Estádio Algarve

The Estádio Algarve is an association football stadium between Faro and Loulé, in Portugal. The home teams are Sporting Clube Farense, who play in the Portuguese Third Division and Louletano Desportos Clube, who play in the Portuguese Second Division South. The stadium also hosts the final match of the Algarve Cup, a major annual international tournament in women's football.

The stadium has a capacity of 30,305[1], and was built for the Euro 2004 tournament. Louletano and Farense are the stadium holders, similar to the Milan and Internazionale sharing of stadiums. (Both Milan and Internazionale play their home games at the San Siro.)

Apart from football, the stadium has hosted music festivals and concerts, and it was converted into a super special stage during the 2007 Rally Portugal (part of the 2007 World Rally Championship season), and reconverted again into a football pitch.

The stadium was designed in the summer of 2000 to UEFA and FIFA standards by Damon Lavelle of Architects Populous(formerley HOK Sport ArchitectureHOK Sport) London. The design team included WSAtkins engineers and local partners including Marobal.

The Stadium hosted the inaugural Algarve Challenge Cup tournament on 22 and 24 July 2008 that saw Cardiff City, Celtic, Middlesbrough, and Vitória de Guimarães in action. Cardiff City were the eventual winners of the tournament with victories over Celtic and Vitória.

The design is regional in nature, alluding to the maritime traditions of Portugal and harmonising with the distinctive local landscape.

The stadium is considered a model small/regional flexible use stadium for European Football and cultural events, being one of the most used stadiums in Portugal, compared to others used for matches in the main Portuguese Football League.

Portugal national football team

The following national team matches were held in the stadium.

References

See also

• List of association football stadiums by capacity
• List of European stadia by capacity