Ali Sami Yen Stadium

• Galatasaray

• Games of Galatasaray Istanbul (until 2011 )

The Ali Sami Yen Stadium (Turkish: Ali Sami Yen Stadyumu ) was until 2011 used the football stadium of the Turkish football club Galatasaray.

History

The stadium was to Ali Sami Yen, the founder of the club, named and had a capacity of 23,785 seats. It was in the European part of Istanbul, in Şişli district in the neighborhood atmosphere around. The stadium was named by the fans also Cehennem ( Turkish hell); This name comes from the particular acoustics in the sold-out stadium and the sight when the fans cheered the team with Bengal fires. A famous quote by long-time captain of AC Milan, Paolo Maldini, after a 2:3 defeat in a UEFA Champions League match against Galatasaray on November 3, 1999: " No one can tell me that this should be only 20,000 ...! "

In 1940, the old Taksim Stadium was demolished and the clubs in the Beyoğlu district, had to look for new playgrounds. Galatasaray decided to build a new building work began in 1943. Due to the Second World War could initially but only small grandstands to be built. The opening of the temporary stadium took place in 1945, but only in 1964 was the construction work to be completed. The finished stadium was inaugurated on 14 December 1964, a friendly match between Turkey and Bulgaria. The floodlights were installed in 1965 and renewed in 1993.

On 11 January 2011, the last match was played in the Ali Sami Yen Stadium. Galatasaray won the Turkish Cup against Beypazarı Şekerspor with 3:1 ( 0:1). On January 15, 2011 Galatasaray and Ajax Amsterdam contributed (0-0 ) in the new home of Turk Telekom Arena in the opening game.

The demolition of the venue followed in April 2011. The demolition serious construction defects were discovered. It was built too little steel in concrete. In the new Turk Telekom Arena is 250 kg per m3; in the old venue, there were only 57 kg per m3. This stadium was constantly at risk of collapse and could at any time break during a game.