The Fatorda Stadium, is a football stadium

Stadium

A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

 located in Margao

Margao

Margao and commercial capital of the Indian state of Goa. It is the administrative headquarters of South Goa district and of the Salcete taluka.- Etymology :...

, Goa

Goa

Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

 and is the current home of Churchill Brothers S.C., Dempo S.C., Salgaocar S.C., and Sporting Clube de Goa

Sporting Clube de Goa

Sporting Clube de Goa is a association football club based in the Indian state of Goa who currently participate in the I-League which is India's number one league competition in the country...

. The stadium opened in 1989 and has an capacity of 27,300. It was initially known as the Fatorda Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru Stadium after the road it was located on and the first prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...

.

Beginning

The Fatorda Stadium was opened in 1989 as a football only stadium but in less than a year was redeveloped to include cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

. On 25 October 1989 the first cricket ODI was played between Australia and Sri Lanka.

Football teams using the stadium

In 2006 before the 2007–08 I-League all the four Goan teams (Dempo S.C., Churchill Brothers S.C., Salgaocar S.C., and Sporting Clube de Goa

Sporting Clube de Goa

Sporting Clube de Goa is a association football club based in the Indian state of Goa who currently participate in the I-League which is India's number one league competition in the country...

) announced that the Fatorda Stadium would be used as the home for all four teams I-League

I-League

The I-League is an Indian football league for association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 14 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation of two teams each year with the I-League 2nd Division...

 matches.

Upgrading

Due to new AFC

Asian Football Confederation

The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football in Asia. It has 46 member countries, mostly located on the Asian continent. However, due to the disputed boundary of Europe and Asia, nations such as Russia and Turkey which are located mostly in geographic Asia are...

 regulations the Goa Football Association has to make the Fatorda Stadium pass a stadium inspection in order for it to be ready for the 2011-12 I-League season as well as other AFC and FIFA

FIFA

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...

 competitions.

Football

This venue has long been a mainstay of Indian football, having played host to many international games, including India's

India national football team

The Indian national football team is the national football team of India and is governed by the All India Football Federation. It is a member of the Asian Football Confederation. Since 1948, the AIFF has been affiliated with FIFA, the international governing body for football. In 1954, AIFF became...

 qualifiers for both the FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

 and AFC Asian Cup

AFC Asian Cup

The AFC Asian Cup is an international association football tournament run by the Asian Football Confederation . It is the second oldest continental football championship in the world after Copa América. The winning team becomes the champion of Asia and automatically qualifies for the FIFA...

. The stadium is also used as a regular home venue for the major Goan clubs Dempo S.C., Churchill Brothers S.C., Salgaocar S.C. and Sporting Clube de Goa

Sporting Clube de Goa

Sporting Clube de Goa is a association football club based in the Indian state of Goa who currently participate in the I-League which is India's number one league competition in the country...

.

Cricket

Even though the stadium was originally built to be a football venue, over the past few years it has been increasingly used to host international cricket matches. Since hosting its first ever international in 1989 between Australia and Sri Lanka, it has played host to seven further One Day Internationals, the most recent being between India and Sri Lanka in 2007. The allocation of cricket matches to the stadium has often upset the Goan football community as it renders them unable to use the venue for hosting football.

External links

• Stadium picture