Estádio do Maracanã

The Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, commonly called Estádio do Maracanã (“Maracanã stadium”), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is one of the largest football stadiums in the world. Owned by the Rio de Janeiro State Government, it is named after the Maracanã neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. It was opened in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup. Since then, it has mainly been used for football matches between the major football clubs in Rio de Janeiro, including Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo and Vasco da Gama. It has also hosted a number of concerts and other sporting events. Although the paid attendance at the final game of the 1950 FIFA World Cup was 199,500, the stadium currently seats 95,000 spectators.

It will host the World Cup Final in 2014, becoming the second stadium to host football’s most important match twice after the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.

	Built		1950
	Opened		16 June 1950
	Capacity		95,000
	Home to		Botafogo FR, CR Flamengo, Fluminense FC
	Pitch size		110 x 75 m
	First game		Rio de Janeiro All-Stars 1 – 3 São Paulo All-Stars (16 June 1950)
	First goal		Didi (Rio de Janeiro All-Stars)

Construction

After winning the right to host the 1950 FIFA World Cup, the Brazilian government sought to build a new stadium for the tournament. The plans for the stadium were drawn up by two Brazilian architects, Raphaël Galvão and Pedro Paulo Bernardes Bastos. The first stone was laid at the site of the stadium on August 2, 1948. With the first World Cup game scheduled to be played on June 24, 1950, this left little under two years to finish building. However, work quickly fell behind schedule, prompting FIFA to send Dr. Ottorino Barassi, the head of the Italian FA, who had organized the 1934 World Cup to help in Rio de Janeiro.

Opening

The opening match of the stadium took place on June 16, 1950. Rio de Janeiro All-Stars beat São Paulo All-Stars 3-1; Didi became the player to score the first ever goal at the stadium. Despite hosting a match, the stadium was still unfinished. It lacked toilet facilities and a press stand, and still looked like a building site. It was said that the stadium could house 200,000 standing spectators, making it easily the largest stadium in the world at the time. Despite being unfinished, FIFA allowed matches to be played at the venue, and on June 24, 1950, the first World Cup match took place. Brazil beat Mexico with a final score 4-0, with Ademir becoming the first scorer of a competitive goal at the stadium with his 30th minute strike. 81,000 spectators attended the game. Eventually, Brazil progressed to the final round, facing Uruguay in the final match of the tournament on July 16, 1950. Brazil only needed a draw to finish top of the group, but Uruguay won the game 2-1, shocking the thousands who attended the game. This match has since been known as the “Maracanaço” (or in Spanish, “Maracanazo”). The official attendance of the game was 199,500, with the actual attendance estimated to be about 210,000.

Post World Cup years

On March 21, 1954 a new official attendance record was set in the game between Brazil and Paraguay, after 183,513 spectators entered the stadium with a ticket and 177.656 in Fla-Flu (1963). In 1963, stadium authorities replaced the square goal posts with round ones, but it was still two years before the stadium would be fully completed. In 1965, 17 years after construction began, the stadium was finally finished.

Since the World Cup left Brazil in 1950, the Maracanã Stadium has mainly been used for club games involving Four major football clubs in Rio- Vasco, Botafogo, Flamengo and Fluminense. The stadium has also hosted numerous domestic football cup finals, most notably the Copa do Brasil and the Campeonato Carioca.

In September 1966, Mário Filho, a Brazilian journalist, columnist and sports figure, died, leading to the administrators of the stadium renaming the stadium after him to Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho. However, the nickname of Maracanã continued to be used. Mario Filho was a prominent campaigner who was largely responsible for the stadium originally being built. In 1969, Pelé scored the 1,000th goal of his career at the Maracanã against Vasco in front of 125,000 spectators. In 1989, Zico scored his final goal for Flamengo at the Maracanã, taking his goal tally at the stadium to 333, a record that still stands as of 2007.

Modern day

On July 19, 1992, an upper stand in the stadium collapsed, leading to the death of three supporters and 50 more being injured. Following the disaster, the stadium’s capacity was greatly reduced as it was converted to an all-seater stadium in the late 1990s. Despite this, the ground was classified as real estate in 1998, meaning that it could not be demolished. The stadium hosted the first ever FIFA Club World Cup final match between Vasco da Gama and Corinthians, which Corinthians won on penalties.

Following its 50th anniversary in 2000, the stadium underwent renovations which would increase its full capacity to around 103,000. After years of planning and nine months of closure between 2005 and 2006, the stadium was reopened in January 2007 with its all-seated capacity to 95,000.

The stadium is part of a complex that includes a gymnasium known by the name of Maracanãzinho—which stands for “the little Maracanã”.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Estádio do Maracanã website
Estádio do Maracanã wikipedia entry
Botafogo FR website
Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama website
CR Flamengo website
Fluminense FC website
FIFA
CONCACAF

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