The Ibn Batouta Stadium or Grand stade of Tangier (;

Berber languages The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight, are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages spoken by Berbers, Berber communities, ...

: ⴰⵏⵏⴰⵔ ⵏ ⵉⴱⵏ ⴱⴰⵜⵓⵜⴰ) 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 ...

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. It is 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 and big events such as ceremonies or concerts. The stadium now has a legal capacity of 65,000 after renovation construction finished for hosting the

2022 FIFA Club World Cup The 2022 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2022 presented by Visit Saudi for sponsorship reasons) was the 19th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament bet ...

. It serves as the new home of

IR Tanger Ittihad Riadi Tanger (; ), often shortened to IR Tanger or the abbreviation IRT, is a Moroccan football club based in Tangier, that competes in Botola, Morocco's top professional football league. The club was founded in 1936 as Unión Deportiv ...

, replacing the former Stade de Marchan. The stadium is named after the Moroccan

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

History

The inaugural match was played on 26 April 2011 between

and

Atlético Madrid B Atlético de Madrid B is a Spanish football team based in Madrid. Founded on 17 September 1963, it is the reserve team of Atlético Madrid and currently plays in Primera Federación – Group 2. They play their home games at Cerro del Espin ...

and it followed by a match between

Raja CA Raja Club Athletic, widely known as Raja Casablanca or simply Raja, is a Football team, football club based in Casablanca, Morocco, that competes in Botola, the top flight of Moroccan football league system, Moroccan football. Founded on 20 M ...

and

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

. On July 27, the stadium hosted the

2011 Trophée des champions Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number) * One of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011 Literature *Eleven (novel), ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''Eleven'', a 1970 collection of short stories by Patricia Highsmi ...

, in which

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

beat

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

5–4.

When Morocco hosted the 2011 African U-23 Championship the stadium hosted six matches in the Group stage and one in the Semi-finals. The Stade Ibn Battuta was one of the confirmed host stadiums for the

2015 Africa Cup of Nations The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea 2015 for sponsorship reasons, was the 30th staging of the Africa Cup of Nations, the international men's football championship of Africa. It was org ...

, which was to be hosted by Morocco until it was stripped of its hosting rights. The stadium hosted the

2017 Trophée des Champions The 2017 Trophée des Champions () was the 22nd edition of the Trophée des Champions, the annual super cup in France. The match was contested by the 2016–17 Ligue 1 champions AS Monaco FC, Monaco, and the 2016–17 Coupe de France champions Par ...

for the second time on July 29, in which

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

beat

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

2–1. When Morocco hosted the

2018 African Nations Championship The 2018 African Nations Championship, known as the 2018 CHAN for short and for sponsor (commercial), sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies, Total African Nations Championship, was the 5th edition of the biennial association football tournam ...

the stadium hosted six matches in the Group stage and one in the Quarter-finals. It hosted the

2018 Supercopa de España The 2018 Supercopa de España was the 35th edition of the Supercopa de España, an annual Association football, football super cup contested by the winners of the previous season's La Liga and Copa del Rey competitions. The match was played betwe ...

match between the Copa del Rey runners-up,

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

, and the winners of the

2017–18 Copa del Rey The 2017–18 Copa del Rey was the 116th staging of the Copa del Rey (including two seasons where two rival editions were played). The winners were assured a place for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage. Barcelona were the three-time d ...

and

2017–18 La Liga The 2017–18 La Liga season, also known as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, was the 87th since its establishment. The season began on 18 August 2017 and concluded on 20 May 2018. The fixtures were released on 21 July 2017. Real Madrid ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, in which

beat

2–1 It was one of the venues in Morocco's failed bid for the

2026 FIFA World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's Association football, soccer championship contested by the List of men's n ...

. It was slated to host the Quarter-Finals if Morocco had been awarded the World Cup. It experienced a renovation to increase its capacity and change the exterior to host the

. It was planned that the capacity will increase from 44,500 seats to 65,000. On 25 January 2023, it was confirmed that the stadium is ready to host the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup. There are current studies to change the exterior of the stadium by making it fully covered, and removing the running tracks to increase its capacity to 87,000 before 2025 in conjunction with possibly hosting the

2025 Africa Cup of Nations The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, also referred to as AFCON 2025 or CAN 2025, is scheduled to be the 35th edition of the biennial African football tournament organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). It will be hosted by Morocco fo ...

and FIFA World Cup 2030, according to Abdelmalek Abron, a member of the

FRMF The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (; Tamazight: ⵜⴰⵙⴷⴰⵡⵉⵜ ⵜⴰⴳⵍⴷⴰⵏⵜ ⵜⴰⵎⵖⵔⴰⴱⵉⵜ ⵏ ⵜⵡⵊⴰ ⵏ ⵓⴹⴰⵔ) is the governing body of football in Morocco. It was established in 1956. It beca ...

and head of the Infrastructure Committee of the football system in Morocco.

International events

2022 FIFA Club World Cup

International matches for
Morocco national football team The Morocco national football team (Arabic: المنتخب المغربي لكرة القدم) represents Morocco in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, the governing ...

External links

Official website

References

{{Tangier Football venues in Morocco Multi-purpose stadiums in Morocco Sport in Tangier Buildings and structures in Tangier Tourist attractions in Tangier IR Tanger Sports venues completed in 2011 2011 establishments in Morocco 21st-century architecture in Morocco

History

International events

2022 FIFA Club World Cup

See also

External links

References