Algarve Stadium

The Estádio Algarve is an association football stadium located between Faro and Loulé, in Portugal. It was the former home of Farense and Louletano, having received some Olhanense and Portimonense matches during their respective stadiums' works of renovation. From 2004 to 2013, Louletano shared the stadium with Sporting Clube Farense.

The Estádio Algarve was also the temporary home ground of the Gibraltar national football team and it also hosts the final match of the Algarve Cup, a major annual international tournament in women's football.

The stadium has a capacity of 30,305 and was built for the Euro 2004 tournament. Aside from football, it has also hosted music festivals and concerts, and was temporarily converted into a super special stage during the 2007 Rally Portugal (part of the 2007 World Rally Championship season).

The Estádio Algarve was designed in the summer of 2000 to UEFA and FIFA standards by Populous. The design team included WS Atkins engineers and local partners including Marobal. The design is regional in nature, alluding to the maritime traditions of Portugal and harmonising with the distinctive local landscape. The stadium is considered a model small/regional flexible use stadium for European football and cultural events, being one of the most used stadiums in Portugal, compared to others used for matches in the main Portuguese Football League.

The stadium hosted the inaugural Algarve Challenge Cup tournament on 22 and 24 July 2008 that saw Cardiff City, Celtic, Middlesbrough, and Vitória de Guimarães in action. Cardiff City were the eventual winners of the tournament with victories over Celtic and Vitória.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Estádio Algarve" and modified on July 23, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.