Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium (often abbreviated "Wembley") is a stadium in the district Wembley in northwest London .

The original stadium was opened in 1923 and was then called Empire Stadium. The two architects were John Simpson and Maxwell Ayerton . The design was well known because of the two towers. The stadium was home to the England national football team and was used for cup finals. It was also the setting for the finals of the 1966 World Cup and the European Championship in 1996 . Also, there were rock concerts instead, among other Live Aid , Queen , Rolling Stones (twelve times), Abba, Tina Turner and Elton John .

From 2000 to 2007 the stadium was rebuilt. With a cost of about 1 billion euros this was the most expensive ever rebuilding of a football stadium. Since then it has a capacity of 90,000, about 5,000 more than the old Wembley. This makes it Europe's largest stadium that can be covered. Were also created many business units. When used for pop concerts capacity is 75,000. Because the rebuilding culminated had to include two internationals and a number of rock concerts to another location to be searched. Wembley now, in addition to music concerts, mainly used for home matches of the national team and the finals of the League and FA Cup .

On 24 March 2007, the new stadium was inaugurated with a match between the youth teams of England and Italy, led by the Dutch referee Pieter Vink . (3-3). The 60,000 available tickets were sold out within hours; never had so many spectators for a match between national youth teams present. They wanted this race to test the safety of the new Wembley. On May 19 2007 was followed by the resumption of a very long tradition; namely when the new stadium was the setting for the final of the FA Cup 2006-2007 . In 2008 this tradition was also arrested in the League Cup . In that year the rebuilt Wembley for the first time again the setting for the final of this competition. During the renovation both finals was temporarily in Cardiff played.

The stadium stands a statue of Bobby Moore, the captain of the England national football team in 1966 became world champion.

In 2011 became the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United played at Wembley. Barcelona won 3-1.

On 25 May 2013 at Wembley Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich played. This game 1-2 by Bayern Munich won, with Arjen Robbenas match winner.

Major events [ edit ]

 * 1923-2000: Each year, the final of the FA Cup, later the League Cup
 * 1948: Summer Olympics
 * 1966: Final World Cup
 * 1968 Final European Cup between Manchester United and Benfica
 * 1971 European Cup Final between Ajax and Panathinaikos
 * 1978 European Cup Final between Liverpool FC and Club Brugge
 * 1992: European Cup Final between FC Barcelona and UC Sampdoria
 * 1993: Final European Cup between Parma FC and FC Antwerp
 * 1985: Live Aid -benefietconcert
 * 1986: Two legendary concerts by Queen
 * 1986 Wham! the Final concert
 * 1987 Genesis
 * 1988: Tribute to Nelson Mandela
 * 1988: Michael Jackson gives seventh sold-out concert during his Bad world tour, a Guinness Book record
 * 1990: Paul McCartney gives eleven sold out concerts
 * 1992: Tribute to Freddie Mercury
 * 1996: Final European Football Championship
 * 2000: Bon Jovi is the last artist to perform in the old stadium
 * 2000: Tina Turner occurs on
 * 2000-2007: The stadium will be rebuilt
 * 2007: George Michael is the first artist to perform at the new stadium
 * 2007: Princess Diana -concert
 * 2007: Live Earth -concert
 * 2007 Race of Champions
 * 2007: HAARP -concert of Muse
 * 2007: NFL International Series, New York Giants vs. Miami Dolphins
 * from 2007: the annual finals of the FA Cup
 * From 2008: annual final of the League Cup
 * 2008: Foo Fighters -concert
 * 2008: NFL International Series, San Diego Chargers vs New Orleans Saints
 * 2009: U2 360 ° Tour, two evenings of every 82,000 spectators
 * 2011: Final UEFA Champions League between FC Barcelona and Manchester United
 * 2012: Olympic football tournament
 * 2013: Final UEFA Champions League between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Munich
 * 2013: American rock band The Killers performs and pays tribute to the (old) stadium, the winning England football team in '66 and the musical greats that have occurred through the song written for the occasionWembley Song. With 80,000 spectators this is immediately the biggest gig of the band.