The first football match took place at the Volgograd Arena Stadium

See photo gallery of the event

On April, 21 the Volgograd Arena Stadium having been built by STG saw its first football duel. The match between local team Rotor-Volgograd and Luch-Energiya (Vladivostok) was played under the National Football League Championship.

As per with the Rules for organization of test matches, capacity of the 45,000-seats arena will be increased gradually with each game. Tickets for the first match were totally bought out - almost 20,000 spectators gathered at the stadium. Most of the fans belong to the legendary local football club whose team didn’t give a chance to Manchester United in the UEFA Cup match in 1995.

Before the first match an honouring ceremony was held on the new stadium for Volgograd football veterans, among them were a famous forward Alexander Nikitin and a Rotor legend Valery Yesipov. The first traditional kick was made by Alexander Nikitin. The list was players was announced by Olga Ponomareva, whose voice from 1969 till 2014 sounded on the Central Stadium now replaced by the Volgograd Arena. Rotor-Volgograd team won 4:2. 

The stadium was highly appreciated both by players and spectators. “This is a splendid stadium, convenient for spectators and football players. Excellent cloakrooms and warm-up zones, I’ve seen enough to make comparisons. I worked for the Russian team at the World Championship in Japan and South Korea, and I should say that our stadium is not fare worse than those arenas being even up on them in some aspects. Volgograd-Arena is a light, non-pressing stadium”, - Senior Coach of Rotor-Volgograd Sergey Pavlov shared with us his opinion. 

“Only few people believed that the stadium would be built and the Rotor team would regenerate. Today you had a chance to be the first ones who played on the magnificent stadium built instead of the legendary Rotor stadium. And this stadium is yours”, - Volgograd Region Governor Andrey Bocharov said.

According to the fans, the new stadium and local team’s victory over their direct competitors have returned to the Hero City its dream about big football and great victories. Before the World Football Championship Volgograd-Arena will hold two more test matches. On May, 2 Rotor-Volgograd will play with “Krilya Sovetov (Samara) and on May, 9 the Russian Football Cup Final will take place on the stadium.