Estádio França Ndalu – stadium description

How did the new stadium for CD 1º de Agosto come about?

Clube Desportivo 1º de Agosto from Luanda, the capital of Angola, was founded on August 1, 1977. The club is multi-sectional and affiliated to the Angolan armed forces. The club's football section ranks among the country's top teams and is the second most successful in Angola, after Petro de Luanda.

The club, despite the success of the football team, has never had its own stadium. It was only in 2012 that the construction of a club sports complex, of which the stadium was to be a part, began. The center was being built on the site of former military facilities, close to the Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in Luanda.

When was the new stadium for CD 1º de Agosto built?

The construction of the stadium itself was inaugurated on August 1, 2013, on the club's 36th anniversary. The foundation stone was laid by António França (a.k.a. França Ndalu), one of the club's founders and a general, politician as well as an anti-colonial activist, after whom it was decided to name the new facility.

The construction of the stadium took quite a long time, helped in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the facility was only completed at the end of 2023, with the opening ceremony taking place on December 2, 2023. The first league match in the new stadium was played on December 23, 2023, as part of Matchday 9 of the Girabola (1º de Agosto – Wiliete SC 1–1).

What does Estádio França Ndalu look like?

The facility has a rectangular, football-specific layout and is primarily intended to serve the players of CD 1º de Agosto. The stands are divided into an upper and lower section. The lower tier is entirely equipped with plastic seats, with those in the upper section installed only in the stand behind the north goal. The capacity of the auditorium is 20,000 spectators. The dominant color in the stadium is red.

Future plans include roofing the stands along the pitch, as well as installing floodlights and video screens.

What is located around Estádio França Ndalu?

The stadium is part of the Sports City (Cidade Desportiva). The complex is located next to Luanda's Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport, less than 5 km south of Luanda's urban center. In addition to the stadium, the complex includes a sports hall with a capacity of 3,000 spectators (Pavilhão Multiuso "Paulo Bunze"), a full-size training pitch with an artificial surface (Campo Ndunguidi Daniel) and an academy building.