UEFA stadium categories are categories 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 ...
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 ...
s laid out in
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
's Stadium Infrastructure Regulations.
Using these regulations, stadiums are rated as category one, two, three, or four (renamed from elite) in ascending ranking order. These categories replaced the previous method of ranking stadiums on one to five star scale in 2006.
UEFA does not publish lists of stadiums fulfilling the criteria for any of the categories defined in the UEFA Stadium Infrastructure Regulations,
but all assigned stadium categories are visible in UEFA's TIME platform, which is not open to the general public.
General
If a retractable roof is present, its use will be directed by consultation between the UEFA delegate and the main assigned referee.
Although the minimum stadium capacity for category four is 8,000, only one stadium with a capacity less than 60,000 has been selected to host a UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Euro finals and 30,000 for the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Nations League finals, since these regulations were introduced in 2006.
After the
2007 Champions League final, UEFA President
Michel Platini stated that he wanted European Cup finals to be held at stadiums with an average capacity of 70,000 to solve security issues.
The hosts for the finals between 2008 and 2024 (
Luzhniki Stadium
The Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, commonly known as
Luzhniki Stadium, is the national stadium of Russia, located in its capital city, Moscow. Its total seating capacity of 78,011 makes it the List of football stadiums in R ...
,
Stadio Olimpico,
Santiago Bernabéu,
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
,
Allianz Arena
Allianz Arena (; known as Munich Football Arena for UEFA competitions) is a Association football, football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, with a 70,000 seating capacity for international matches and 75,000 for domestic matches. Widely kno ...
,
Olympiastadion,
San Siro,
Millennium Stadium,
Olimpiyskiy Stadium,
Stade de France,
Atatürk Stadium) all had capacities of at least 70,000 seats—with the exceptions of 2014 and 2019 finals (
Estádio da Luz and
Metropolitano Stadium) held with capacities of 65,000 seats. Two finals were played during the
coronavirus 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 ...
in 2020 and 2021 in stadiums reaching 50,000 seats (
Estádio da Luz and
Estádio do Dragão) with none or reduced attendances.
Differences between categories
Category requirements by competition
See also
*
List of European stadiums by capacity
References
External links
UEFA Stadium Infrastructure Regulations - Edition 2006UEFA Stadium Infrastructure Regulations - Edition 2010UEFA Stadium Infrastructure Regulations - Edition 2018UEFA Stadium Infrastructure Regulations - Edition 2025
{{UEFA competitions
Stadia List
Association football venues