San Siro facts for kids

45°28′41″N 9°7′26″E / 45.47806°N 9.12389°E / 45.47806; 9.12389

Quick facts for kids
San Siro

Stadio Giuseppe Meazza
UEFA
Former names	Stadio Comunale di San Siro
Address	Via Piccolomini, 5, 20151 Milan Italy
Location	Milan, Italy
Public transit	San Siro Stadio San Siro Ippodromo
Owner	AC Milan (1926–1935) Municipality of Milan (1935–present)
Operator	M-I Stadio s.r.l.
Type	Stadium
Executive suites	30
Capacity	75,817 (limited capacity) 80,018 (maximum)
Field size	105 m × 68 m
Surface	GrassMaster hybrid grass
Scoreboard	Tecnovision
Construction
Broke ground	December 1925; 98 years ago (1925-12)
Opened	19 September 1926; 98 years ago (1926-09-19)
Renovated	1935, 1955, 1987–1990, 2015–2016
Architect	Cugini, Stacchini (1925) Perlasca, Bertera (1935) Ronca, Calzolari (1955) Ragazzi, Hoffer, Finzi (1990)
Tenants
AC Milan (1926–1941, 1945–present) Internazionale (1947–present) Italy national football team (selected matches)

The football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy is commonly known by Internazionale fans as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza and by AC Milan fans as the San Siro. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums in Europe, and the largest in Italy.

On 3 March 1980 the stadium was named in honour of Giuseppe Meazza, the two-time World Cup winner (1934, 1938) who played for Inter and briefly for Milan in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, and served two stints as Inter's manager.

The San Siro is a UEFA category four stadium. It hosted three games at the 1934 FIFA World Cup, the opening ceremony and six games at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, three games at the UEFA Euro 1980 and four European Cup finals, in 1965, 1970, 2001 and 2016. The stadium will also host the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. It is one of the potential venues for the UEFA Euro 2032.

History

The choreography of AC Milan's fans during a Derby della Madonnina

View of the stadium at night

The choreography of Inter Milan's fans during a match against AC Siena in Serie A.

Construction of the stadium commenced in 1925 in the district of Milan named San Siro, with the new stadium originally named Nuovo Stadio Calcistico San Siro (San Siro New Football Stadium). The idea to build a stadium in the same district as the horse racing track belonged to the president of Milan at the time, Piero Pirelli. The architects designed a private stadium only for football, without athletics tracks which characterized Italian stadiums built with public funds. The inauguration was on 19 September 1926, when 35,000 spectators saw Inter defeat Milan 6–3. Originally, the ground was home and property of Milan. Finally, in 1947, Inter, who used to play in the Arena Civica downtown, became tenants and the two have shared the ground ever since.

From 1948 to 1955 engineers Armando Ronca and Ferruccio Calzolari developed the project for the second extension of the stadium, which was meant to increase the capacity from 50,000 to 150,000 visitors. Calzolari and Ronca proposed three additional, vertically arranged, rings of spectator rows. Nineteen spiralling ramps – each 200 metres long – gave access to the upper tiers. During construction, the realisation of the highest of the three rings was abandoned and the number of visitors limited to 100,000. Then for security reasons, the capacity was reduced to 60,000 seats and 25,000 standing.

On 2 March 1980 the stadium was named for Giuseppe Meazza (1910–1979), one of the most famous Milanese footballers. For a time, Inter fans called the stadium Stadio Meazza due to Meazza's stronger connections with Inter (14 years as a player, three stints as manager). However, in recent years both Inter and Milan fans have called the stadium simply San Siro.

The last major renovation for the San Siro, which cost $60 million, was in of 1987–1990, for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. It was decided to modernize the stadium by increasing its capacity to 85,000 spectators and building a cover. The Municipality of Milan entrusted the work to the architects Giancarlo Ragazzi and Enrico Hoffer, and to the engineer Leo Finzi. To increase capacity, a third ring was built (only in the two curves and in the west grandstand) which rests on eleven support towers surrounded by helical ramps that allow access to the public. Four of these eleven concrete towers were located at the corners to support a new roof, which has distinctive protruding red girders.

In 1996, a museum was opened inside the stadium charting Milan and Internazionale's history, with historical shirts, cups and trophies, shoes, art objects and souvenirs of all kinds on display to visitors.

Three Milan derby Champions League knockout ties have taken place at the San Siro, in 2003, 2005 and 2023 with Milan winning the first of two ties with the latter being won by Inter Milan. The reaction of Inter's fans to impending defeat in the 2005 match (throwing flares and other objects at Milan players and forcing the match to be abandoned) earned the club a large fine and a four-game ban on spectators attending European fixtures there the following season.

Apart from being used by Milan and Inter, the Italy national team occasionally plays matches there. It has also been used for the European Cup finals of 1965 (won by Inter), 1970 (won by Feyenoord), and the UEFA Champions League finals of 2001 (won by Bayern Munich) and 2016 (won by Real Madrid).

The stadium was also used for the home leg of three UEFA Cup finals in which Inter was competing (1991, 1994, 1997) when these were played over two legs. It was also used by Juventus for their 'home' leg in 1995 as they decided against playing their biggest matches at their own Stadio delle Alpi at the time. On each occasion, apart from 1991, the second leg was played at the San Siro and the winners lifted the trophy there. However, the stadium has not yet been selected as the host stadium since the competition changed to a single-match final format in 1997–98.

The San Siro has never hosted a final of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, but was the host stadium for the 1951 Latin Cup, a four-team event won by Milan. The city was also the venue for the 1956 edition of the Latin Cup (also won by Milan), but those matches were played at Arena Civica.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy on 25 March, the Associated Press dubbed the UEFA Champions League match between Bergamo club Atalanta and Spanish club Valencia at the San Siro on 19 February as "Game Zero". The match was the first time Atalanta has progressed to a Champions League round of 16 match, and had an attendance of over 40,000 people – about one third of Bergamo's population. By 24 March, almost 7,000 people in the province of Bergamo had tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 1,000 people had died from the virus—making Bergamo the most hard-hit province in all of Italy during the pandemic.

Potential replacement

On 24 June 2019 Milan and Internazionale announced their intention to build a new stadium to replace the San Siro. The new 60,000 capacity stadium, which would be constructed next to the San Siro, was initially anticipated to cost US$800 million and be ready for the 2022–23 season, although this did not come to pass.

Giuseppe Sala, the current Mayor of Milan, and the comune of Milan asked for time and stressed that the San Siro would be kept until at least the 2026 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics to be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The proposed project was also met with some skepticism and opposition by several fans of both teams.

On 26 September 2019 Milan and Internazionale released two potential designs for the new stadium next to the original ground, tentatively named the Nuovo Stadio Milano, designed by Populous and MANICA, respectively. On 22 May 2020, Italy's heritage authority raised no objections to demolishing the San Siro. On 21 December 2021, the Populous project was chosen.

On 27 September 2023 Milan chairman Paolo Scaroni announced the club had filed a proposal to build a new 70,000-seater stadium, alongside the club headquarters and museum in the comune of San Donato Milanese, a suburb south of Milan.

International football matches

Italy national team

Date	Opponent	Score	Attendance	Competition
20 February 1927	Czechoslovakia	2–2	28,000	Friendly
2 December 1928	Netherlands	3–2	19,000
1 December 1929	Portugal	6–1	25,000
22 February 1931	Austria	2–1	45,000	1931–32 Central European International Cup
27 November 1932	Hungary	4–2	32,000	Friendly
25 March 1934	Greece	4–0	20,000	1934 FIFA World Cup qualification Group 3
3 June 1934	Austria	1–0	35,000	1934 FIFA World Cup Semi-final
9 December 1934	Hungary	4–2	45,000	Friendly
25 October 1936	Switzerland	4–2	40,000	1936–38 Central European International Cup
15 May 1938	Belgium	6–1	25,000	Friendly
13 May 1939	England	2–2	60,000
5 May 1940	Germany	3–2	65,000
19 April 1942	Spain	4–0	55,000
1 December 1946	Austria	3–2	53,000
6 May 1951	Yugoslavia	0–0	50,000
24 January 1954	Egypt	5–1	40,000	1954 FIFA World Cup qualification Group 9
25 April 1956	Brazil	3–0	80,000	Friendly
22 December 1957	Portugal	3–0	50,000	1958 FIFA World Cup qualification Group 8
12 May 1963	Brazil	3–0	72,000	Friendly
18 June 1966	Austria	1–0	40,000
1 November 1966	Soviet Union	1–0	55,000
9 October 1971	Sweden	3–0	65,582	UEFA Euro 1972 qualifying Group 6
29 April 1972	Belgium	0–0	63,549	UEFA Euro 1972 qualifying quarter-finals
1 November 1973	Sweden	2–0	65,454	Friendly
5 June 1976	Romania	4–2	30,329
24 February 1979	Netherlands	3–0	70,000
15 March 1980	Uruguay	1–0	35,000
12 June 1980	Spain	0–0	46,816	UEFA Euro 1980 Group B
13 November 1982	Czechoslovakia	2–2	72,386	UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying Group 5
26 September 1984	Sweden	1–0	25,000	Friendly
15 November 1986	Switzerland	3–2	67,422	UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying Group 2
5 December 1987	Portugal	3–0	13,524
17 November 1993		1–0	71,513	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification Group 1
7 October 2000	Romania	3–0	54,297	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification Group 8
17 April 2002	Uruguay	1–1	16,767	Friendly
6 September 2003	Wales	4–0	68,000	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying Group 7
26 March 2005	Scotland	2–0	40,745	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification Group 5
8 September 2007	France	0–0	81,200	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group B
16 October 2012	Denmark	3–1	37,027	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification Group B
15 November 2013	Germany	1–1	40,000	Friendly
16 November 2014	Croatia	1–1	63,222	UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group H
15 November 2016	Germany	0–0	48,600	Friendly
13 November 2017	Sweden	0–0	72,696	2018 FIFA World Cup qualification Second round
17 November 2018	Portugal		73,000	2018–19 UEFA Nations League Group A3
6 October 2021	Spain	1–2	33,524	2021 UEFA Nations League Finals Nations League SF
23 September 2022	England	1–0	50,640	2022–23 UEFA Nations League A
12 September 2023	Ukraine	2–1	58,386	UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying Group C

1934 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the biggest venues of the 1934 FIFA World Cup and held three matches.

Date	Team No. 1	Result	Team No. 2	Round
27 May 1934	Switzerland	3–2	Netherlands	Round of 16
31 May 1934	Germany	2–1	Sweden	Quarter-finals
3 June 1934	Italy	1–0	Austria	Semi-finals

UEFA Euro 1980

The stadium was one of the four selected to host the matches during the UEFA Euro 1980.

Date	Team No. 1	Result	Team No. 2	Round
12 June 1980	Spain	0–0	Italy	Group B
15 June 1980	Belgium	2–1	Spain
17 June 1980	Netherlands	1–1	Czechoslovakia	Group A

1990 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the venues of the 1990 FIFA World Cup and held six matches.

Date	Team No. 1	Result	Team No. 2	Round
8 June 1990	Argentina	0–1	Cameroon	Group B (opening match)
10 June 1990	West Germany	4–1	Yugoslavia	Group D
15 June 1990		5–1	United Arab Emirates
19 June 1990		1–1	Colombia
24 June 1990		2–1	Netherlands	Round of 16
1 July 1990	Czechoslovakia	0–1	West Germany	Quarter-finals

2021 UEFA Nations League Finals

The stadium was one of two selected to host the 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals matches.

Date	Team No. 1	Result	Team No. 2	Round
6 October 2021	Italy	1–2	Spain	Semi-finals (opening match)
10 October 2021	Spain	1–2	France	Final

Other sports

2026 Winter Olympics

Opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics (Milano Cortina) will be held at San Siro on 6 February 2026.

Boxing

San Siro was the venue for the boxing match between Duilio Loi vs. Carlos Ortiz for the Junior Welterweight title in 1960.

Rugby union

The first and only top level rugby union match to be played at San Siro was a test match between Italy and New Zealand in November 2009. A crowd of 80,000 watched the event, a record for Italian rugby.

Year	Date	Match	Country	Score	Country	Attendance
2009	14 November	Test match	Italy	6–20	New Zealand	80,000

Concerts

Since the 1980s, the stadium has hosted concerts by several major international artists. The first ever to perform there was Bob Marley on 27 June 1980, during the Uprising Tour. Afterwards it had the opportunity to host Bob Dylan and Santana in 1984, Bruce Springsteen in 1985, Duran Duran and David Bowie in 1987, Michael Jackson in 1997, and in more recent times, the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2004, U2 in 2005 and 2009, The Rolling Stones in 2006 and 2022, Madonna in 2009, Depeche Mode in 2009, 2017 and 2023, Muse in 2010, 2019, and 2023, Bon Jovi in 2013, Pearl Jam in 2014, Beyoncé in 2016, Coldplay in 2017 and 2023, Ed Sheeran in 2019 and Elton John in 2022.

Edoardo Bennato was the first Italian artist to perform and sell out the stadium in July 1980. In 2007, Laura Pausini became the first female artist to perform at the stadium and also held two consecutive concerts on 4 and 5 June 2016.

Vasco Rossi, is the artist who holds the record for largest number of performances on the stadium, with 29 concerts between 1990 and 2019, followed by Luciano Ligabue with 13 concerts. Vasco Rossi also holds the record for consecutive concerts with six shows between 1 and 12 June 2019.

The international artist with the most concerts at San Siro is Bruce Springsteen, with 7 shows as of his 2016 appearances.

Concert of Vasco Rossi in 2007

Transport connections

The stadium is located in the northwestern part of Milan and can be reached by underground via the dedicated San Siro subway station (at the end of line M5), located just in front of the stadium, or by tram, with line 16 ending right in front of the building. The Lotto subway station (line M1 and line M5) is about 15 minutes walk away from San Siro.

Metro station San Siro Stadio

Stations nearby:

Service	Station	Line
Milan Metro	San Siro Stadio
	San Siro Ippodromo
	Lotto
Tram	Piazza Axum (Stadio)	16

Panorama of the stadium

See also

In Spanish: Estadio Giuseppe Meazza para niños

• Lists of stadiums