Stade Moulay Abdellah – historical stadium description

The main stadium in Morocco’s capital, Rabat, was built between 1980 and 1983 by Chinese contractors. It featured an athletics track surrounded by a single-tier ring of stands that could accommodate over 50,000 spectators. The western section of the stands was covered.

It was one of Morocco’s most important stadiums and frequently hosted major international events, including matches of the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations, the FIFA Club World Cup in 2014 and 2022 (2023), as well as the 2019 African Games.

The stadium’s regular tenant was the football club Association Sportive des Forces Armées Royales (AS FAR), one of the country’s most decorated teams alongside Casablanca’s Wydad AC and Raja CA. The Moroccan national team also played there frequently.

Since 2008, the stadium hosted the annual athletics meeting Meeting International Mohammed VI d’Athlétisme, which became part of the prestigious Diamond League circuit in 2016 – the first in Africa to achieve this status.

Although the stadium was still suitable for hosting high-profile sporting events, authorities decided to replace it with a larger, more modern, football-focused arena, which would support Morocco’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup.

The old stadium continued to host major sports events until its final days. On 8 July 2023, it held the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations final, where Morocco defeated Egypt 2–1 after extra time in front of a full crowd, winning the tournament for the first time in history. On 28 July 2023, two finals (boys’ and girls’ categories) of the School World Cup in football were played at Stade Moulay Abdellah.

After the School World Cup concluded, demolition of the old stadium began at the end of July 2023, followed by the construction of a new facility on the same site. Despite the scale of the project, construction proceeded very efficiently, and the new stadium was completed by September 2025.

The new Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah was inaugurated on 5 September 2025 with a World Cup qualifying match in which Morocco secured qualification for the 2026 tournament.

The modern, flagship stadium has a capacity of 68,700 spectators and will be one of the venues for the 2030 FIFA World Cup. To compensate for the removal of the athletics track from the old stadium, a second, dedicated athletics venue – the Stade Olympique de Rabat – was built nearby.