mykolayovych Yarmolenko ( uk, Андрій Миколайович Ярмоленко; born 23 October 1989) is a Ukrainian professional footballer who plays as a winger or forward for Emirati UAE Pro League club Al Ain and captains t ...

and

Júnior Moraes Aluísio Chaves Ribeiro Moraes Júnior (born 4 April 1987), commonly known as Júnior Moraes or just Moraes, is a professional footballer who plays for Corinthians as a forward. Born in Brazil, he received Ukrainian citizenship in March 2019 an ...

. The first match of the

was played on November 16, 2014. Israel hosted the

Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team The Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team ( bs, Nogometna/Fudbalska reprezentacija Bosne i Hercegovine; sr, Фудбалска репрезентација Боснe и Херцеговинe, Fudbalska reprezentacija Bosne i Hercegovi ...

in the

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro ...

match and won 3–0. The stadium was sold out, which resulted in an atmosphere beyond compare, helping Israel win their 3rd game in a row in the tournament. The first concert at the stadium was by

Omer Adam Omer Adam ( he, עומר אדם; born October 22, 1993) is an Israeli singer whose music fuses elements of eastern Mizrahi music (Oriental-Middle Eastern) and Western Pop instrumentation. In 2009, he participated in the seventh season of ''Kokha ...

on May 24, 2018. PikiWiki Israel 49197 Sports in Israel

International matches

History

Gates

See also

References

External links