El Molinón

El Molinón
UEFA Category 3 stadium
Full name Estadio Municipal El Molinón
Location Gijón, Spain
Coordinates 43°32′10″N 5°38′14″W / 43.53611°N 5.63722°W / 43.53611; -5.63722
Owner Ayuntamiento de Gijón
Operator Sporting de Gijón
Capacity 30,000[1]
Record attendance 42,000
Field size 105 m × 68 m (344 ft × 223 ft)
Surface Grass
Construction
Opened 1908
Renovated 1997–98
Expanded 1980–81, 2009–10
Tenants
Sporting de Gijón (1917–present) [2]

Estadio El Molinón is an association football stadium in Gijón, Asturias-Spain. The stadium is the home ground of Real Sporting de Gijón.

The stadium's address is Parque de Isabel la Católica, 33390 Gijón.

History

El Molinón, on the shore of the Piles river.

El Molinón is the oldest professional football field in Spain. It has been in use since at least 1908, and is located on the site of an old watermill, hence the stadium's name, the Asturian word for "big mill".[3]

Real Sporting started to use El Molinón as official ground in 1917. The first official match was held on April 22, 1917 between Real Sporting and Arenas Club de Getxo as part of the 1917 Copa del Rey. Arenas won 0-1. On 2 May 1920, El Molinón held the 1920 Copa del Rey Final, where FC Barcelona defeated Athletic Bilbao by 2–0.

In 1924 Real Sporting bought El Molinón and became the owner of the stadium. In 1931 the main stand was destroyed by fire, but it was later re-built. In 1944, Gijón City Hall re-bought El Molinón due to Sporting's bad financial situation.

In 1968 four floodlights were installed at El Molinón and the first night match was played against Valencia CF. On 30 November 1969, El Molinón became the first all-covered stadium in Spain and on 28 January 1970, the first match to be televised in Spain was played at El Molinón. Sporting defeated Osasuna by 3–0.

During 1997–98, El Molinón prepared to adapt to the new UEFA and FIFA security legislation: all people must be seated and the fences must be removed. The stadium's capacity was reduced from 42,000 to 25,885. However, plans were put forward for the stadium to be renovated and expanded. After the expansion between 2009 and 2011, El Molinón's capacity again grew to 30,000 seats.

International matches

The first international match in El Molinón was held on 22 April 1928 between Spain and Italy. El Molinón had that day a capacity about 36,000 people. The match finished 1–1.

50 years later, El Molinón held again another international match between Spain and Czechoslovakia.

On 22 March 2013, El Molinón held a World Cup Qualifying match between Spain and Finland. The match finished in a 1-1 draw.

Apart from Spain matches, in this stadium Sporting played all of its UEFA Cup matches, including the win against A.C. Milan by 1–0 on 30 September 1987.

1982 FIFA World Cup

The stadium played host to three matches in Group B. Two of them were infamous in the 1982 World Cup, West Germany's shock 1-2 defeat to Algeria being the first. After the result of Algeria's final group game was known, a rather uncontested 1-0 victory of West Germany against Austria which sent both teams through at Algeria's expense. In German the match is known as Nichtangriffspakt von Gijón (lit. Non-aggression pact of Gijón)[4] or Schande von Gijón (lit. Shame of Gijón). This shameful game at Gijon directly led to a change of the rules, requiring the last matches in the group phase to be played simultaneously.

16 June 1982
17:15 CEST
West Germany  1 2  Algeria
Rummenigge  67' Report Madjer  54'
Belloumi  68'
El Molinón, Gijón
Attendance: 42,000
Referee: Enrique Labo Revoredo (Peru)

20 June 1982
17:15 CEST
West Germany  4 1  Chile
Rummenigge  9', 57', 66'
Reinders  81'
Report Moscoso  90'
El Molinón, Gijón
Attendance: 42,000
Referee: Bruno Galler (Switzerland)

25 June 1982
17:15 CEST
West Germany  1 0  Austria
Hrubesch  10' Report
El Molinón, Gijón
Attendance: 41,000
Referee: Bob Valentine (Scotland)
Commemorative monument of 1982 FIFA World Cup in front of El Molinón

All Spain matches in El Molinón

Data Opponent Score Competition
22 April 1928  Italy 1–1 Friendly match
29 March 1978  Norway 3–0 Friendly match
16 April 1980  Czechoslovakia 2–2 Friendly match
24 September 1986  Greece 3–1 Friendly match
12 September 1990  Brazil 3–1 Friendly match
11 October 1997  Faroe Islands 3–1 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
31 March 2004  Denmark 2–0 Friendly match
17 August 2005  Uruguay 2–0 Friendly match
22 March 2013  Finland 1–1 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Asturias autonomous football team

Especially in the decade of the 1920s and 1930s, El Molinón held some friendly matches of the Asturias autonomous football team. The last one was in 2001 against Lithuania.

Date Opponent Score
1922 St Mirren FC
0–0
12 November 1922 Basque Country (autonomous community) Euskadi
1–1
13 November 1922 Basque Country (autonomous community) Euskadi
4–3
14 January 1923 Catalonia Catalonia
1–0
21 June 1925 Cantabria Cantabria
0–1
5 September 1926 Catalonia Catalonia
0–2
10 July 1932 SL Benfica
3–1
16 June 1934 Mexico Mexico
5–2
28 June 1936 Brussels Brussels
3–3
29 December 2001 Lithuania Lithuania
6–1

League attendances

El Molinón, in a game versus Athletic Bilbao on October 2010.

This is a list of league and playoffs games attendances of Sporting de Gijón at El Molinón.[5]

Sporting played all the competitive games at this stadium except one in the 2002–03 season due to the closure of the stadium after the game against CD Numancia.[6] This game, not included in the table, was played against UD Almería at the Estadio Antonio Amilivia in León.[7]

Season Total High Low Average
1988–89 La Liga 364,659 32,000 12,397 19,193
1989–90 La Liga 350,546 26,000 13,318 18,450
1990–91 La Liga 348,320 27,335 13,152 18,333
1991–92 La Liga 336,283 25,000 14,500 17,699
1992–93 La Liga 307,839 20,000 9,200 16,202
1993–94 La Liga 326,240 26,200 10,300 17,171
1994–95 La Liga 406,900 38,000 9,000 20,345
1995–96 La Liga 453,768 31,000 14,300 21,608
1996–97 La Liga 403,606 30,000 12,000 19,219
1997–98 La Liga 292,259 21,226 8,900 15,382
1998–99 Segunda División 268,746 16,200 9,500 12,797
1999–2000 Segunda División 246,900 15,000 10,000 11,757
2000–01 Segunda División 252,500 18,000 6,500 12,024
2001–02 Segunda División 243,300 25,000 7,000 11,586
2002–03 Segunda División 241,000 18,600 8,500 12,050
2003–04 Segunda División 332,989 25,000 9,000 15,857
2004–05 Segunda División 239,900 14,000 5,000 11,424
2005–06 Segunda División 193,150 12,500 5,000 9,198
2006–07 Segunda División 228,975 14,000 6,000 10,904
2007–08 Segunda División 343,733 24,000 12,000 16,368
2008–09 La Liga 411,670 24,500 18,500 21,667
2009–10 La Liga 382,600 24,000 17,100 20,137
2010–11 La Liga 426,100 28,000 19,000 22,426
2011–12 La Liga 417,015 28,000 18,648 21,948
2012–13 Segunda División 333,483 19,951 8,187 15,880
2013–14 Segunda División 377,307 22,315 13,265 17,150
2014–15 Segunda División 405,686 26,873 12,240 19,318

Other events

The stadium has hosted concerts by many famous artists, including Bon Jovi, Paul McCartney, Dire Straits, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Tina Turner, among others.

External links

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to El Molinón.
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