Wales National Football Team - Stadium

Stadium

During the period 2000–2010, Wales played most of their home matches at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. The stadium was built in 1999 on the site of the old National Stadium, known as Cardiff Arms Park, as the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) had been chosen to host the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Prior to 1989, Wales played their home games at the grounds of Cardiff City F.C., Swansea City A.F.C. and Wrexham F.C., but then came to an agreement with the WRU to use Cardiff Arms Park and, subsequently, the Millennium Stadium.

Wales' first football match at the Millennium Stadium was against Finland on 29 March 2000. The Finns won the match 2–1, with Jari Litmanen becoming the first player to score a goal at the stadium. Ryan Giggs scored Wales' goal in the match, becoming the first Welshman to score at the stadium.

In recent seasons, most home friendlies have been played at Cardiff City Stadium, the Liberty Stadium and the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham. However, qualifying matches continued to be played at the 74,500 capacity Millennium stadium, which was typically only around 20–40% full, leading to calls from fans and players alike for international matches to be held at these smaller stadiums with capacities of 15,500–27,000. Thus, the FAW finally decided that for the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, Wales would play all of their home ties at either the Cardiff City Stadium or the Liberty Stadium, with the exception of the home tie against England, which was played at the Millenium Stadium.