5 of the best weirdly designed football stadiums in the world
- Taylor Powling
- Apr 4, 2019
- 4 min read
Last month we brought you 5 of the weirdest and most wonderful stadiums in Europe and you lovely lot loved it. And, that got us thinking: what about 5 of the weirdest grounds in general.
So, Taylor Powling sat down, scrawled the internet and has put together this list of 5 of the best weirdly designed football stadiums in the world (you probably didn’t even know existed).
5) Estádio Municipal de Braga
Kicking off our list is the Estádio Municipal de Braga, one of the stadiums purposely built for the 2004 European Championships in Portugal.
The 30,154-capacity ground hosted two group stage matches throughout the tournament and has since been the home of Portuguese top division side SC Braga.
What makes the Estádio Municipal de Braga so unusual is that it was carved out of a rock at the site of a former quarry and can be seen at the eastern end of the stadium. Architects the took the brave step of attaching the big screen scoreboard to the side of the mini-mountain.
Only two stands were constructed during the creation of this stadium by its designer Eduardo Souto de Moura and they are supported overhead by numerous steel strings.
Braga’s stadium should definitely be on any fans bucket list if you are intrigued by the prospect of combining a classic European away day football experience and simultaneously incorporating some unique architectural sight-seeing.
4) Estadio Hernando Siles, Bolivia
Usually in football the term ‘home advantage’ is attributed to talking about a team playing in an environment in which they feel comfortable with, or have the majority of the unwavering support of the crowd cheering them on.
However, in the case of teams travelling to play at the Estadio Hernando Siles it presents a very different proposition.
This stadium in Bolivia is located at 11,932 feet above sea level making it a daunting prospect for any away team and their supporters.
Even one of the game’s greats, Lionel Messi, was left in a high-altitude daze when he and his Argentinian teammates travelled there in 2013. Some of La Albiceleste players even required oxygen masks after the match.
The Bolivian national team are currently ranked 60th in the FIFA World Rankings and are therefore no world-beaters, but the Estadio Hernando Siles is somewhat of a fortress for them.
Their only international success came in 1963 when they won the prestigious Copa America title and expectedly the tournament was held in Bolivia itself.
Thirty-four years later and the tournament returned to Bolivia in 1997 where the home nation won all five of their games at the Estadio Hernando Siles, but ultimately lost out to Brazil in the final.
The advantage boasted by the tricky conditions of the national team stadium did result in FIFA banning grounds situated above 8,200 feet in 2007, as they were deemed to withhold an unfair advantage for the home side and acted as a potential health risk. This restriction was eventually overturned.
3) The Float, Singapore
Number three on our list does exactly what its name suggests: floats.
Located on the Marina Reservoir in Singapore, it is unsurprisingly the largest floating football stadium in the world.
Built in 2007, the Float was created to provide a temporary venue, whilst the national team stadium was knocked down and rebuilt between 2007 and 2014.
The Float is attached to land by six pylons and can hold up to 9,000 people, but planted on the shore is an entire stand overlooking the platform that can entertain an audience of around 30,000 and at 120 metres and 83 metres wide, the Float has the capacity to host football matches.
However, it has never been graced by the players of the Singapore national team and has generally only seen amateur matches take place.
2) Mmabatho Stadium, South Africa
Sitting at number two on our list of the top five most unusual stadiums in world football firmly belongs to the Mmabatho Stadium located in Mahikeng, South Africa.
Whenever you head to a ground to watch a football match you fully expect to have a seat that gives you a clear view of what is proceeding on the pitch, but the Mmabatho Stadium says damnit to tradition and breaks away from any sort of conventions.
Instead of having rows of seats pointing forwards towards the pitch like any ordinary entertainment venue from around the world, one of the stands of this South African stadium is entirely made up of various seating blocks at different angles.
Currently without a football team, the Mmabatho is only used as a training ground for the local university team, with the occasional exhibition game being the exclusive time it gets a run out for competitive action.
The look and the shape of this stand is so peculiar it looks like the construction of a large garden shed where the instructions have not been correctly followed out. Or a toddler making a mess of a tricky puzzle. Whatever the abomination looks like, it is utterly bizarre and the 60,000 capacity arena definitely deserves a space on our list.
1) Igraliste Batarija, Croatia
Before the start of a new football season you usually hear the stereotypical phrases from pundits and commentators alike about how crucial it is to make your home ground a fortress.
While this comparison may be a figure of speech when speaking about most clubs, this idiom is literally the case for Croatian side HNK Trogir.
With a capacity of just 1000 people, the home of HNK Trogir is a curious case in the world of football stadium’s because it is uniquely located between two preserved monuments.
Situated behind either goal, the Kamerlengo Castle and St Marco Tower are both 15th century fortresses that have withheld the length of time since they were built.
A match in the Croatian non-league has never taken on as much significance as when it is being played out at the extraordinary Igraliste Batarija.
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