Stadio Artemio Franchi

Stadio Artemio Franchi is a football stadium in Florence, Italy. It is currently the home of ACF Fiorentina. The stadium was temporarily noticed as the host of Italy's Six Nations matches from 2012.^[1][2] The old nickname of the stadium was "Comunale."

The stadium was built in 1931^[3] and holds 47,290. The architect is Pier Luigi Nervi^[3] (known for the Nervi Hall in the Vatican) and it is one of the most relevant examples of 20th century architecture in the city.

The stadium is built entirely of reinforced concrete with a 70 meter (230 ft) tower that bears the stadium's flagstaff. The tower is called the "Tower of Marathon". Around the base of the tower, spiral ramps lead from the ground floor to the upper edge of the grandstand.^[3]

It hosted some of the football preliminaries for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.^[4]

The stadium was originally called the "Comunale" but was renamed after the former FIGC president, Artemio Franchi in 1991.

The stadium itself underwent renovations for the 1990 FIFA World Cup^[3] which included removing the running track and increasing the seating capacity.

The official record attendance is 58,271 from 1984-11-25, at a Serie A match between Fiorentina and Internazionale.

Concerts

David Bowie performed at the stadium during his Glass Spider Tour on June 9, 1987.

Madonna performed, with Level 42 as her opening act, the final show of her Who's That Girl World Tour at the stadium on September 6, 1987. This performance was filmed & later released as a VHS & later as a DVD, titled Ciao, Italia! – Live from Italy.

Bruce Springsteen performed on June 8, 2003 at the stadium during his The Rising Tour.

National team

The Italian National Football team rarely plays at the stadium. In fact, they played only one game there between 1982 and 2006; they won a friendly against Mexico, 2-0, on January 20, 1993. On December 4, 1982 they tied Romania, 0-0, in a qualifying match for Euro 1984. On March 1, 2006, they played a friendly against Germany and won 4-1. In May 2008 they played a friendly against Belgium and won 3-1.

On September 7, 2010, they defeated the Faroe Islands in the stadium 5-0 in a Euro 2012 qualifying match. The reason the team played in the stadium probably had something to do with the current manager of the team, Cesare Prandelli, who coached in the stadium for 5 years as manager of ACF Fiorentina. The goals were scored by Alberto Gilardino, Daniele De Rossi, Antonio Cassano, Fabio Quagliarella and Andrea Pirlo. Because Quagliarella plays for Juventus, the rival of Fiorentina, he was booed for the goal he scored. Roberto Baggio, ex-Fiorentina and National Team striker, was in attendance at the stadium.

The stadium has also hosted international rugby union with Italy having played Australia on 20 November 2010, the Italian side losing by a score of 14-32.^{[5] [6]}

References