| Estádio José Alvalade | |
| Fullname: | Estádio José Alvalade |
| Location: | Lisbon, Portugal |
| Broke Ground: | 15 January 2001 |
| Opened: | 6 August 2003 |
| Publictransit: | at Campo Grande |
| Owner: | Sporting Clube de Portugal |
| Surface: | Grass |
| Cost: | €105 million |
| Architect: | Tomás Taveira |
| Capacity: | 50,095 |
| Record Attendance: | [1] (22 November 2016) |
| Dimensions: | 105 x 68 m |
| Tenants: | Sporting Clube de Portugal (2003–present) Portugal national football team (selected matches) |
Estádio José Alvalade (pronounced as /pt/; is a football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It was built adjacent to the site of the older stadium. The stadium is named after José Alvalade (1885–1918), the founder and first club member of Sporting CP in the early twentieth century.
The previous José Alvalade Stadium was opened on 10 June 1956.[2] Plans by Sporting CP to modernize the club in the late 1990s coincided with the decision to award Portugal the right to host UEFA Euro 2004, and the decision was made to build a new stadium, with construction beginning on 15 January 2001. The club's statutes dictated that the stadium would be called Estádio José Alvalade. It would be the club's seventh stadium.[3] [4]
The stadium is the center of a complex called Alvalade XXI, designed by Portuguese architect Tomás Taveira,[5] [6] [7] which includes a mall called Alvaláxia with a 12-screen movie theater, a health club, the club's museum, a sports pavilion, a clinic, and an office building. The complex cost a total of €162 million, with the stadium accounting with almost €120 million. On the exterior, the stadium featured multicoloured tiles which were later removed. In 2021, Sporting CP, headed by club president Frederico Varandas, announced that it would change the colour of the seats in the multicoloured stands of Estádio José Alvalade to green (the main colour of the sports club). The colour change was completed in 2022.[8] Originally the seats were arranged in a random-looking mosaic of mixed colours, however during its second decade of use these were all gradually changed to dark green, with the roof support towers and access stairways, initially bright yellow, also repainted green.[9]
Although it eventually received a fifth star becoming a UEFA 5-star stadium, it was initially classified by UEFA as a 4-star stadium.[10] The stadium – originally projected to hold only 40,000 spectators at any given time – has a capacity of 50,095[11] and was acoustically engineered as a venue for major concerts. The stadium has also a total of 1,315 underground parking spaces, including 30 for disabled spectators.
The new stadium official opening was on 6 August 2003 when Sporting played and beat Manchester United 3–1. Luís Filipe scored the first-ever goal at the new Estádio José Alvalade in that friendly win against Manchester United playing alongside Sporting Portugal's teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, then aged 18, who made his last appearance[12] for the Portuguese club on that same day.[13] [14]
The stadium hosted five matches of UEFA Euro 2004, one of them being the semi-final between Portugal and the Netherlands, which Portugal won 2–1. In May 2005, the stadium was upgraded to 5-star stadium status by UEFA, the same month it hosted the 2005 UEFA Cup Final between Sporting and CSKA Moscow, which CSKA Moscow won 3–1.[15]
It hosted quarter-finals and semi-finals matches during the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League.[16] The stadium is one of the potential venues for the 2030 FIFA World Cup which Portugal will co-host along with Morocco and Spain.
| Team #1 | Score | Team #2 | Date | Attendance | Round | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–0 | 14 June 2004 | 31,652 | Group stage | |||
| 0–1 | 20 June 2004 | 47,491 | Group stage | |||
| 1–2 | 23 June 2004 | 46,849 | Group stage | |||
| 0–1 | 25 June 2004 | 45,390 | Quarter-finals | |||
| 2–1 | 30 June 2004 | 46,679 | Semi-finals |
| Team #1 | Score | Team #2 | Date | Attendance | Competition | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 October 2004 | 44,258 | 2006 World Cup qualification | Russia's biggest ever defeat | ||||
| 4–0 | 24 March 2007 | 48,009 | UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying | First ever competitive win over Belgium | |||
| 1–1 | 12 September 2007 | 47,000 | UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying | ||||
| 2–3 | 10 September 2008 | 33,406 | 2010 World Cup qualification | First ever competitive loss against Denmark | |||
| 1–1 | 11 October 2013 | 48,317 | 2014 World Cup qualification | ||||
| 0–1 | 4 September 2015 | 39,853 | Friendly | ||||
| 3–0 | 12 October 2019 | 47,308 | UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying | ||||
| 0–0 | 7 October 2020 | 2,500* | Friendly | First match played in Portugal with fans in the stands, during the COVID-19 pandemic | |||
| 3–0 | 14 October 2020 | 5,000* | 2020–21 UEFA Nations League | Second match played in Portugal with fans in the stands, during the COVID-19 pandemic | |||
| 4–0 | 9 June 2021 | 0 | Friendly | Played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic | |||
| 4–0 | 5 June 2022 | 42,325 | 2022–23 UEFA Nations League | ||||
| 2–0 | 9 June 2022 | 44,100 | 2022–23 UEFA Nations League | ||||
| 4–0 | 17 November 2022 | 43,621 | Friendly | ||||
| 4–0 | 23 March 2023 | 45,378 | UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying |
The Stadium is served by the Campo Grande station[17] of the Lisbon Metro and a bus terminal served by several companies. The Segunda Circular, a major ring road of Lisbon, runs close by and the stadium can be reached via the exit Estádio de Alvalade. There are several car parks around the stadium.
It is a relatively short distance (3 km) from the Estádio da Luz, homeground of rivals S.L. Benfica.