Addis Ababa Stadium Verified listing

Addis Ababa Stadium

Addis Ababa Stadium is Ethiopia's most historic football venue, sitting near Meskel Square in the heart of the capital. Built in 1940 under Italian rule and known as Haile Selassie Stadium until 1974, it has served as home to Saint George SC, Ethiopian Coffee SC and the Ethiopia national football team. Capacity is generally listed around 35,000, though a record crowd of 60,000 attended the 1962 African Cup of Nations final, hosted here with the 1968 final and 1976 fixtures.

After years of renovation work on the pitch, running track and seating, the stadium reopened for domestic football in 2025, hosting Ethiopian Premier League matches again for the first time in five years. It continues to stage World Cup qualifiers and CAF fixtures when eligible, alongside athletics meets, concerts and national ceremonies, making it one of the capital's most versatile public spaces.

CAF suspended the venue from hosting international matches between 2020 and 2023 due to substandard facilities, forcing Ethiopia to play home fixtures abroad during that stretch. With renovations now largely complete, the stadium is back in regular league rotation, standing as a living piece of Ethiopian football history while the country builds a new 62,000-seat national stadium nearby.