Although it looks like a national stadium, it serves one club. Illuminated, covered, with an interesting shape - Stade Hocine Aït Ahmed shatters stereotypes about the infrastructural backwardness of African sports. Its construction, however, has not been without problems.

Difficult beginnings of a beautiful stadium

In the northwestern suburb of Tizi Ouzou (Algeria) stands a stadium that could serve as the national venue of a major country. Its typical football layout, illuminated facade, corrugated roof, and capacity of 50,766 seats set Stade Hocine Aït Ahmed apart from other arenas in the region. And not just in the region.

The stadium is one of 5 African venues nominated for our Stadium of the Year 2024 contest. This year you can choose your favorite five among the 23 stadiums that opened last year, and the Algerian gem is certainly a candidate worthy of consideration. Its construction, however, has not gone as smoothly as its appearance might suggest.

A new stadium designed for JS Kabylie was promised as early as 2000. At the time, its players played at Stade du 1er Novembre 1954, but the remoteness of the stands from the game and the small capacity (20,000 seats), as well as the lack of seats did not make the facility an ideal home for the country's most successful team. However, preparatory work to erect a new venue did not begin until seven years later.

Turbulent works and a raging budget

In 2009, the Spanish FCC was chosen as the contractor, and the budget was set at the equivalent of €340m. The work was expected to take 2.5 years. However, as you can easily guess, this did not happen. In 2014, there was a change of contractor, but even this did not help finish the stadium - 5 years later work was stopped at about 80% completion of the structure.

Construction did not resume until 2022, with a third contractor. This time it succeeded - in the summer of 2023, testing of the facility began. However, the total cost jumped to €475m at that time.

The inauguration ceremony in the presence of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune took place on July 10, 2024, and Hocine Aït Ahmed, leader of the 1954-62 Algerian War of Independence, was chosen as the stadium's patron. A week earlier, President Tebboune inaugurated the rival of the Tizi Ouzou stadium in our competition, Stade Ali la Pointe, which is named after other revolutionary leader and comrade of Hocine Aït Ahmed.