Romanian Liga II football club Steaua Bucharest has inaugurated its new 31,000-seat stadium with a 6-0 friendly win over Serbian team OFK Belgrade.
OFK was also the first opponent for Steaua at the club’s old Ghencea ground (pictured), which opened in 1974. The old stadium has been demolished to make way for the new venue, work on which began back in 2019.
The stadium was built at a cost of around €100m (£86.1m/$118.6m), with the venue operating at full capacity for yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) match. After the match, Steaua’s European Cup-winning squad from 1986 was celebrated with an on-stage presentation.
The ceremony also saw Steaua retire the number seven shirt in honour of Marius Lacatus, the club’s all-time leading scorer and part of the European Cup-winning team.
Steaua was forced to drop down to the Romanian fourth tier in 2017 amid a dispute relating to the ownership of the club. A club named FCSB remained in the top division and the ownership of the official Steaua brand and its honours is disputed by the two entities.
FCSB plays at the 55,000-seat Arena Nationala, which served as a host venue during this year’s UEFA European Championship. The stadium hosted three group stage matches, as well as the Round of 16 match between France and Switzerland.
Image: Gabinho
