Stade Marcel Picot – stadium description

After opening in 1926 it was called simply “university stadium” or “stadium in the park near Essey Bridge”. It was in 1968 the patronage was given to Marcel Picot, former president of AS Nancy. The same year matches were played with floodlighting for the first time and in another 5 years a new grandstand was built. Capacity rose to some 25,000 people, but the all-time record attendance was even higher, when over 30,000 watched Nancy fight St-Etienne in 1976.

This was the stadium Michel Platini started his professional career at, representing ASNL colours for a decade. Platini organized his jubilee here in 1988 and the list of football’s great allowed for Stade Marcel Picot to be the only ground ever witnessing Platini, Maradona and Pele on the pitch at the same time.

Major revamp came in 1999-2003 and since 2010 players fight on artificial grass. The stadium was selected to host Euro 2016 – not without Michel Platini’s support – but municipality withdrawn their ambitious €70m redevelopment scheme and declined further interest in the tournament.