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| Location |  Jerusalem,Israel |
|---|---|
| Public transit |   at Malha Sports Complex Old Jerusalem–Tel Aviv Railway Line atJerusalem Malha |
| Owner | Jerusalem Municipality |
| Operator | Ariel Municipal Company Ltd. |
| Capacity | 31,733[1] |
| Field size | 105 m × 68 m (344 ft × 223 ft) |
| Surface | Grass |
| Scoreboard | LED |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1990 |
| Opened | 1991 |
| Renovated | 1997–1998, 2011–2013, 2018–2020 |
| Construction cost | $ 60 million |
| Architect | Yossi Ben Naim Pascual Broid |
| Tenants | |
| Beitar Jerusalem (1991–present) Hapoel Jerusalem (1991–present) Israel national football team (selected matches)
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Teddy Stadium (Hebrew:אצטדיון טדי) is a sportsstadium inJerusalem. Two major Israelifootball clubs currently use it as their home ground:Beitar Jerusalem andHapoel Jerusalem. TheIsrael national football team also uses it for select home matches.
The stadium is named after long-timeMayor of JerusalemTeddy Kollek, who was in office during the time of its initial construction and was one of its prominent advocates.
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The stadium was built in 1990–91 as part of a wider redevelopment project by theJerusalem Municipality focused on the suburb ofMalha, which until then had been a poor area populated by immigrants families who had replaced the village's Palestinian population in 1948.[2] The history of the location, the historical village ofMaliha (todayHebraized asMalha),[3] has brought controversy,[4][5] and the stadium is referred to byArab-Israelis as "Maliha stadium".[6] The redevelopment of the wider area subsequently included theMalha Mall (built 1993) and theJerusalem Technology Park (built 1996).[2]
For Beitar, the stadium was a major upgrade after years of playing at theYMCA Stadium, nicknamed "The Sandbox". In the first stage, only the west and east sides of the stadium were built, giving it a capacity of 14,500. In 1999, work was finished on a north side which contains capacity of 8000 seats.
The stadium itself is one of the newest in Israel and one of the few that are close to meeting all European standards. It isaccessible to the disabled, has modern bathrooms, and has ampleconcession stands, a combination that is very difficult to find in many Israeli stadiums. The stadium has 5,000 parking spots on its premises, and is connected to theMalha Mall and its parking facilities by a pedestrian bridge.
The stadium is located at theBegin Expressway and just past theMalha Train Station, which ensures convenient road and rail access to the rest of Israel.
With stands close to the pitch and excellent acoustics, Teddy Stadium has hosted severalIsrael national football team matches, theMaccabiah Games opening ceremony, and other public events.
A south side stand was completed on June 3, 2013, increasingseating capacity to 31,733.
Teddy Stadium was one of the venues for the2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship and hosted the tournament's final match.
The first official match of theIsrael national football team in the new stadium was played on March 31, 2015. Israel hosted theBelgium national football team in theUEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match and lost the match by a score of 0–1.
Israel was chosen to host The 2021IFAF Flag Football World Championship which were played at Teddy Stadium after feared high winds at the original venue, TheKraft Family Sports Campus in Jerusalem.
During Beitar matches, theLa Familia group occupies the eastern sections of the stadium. They are known for being the most vocal and controversial of fans in the venue.[7][8] The "Eastern Stand" (Hebrew: היציע המזרחי) is the home not only of La Familia group but also of all the dedicated and passionate fans of Beitar, with a lot of differenttifo displays, flags and banners on a regular basis.[9]
In September 2016 a new solar system which can produce 639 kW was installed on the roof of the stadium.[10]
In mid-2018 Jerusalem municipality announced a 25 million₪ upgrade of the stadium which have finished at the start of 2019:[citation needed]
The second phase of the renovation began in February 2019, and was completed in August 2020:[11]
The third phase of the renovation began in 2021, and these are the things which have been completed so far until the end of 2022/23 season:[12]
Jerusalem municipality allocated dozen of millions₪ more for further improvements towards 2023/24 season:[13]
| Date | Result | Competition | Attendance | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 February 1992 | Israel | 1–2 |  CIS | Friendly | 2,000 |
| 29 November 1994 | Israel | 4–3 |  Cyprus | Friendly | 4,000 |
| 20 September 1995 | Israel | 3–1 |  Uruguay | Friendly | 8,000 |
| 22 January 1997 | Israel | 1–1 |  Greece | Friendly | 500 |
| 15 April 1998 | Israel | 2–1 |  Argentina | Friendly | 14,000 |
| 24 February 1999 | Israel | 2–0 |  Latvia | Friendly | 6,000 |
| 9 February 2003 | Israel | 3–3 |  Croatia | Friendly | 4,000 |
| 14 November 2012 | Israel | 1–2 |  Belarus | Friendly | 8,000 |
| 31 March 2015 | Israel | 0–1 |  Belgium | UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying | 29,750 |
| 13 October 2015 | Israel | 1–2 |  Cyprus | UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying | 25,300 |
| 9 October 2016 | Israel | 2–1 |  Liechtenstein | 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification | 9,000 |
| 9 October 2017 | Israel | 0–1 |  Spain | 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification | 28,700 |
| 16 November 2019 | Israel | 1–2 |  Poland | UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying | 16,700 |
| 19 June 2023 | Israel | 2–1 |  Andorra | UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying | 13,300 |
A small Arab village in the 19th century, Malha was occupied by Israeli forces during the 1948 War. Houses there remained empty until 1951, when new Jewish immigrants from Kurdistan, Tunisia and Morocco arrived and moved into the area. Malha remained poor until the 1990s, when the Municipality of Jerusalem built a new neighbourhood around the old one. The new development included the biggest shopping mall in Jerusalem, a new technological compound and the construction of the Jerusalem sports stadium.
31°45′4.20″N35°11′26.22″E / 31.7511667°N 35.1906167°E /31.7511667; 35.1906167
