Capacity: 44,300.
Matches played here
Group stage
- Serbia & Montenegro vs Netherlands (Group C, June 11)
- Spain vs Ukraine (H, June 14)
- France vs Republic of Korea (G, June 18)
- Iran vs Angola (D, June 21)
Round of 16
Winner Group C vs Runner-up Group D (June 24)
Leipzig’s Zentralstadion is the only world cup stadium that is not home to a professional football club. It is also the only East German stadium hosting world cup events, with the exception of Berlin (but there the Olympic Stadium is in what used to be West Berlin.)
Built after the war and conceived as East Germany’s premier sporting forum, the Zentralstadium was once Germany’s biggest stadium with a capacity of 100,000. After reunification, the stadium was heavily rebuilt and renovated, mostly in view of the city’s (failed) bid for the Olympic Games 2012. For reasons of security and commercial viability, capacity was halved.
The city has a long footballing tradition: VfB Leipzig won the first ever German championship in 1903 and two more championships in 1906 and 1913. After World War II, Lokomotive Leipzig was one of the most popular and succesful teams in East Germany, winning four East German cups and reaching the European Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1987.
After reunification, Lok readopted the name VfB and won promotion to the Bundesliga 1993/94, but was instantly relegated, and from then things went downhill. The club fell down to the level of fourth division football and in 2004 went bankrupt.
Currently, the city’s most prestigious club is FC Sachsen (in East German times known as FC Chemie), currently playing in the 4th division and usually hosting games in the 15,000 capacity Bruno-Plache-Stadion. There’s also a team called Lok Leipzig playing lower division football, but that was newly established following VfB Leipzig’s bankruptcy.
More info: Official stadium website