About stadium

Stadium introduction

Todays’s RheinEnergieStadion is the name of the current stadium located on the site of the former Müngersdorfer Stadion which first opened back in 1923. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versaille which was signed in 1919 after the First World War, building work was restricted and it wasn’t until four years later when Cologne’s defences were removed that the city was allowed to construct a stadium. The stadium has undergone two significant renovations throughout its history, both as a direct result of Cologne bidding to be a host city of the FIFA World Cup. For the 1974 World Cup hosted by West Germany the city applied to be a host city and pledged to expand and modernise the Müngersdorfer Stadion but the city was unable to raise the necessary funds and thus plans for the 80,000 arena were scrapped. A scaled down version of the work was however completed a year after the World Cup had finished with the new 61,000 capacity venue inaugurated with a friendly match between 1. FC Köln and SC Fortuna Köln on the 12th November. With the prospect of Germany hosting the 2006 World Cup, the city of Cologne sprung into action and in typical German style had redesigned and rebuilt 1. FC Köln ground with three years to spare for the five matches it was set to host. Reportedly based on classic English Stadiums such as Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Villa Park, it was reconfigured to seat 46,195 fans for International games with the use of rail-seating permitting a crowd of 50,000 for Bundesliga matches which permit standing.

How to get to the Stadium

RheinEnergieSTADION, Aachener Straße 999, 50933 Köln, Germany