These are the 40 Greatest Football Stadiums in the world

A couple of months ago I was triggered by an item of Dutch news site RTL. They presented the 40 greatest football stadiums in the world based on 14 million votes gathered by Marca. I was surprised by the outcome and missed a couple of beauties I that list. So I decided to do a little research on my own asking you what the top 40 greatest football stadiums should be. This is the result.

Of course, it is based on personal opinions. It can differ from day to day and depends on who you are asking. I did not know the set up of Marca, if they had a pre-selection for example. For my research I picked Marca’s top 40, added a selection of 25 stadiums which I believe should be in it and give people the opportunity to add own choices to the list. Everyone was able to give their top 5. Eventually, after just two weeks I stopped the voting and gathered almost 16.000 votes. Quite representative to come to a good conclusion.

Dalymount Park, soon to be demolished and modernized – no top 40 spot

Support from Sarajevo and Rotterdam

Apparently the fans from Feyenoord Rotterdam quickly found out about my research. They captured the poll and the votes for ‘De Kuip’ skyrocketed. Same in Sarajevo, with the fans of FK Zeljeznicar. No surprise both stadiums scored great, but I believe it is not unjustified. The home ground of Feyenoord is loved all around the world because of its raw looks and amazing atmosphere. It is also mentioned in the top 30 most atmospheric stadiums in the world by France Football.

Grbavica Stadium is also beautiful. A ground with history that suffered, but is renewed to a atmospheric ground with the great Holy South stand of Manijaci. I am sure capturing the voting happened with Marca’s as well. No surprise 4 of the top 6 stadiums came from Spain and the number one stadium was Cairo Stadium in Egypt, which hardly got any votes during my research. My followers have more feeling with the more characteristic stadiums like The Oval (Glentoran), Dudenpark (Union St. Gilles) and Wuppertal SV (Stadion am Zoo).

The 40 Greatest Football Stadiums

Before coming to the top 40, a couple of remarkable facts. From Marca’s list 17 stadiums did not make it to this top 40. The list below only contains 6 ‘modern’ stadiums (counted a 25 year old stadium as well as new/modern), like the new Wembley and Allianz Arena of Bayern. Eventually more than 100 stadiums were added to list by the voters. I nice result. This is the top 40:

40. Allianz Stadium (Juventus)

39. Städtisches Stadion an der Grunwalder Strasse (TsV 1860 München)

38. Estadio Azteca (América)

37. Asim Ferhatović-Hase (FK Sarajevo)

36. Sclessin (Standard Luik)

35. Stade Velodrome (Olympique Marseille)