Estádio Independência

América Mineiro

• Football World Cup 1950
• Games of América Mineiro

The Estádio Independencia, officially Estádio Raimundo Sampaio, is a football stadium in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. It can accommodate 23,018 spectators and serves the club América Mineiro as a venue for home games.

History

The Estádio Independencia in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, was built in the years 1947 to 1950 and was opened on June 25, 1950. The first game in the new stadium, which was built on the occasion of taking place in Brazil Football World Cup 1950, rose during the World Cup between Yugoslavia and Switzerland ( 3-0). 8,000 crowd at the Estadio Independencia, the Yugoslav attacker Kosta Tomasevic scored the first goal in the new stadium. Two other World Cup games were played in what was then the largest stadium in Belo Horizonte. In addition to a befitting their 8-0 success over Bolivia, Uruguay was the legendary 1-0 victory for the United States against the football mother country England, which became known as the Miracle of Belo Horizonte in the annals of football, instead of at the Estádio Independencia. At stake were 10,000 spectators, making the stadium as well as in the two other World Cup games in Belo Horizonte was not sold out by far, at the time of the World Cup it offered 25,000 spectators.

The capacity became less in the course of years. In 2009 she was before the closure of the stadium to build on the foundation of a new stadium Estadio Independencia, 18,900 spectators. Since 1999, plans existed in the environment of América Mineiro, expand the stadium to a capacity of 30,000 spectators, but these were never realized due to the second division of the association. The record crowd in the stadium was reached when, on January 27, 1963 32,721 people watched the final of the Campeonato Brasileiro de Seleções Estaduais between Minas Gerais and Guanabara, which was won by the selection of Minas Gerais 1-0.

Since the opening of Estádio Independencia 1950, América FC uses the stadium as for its home games. The club won so far fifteen times the state championship win of Minas Gerais, where eleven of this title wins prior to 1950, as submitted before the time of Independencia. Other major stadiums in Belo Horizonte are the Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto, called Mineirão, and the Arena do Jacare.