The Shiny New Home Of Irish Football

The Irish national team’s new stadium is well underway and nearing completion. Irish readers will know well about the new Lansdowne Road. Our old stadium, the original Lansdowne Road was home to some great moments in Irish sporting history from Shelbourne holding Deportivo La Coruna to a 0-0 draw in the Champions League 3rd Round Qualifier in 2004 to Ireland beating France in a World Cup Qualifier in 1981 and most memorably beating the Netherlands to secure a playoff to the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan.

The stadium is under construction at the moment and is due for completion in early 2010. Here’s a link to the rest of the pics of the new stadium on the FAI’s stadium website.

New Lansdowne Road – Media Gallery

I think you’ll agree that this stadium, if it turn out as they hope, will be beautiful. Reminds me a lot of Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena, which is a stadium I really like.

The new stadium will play host to the final of the Europa League in 2010, making it the first major European final to be played in Ireland. A great boost for Irish fans and to the economy, the final is expected to bring in €100M for the economy.

Irish international football has a bright future and the new stadium will mean that we’ll have a world-class stadium to watch the national team in.

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In other news, Trap has drafted in Eddie Nolan of Preston into the squad for the Georgia match at Croker on Wednesday. Nolan, who signed a permanent deal at PNE on the 2nd of January from Blackburn Rovers, has played 11 games for Ireland U21s and 1 game for the Ireland B team.