The Portugal national team played 46 matches at the stadium from 1945 to 1987, then played additional friendlies in 1999, 2003, 2014 and 2024. The venue was used by B-SAD from 2018 to 2022.
The stadium hosted the first ever UEFA club game on 4 September 1955 between Primeira Divisão's third-placed team, Sporting CP, and the Yugoslav champions, Serbian side Partizan Belgrade. It ended as a 3–3 draw and was the first game to be played of the first edition of the European Cup.[3]
History
In 1933, the decision was made to construct the national stadium alongside the Jamor ravine.[4] The original design was authored by Francisco Caldeira Cabral and Konrad Weisner[5][6] and Jacobetty Rosa, with works beginning in 1939.[4]
Work was complete in the Quinta da Graça (in 1953), to install the Comissão Administrativa do Estádio Nacional (National Stadium Administrative Commission).[4]
In 1961, construction on the hippodrome began, in addition to the first phase of work on the shooting range, by the Serviços de Construção e de Conservação (Construction and Conservation Services).[4]
The Plano de Ordenamento do Complexo Desportivo da Jamor (Jamor Sports Complex Development Plan) was issued in July 1982, ordered by the DGEMN Direção-Geral de Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (Directorate-General for Buildings and National Monuments), authored by the architects Vasco Croft (coordinator), Nuno Bártolo and Joaquim Cadima, and by the landscape firm Professor Caldeira Cabral, Associados, Estudos e Projectos, Ld. (under the direction of landscape architects Francisco Caldeira Cabral and agronomist engineer João Caldeira Cabral.[4] During this phase, diagnostic studies were performed to reformulate and re-evaluate the strategic importance of the complex.[4]
In May 1985, the study Estabelecimento de zona de protecção (to establish a protection zone) was ordered by the DGEMN, by architects Vasco Croft and Nuno Bártolo, to limit the sports complex zone, providing a buffer for military access, a non aedificandi zone and urban growth, in addition to expansion for green spaces and support areas for nautical sports.[4]
In 1993, a project to construct a sporting pavilion in Jamor was issued.[4]
In September 2012, the Portuguese Football Federation announced that the stadium would undergo renovation in which work would begin in 2014.[7]
It was announced by the Rugby governing body ERC on 2 September that the Portuguese team would hold their home games at the Estádio Nacional.[8] However, all their home games were played at the Portuguese national rugby teams home stadium of Estádio Universitário de Lisboa.
On 6 February 2015, a tender was issued to cover the western edge of the audience seating for the rugby field.[4]
Architecture
Architecturally the stadium is noteworthy for its open east side, unusual for a stadium otherwise featuring a typical oval configuration. Its current capacity is 39,000 and it is the venue for the Portuguese football cup final.
Sport
Football
The stadium has traditionally hosted the final of the Portuguese Cup (since 1946); in only five times was this game played in other venues and in total, 52 Cup finals have been played on the grounds. Portuguese football fans have bemoaned the historic stadium, owing to a lack of amenities; following the Euro 2004, there was a movement to move the event to one of the grounds built for the Euro football championships.
The most prestigious international game ever staged at the Estádio Nacional was the 1967 European Cup Final, played between Celtic and Internazionale with the former winning 2-1 (becoming the first British European champion team, nicknamed the Lisbon Lions).
In addition to hosting the Portugal national team since 1945, the site has held 50 international events for Portugal.
^ abcd"Estádio de Honra". Centro Desportivo Nacional do Jamor (in Portuguese). Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. Archived from the original on 8 December 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
