Gibraltar to call Estádio do Algarve home yet again
Gibraltar’s national football team will be playing its home Euro 2024 qualification matches at Estádio do Algarve (Algarve Stadium) in Faro.
The news was confirmed today by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA).
This will mark the team’s return to the Algarve, where it played its home competitive matches between 2014 and 2018.
The federation explains that the national team has been playing competitive home internationals at Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar since September 2018, under a “specific exemption granted by UEFA in which certain requirements, in particular relating to floodlighting, stadium capacity and other more technical infrastructural limitations did not have to be fully satisfied.”
“This exemption was granted conditional to the fact that the Gibraltar FA was due to commence works on the new National Stadium at the Victoria Stadium site during 2020/2021,” it explains.
However, the works were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“As a result, UEFA allowed the exemption to continue until the completion of the 2022 Nations League campaign, which finished last month when Gibraltar faced Georgia,” the federation says.
It adds that plans to construct “a new National Stadium” are at an advanced stage, with the “respective planning processes scheduled to start before the end of this year, and subject to approval, its construction is envisaged to begin in the second half of next year (2023).”
“Finally, to complete the 2022 calendar, the Gibraltar FA will shortly be announcing two international friendlies for its National Men’s Team, this November at the Victoria Stadium, in what will be the final time that they take to the field in the historic stadium before it is completely rebuilt,” it adds.
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