Stade Velodrome Unofficial review

Stade Velodrome Unofficial review

The Stade Vélodrome is a 60,031 capacity stadium in Marseille, France. It is the home ground of top French football club Olympique de Marseille and was also a venue in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It is the largest club football ground in France. The stadium is also used regularly by the French rugby union team.

The record attendance for a club game at the Stade Vélodrome was of 58,897, for a UEFA Cup semi-final against Newcastle United in 2004. The stadium also featured as a Football World Cup venue when the 1938 finals were held in France. The first ever match to be played was between Marseille and Torino in 1937. There are plans to increase the capacity to 80,000 and build a roof to cover all four stands, plans that are contingent on a possible sale of the Football Club. The stadium was used for the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

The French rugby union team started an impressive run of victories at the stadium in the early 2000s. In November of 2000 they defeated the All Blacks 42 to 33, the following year defeating Australia by one point. In 2002 one match was played there again, a win over the Springboks, which was followed by a win over England in 2003. However, their run of luck was broken in 2004, when they lost 14 to 24 to Argentina.

Marseille, is the second largest city of France and forms the third-largest metropolitan area, after those of Paris and Lyon, with a population recorded to be 1,516,340 at the 1999 census and estimated to be 1,605,000 in 2007. Located on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, Marseille is France's largest commercial port. Marseille is the administrative capital (préfecture de région) of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, as well as the administrative capital of the Bouches-du-Rhône department. Its inhabitants are called Marseillais.

Marseille is the largest and most populous commune in France after Paris and is the centre of the third largest metropolitan area in France. To the east, starting in the small fishing village of Callelongue on the outskirts of Marseille and stretching as far as Cassis, are the Calanques, a rugged coastal area interspersed with small fjords. Further east still are the Sainte-Baume, a 1,147 m mountain ridge rising from a forest of deciduous trees, the town of Toulon and the French Riviera. To the north of Marseille, beyond the low Garlaban and Etoile mountain ranges, is the 1,011 m Mont Sainte Victoire. To the west of Marseille is the former artists' colony of l'Estaque; further west are the Côte Bleue, the Gulf of Lion and the Camargue region in the Rhône delta. The airport lies to the north west of the city at Marignane on the Etang de Berre.