Iran

Location

Tehran, Iran

Capacity

78,116

Opened

1971

Time zone

UTC +04:30 Iran Standard Time (IRST)

The Azadi Stadium (Persian: ورزشگاه آزادی‎ varzeshgāh-e āzādi), opened as the Aryamehr Stadium (Persian: ورزشگاه آریامهر‎ varzeshgāh-e āryāmehr), is an all-seater football stadium in Tehran, Iran. The stadium was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, an American architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was inaugurated on 18 October 1971 by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran; it is currently self-owned by Esteghlal and Persepolis. It is also the home stadium of the Iran national football team. It has a capacity of 78,116 spectators, as the result of conversion to all-seater stadium. The stadium is part of the much larger Azadi Sport Complex, and is surrounded by a rowing river, football training pitches, a weightlifting complex, swimming facilities and indoor volleyball and futsal courts, among many other amenities. Aryamehr (meaning "Light of the Aryans") was the title of the said Shah; it was renamed after the Iranian Revolution to Azadi (meaning "freedom" in Persian). It is the largest association football stadium in Western Asia. It was built to host the 1974 Asian Games and has hosted the 1976 AFC Asian Cup. The stadium also hosted five finals of Asian Club Competitions: three finals of AFC Champions League in 1999, 2002 and 2018 and two finals of Asian Cup Winners' Cup in 1991 and 1993. Azadi Stadium also hosted WAFF Championship Tournament in 2004 and 2008. Because of the loud sound of a vuvuzels, similar to the sound of bees, the stadium is sometimes called a "Bee swarm".