Stadio San Filippo - Franco Scoglio (''Saint Philip Stadium'') is a

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 ...

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 ...

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

, Italy. It is currently the home of

A.C.R. Messina Associazioni Calcio Riunite Messina S.r.l. is a football club based in Messina, Sicily, Italy, that competes in the Serie C, the third tier of the Italian football league system. History Football in Messina The origins of the team go b ...

. It is currently the largest stadium in Europe to not have eligibility to host

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 ...

group matches or

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

final.

History

The stadium was initially commissioned at the start of the 1990s, but was not finished until 2004. It was officially opened on August 17, 2004 with Messina playing host to

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

in a match they lost 1–0. The first official match was a week later, on August 22, the

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

match Messina–

Acireale Acireale (; , locally shortened to ''Jaci'' or ''Aci'') is a coastal city and ''comune'' in the north-east of the Metropolitan City of Catania, Sicily, southern Italy, at the foot of Mount Etna, on the coast facing the Ionian Sea. It is home to ...

(4–0). It replaced the old 11,900 seat

Stadio Comunale Giovanni Celeste Stadio Comunale Giovanni Celeste is a multi-use stadium in Messina, Italy. It is currently the home of S.S.D. Città di Messina (as known as ''Camaro''). The stadium is able to hold 11,900 people. History The stadium was named after (1905– ...

, which is currently the home ground of the new club of S.S.D. Città di Messina.

Structure

The total area is 114,640 sm, of which 44,300 sm reserved to car parking and 70,340 sm to a service building close to the stadium. There is no athletic track around the field, and the visibility is very good in each sector. There is a total absence of a covered seating section anywhere in the stadium, however an agreement between the team owners and the municipality aims to rectify the problem in the near future.

Trivia

The stadium name is derived from the neighborhood of Messina where it was built, but a couple of petitions hope to rename it either after the former Messina manager

Franco Scoglio Francesco "Franco" Scoglio (; 2 May 1941 – 3 October 2005) was an Italian football manager who coached at both national and international level. Playing career Francesco Scoglio was born in Lipari, in the province of Messina, Italy. He p ...

(1941–2005) or the Messina native, Saint Annibale Maria di Francia (1851–1927).

Milestone matches

National team matches

References

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San Filippo San Filippo may refer to: * San Filippo syndrome, rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease * San Filippo del Mela San Filippo del Mela ( Sicilian: ''San Filippu'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina in th ...

San Buildings and structures in Messina Sports venues in Sicily 2004 establishments in Italy Football in Sicily