Sevilla Stadium

In Seville, football (or ‘soccer’) is a serious business. Andalusians are famous for being passionate people, and the way they live and enjoy this sport is no exception.

To make things more interesting, the city has two teams in Primera División (the equivalent to the British Premier league), Sevilla F.C. and Real Betis Balompié. The population is divided between these two, but today we are going to focus on the first one, which is named after the city.

If you are planning a visit to Seville soon, hosted in a luxury apartment, and you are a football enthusiast, you can not miss a visit to Sevilla stadium.

A bit of history

The Seville’s F.C. stadium as we know it today was christened on the 7th of September 1958 in a friendly match against Real Jaén. The ancient ground of Nervión was getting dated, and this brand new stadium provided all the commodities and capacities that the former one could not satisfy.

The stadium’s name, Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, was given after the Chairman of the team at the time the idea of a new stadium was proposed.  That idea was planted two decades before, when the purchase of land and an adjacent plot in Nervión was negotiated for the construction of the new stadium.

In 1954, a contest for construction ideas was held by the club. The winner was Manuel Muñoz Monasterio, who had already built the Santiago Bernabeu and Mestalla stadiums years before. His proposal consisted of a stadium with a capacity of around 70,000 supporters.

Two years later, the sudden death of Sánchez-Pizjuán prevented him from witnessing his dream come true. However, the Chairmen who succeeded him also made all the necessary efforts to set the construction of the stadium in motion. The stadium was in use before being finished, with upper sections in the north and south missing, and part of the west stand out of action.

It was only in 1975 that the upper sections of the North and South stands were completed. Seven years later, in 1982, owing to legal regulations, the stadium’s capacity was reduced to 66,000 spectators, with a large part of the stadium remodeled to host the World Cup semi-final of France vs. Germany. That remodeling included the removal of fences, the construction of walkways, the installation of a roof over the West Stand and construction of the West Stand’s mosaic.

A few years later, on the 21st of April 1986, the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán Stadium would host the European Cup final between FC Barcelona and Steaua Bucharest, The next year the UEFA enacted a decree which obliged all stadiums to become all-seaters, reducing the Sánchez-Pizjuán’s capacity dramatically to 43,000 spectators.

In 2015, another integral remodeling was carried out, including the adjustment of the colour of the seats, the covering of exterior stands with metal facades and LEDs, the renovation of refreshment stalls and toilets, the replacement of fences with glass panels, the renovation of the away changing room and referees’ changing room, the installation of two new scoreboards, the expansion of the lower East Stand, etc. To this day, renovation works continue.

The anthem

In 2005, the year of the Club’s 100^th anniversary, a new anthem was created. Written by the Andalusian singer El Arrebato, it was called the “Centenary Anthem”, and it is sung by the fans before every Sevilla home game. Its catchy, epic and emotional tune has made it popular not only locally but nationally and internationally.

Good luck charm

To finish, an interesting curiosity: The Sánchez-Pizjuán has become the lucky charm for the Spanish national football team. The national side haven’t lost a single one of the 22 games played there (19 wins and 3 draws).