Tehran’s Azadi Stadium

AFC – Tehran, Built as the centre-piece of the hosting of the 1974 Asian Games, Tehran’s iconic Azadi Stadium is the home venue for the Iran national team as well as domestic heavyweights Persepolis and Esteghlal and is the largest football venue in the Middle East.

The bowl-shaped structure, which helps create a vibrant and often intimidating atmosphere, sits within the Azadi Sports Complex, which also contains an aquatics centre and several other sporting venues.

Opened in 1971, the record attendance was set in September 1997 as a crowd of 120,000 attended the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Officially, the attendance is currently limited to 100,000.

In April 2012, the meeting between Iran’s Persepolis and Qatar’s Al Gharafa attracted an AFC Champions League record crowd of 96,200 – beating the previous best set at the same venue as Persepolis entertained Uzbekistan’s Bunyodkor three years earlier.