Stade de Roudourou – stadium description

The football field in Roudourou area of Guingamp had already existed for years before becoming the stadium we know today. In fact, even En Avant Guingamp had played their first fixture here back in 1972, while construction of the stadium wasn’t launched until 1989.

Designed by local architect Jean-Yves Philippe, the stadium was intended to meet 2nd league criteria, following professionalization of EA Guingamp as late as 1984. Largest southern grandstand had two tiers, on the opposite side a much lower single-level stand was built. Both the east and west ends were left as green slopes holding some 4,000 people, altogether resulting in capacity of 12,000.

Following the team’s historic promotion to Ligue 1 in 1995 further upgrades had to be made, especially in areas with no seating. Therefore two terraces were built, west one with roof and east one uncovered. This raised capacity to over 18,000, a stunning figure when taking into account the town’s population of under 8,000! Even with surrounding settlements the area barely reached 20,000 inhabitants.

The stadium was upgraded again in 2007, to allow En Avant to play in European tournaments. The north stand received an upper balcony with VIP seating and the east terrace was covered. Last major improvements came in 2015, when the turf was re-laid entirely for the first time since opening (!), replaced by a hybrid turf, and over 15,000 seats replaced by new ones.