| General |
| Stade Roi Baudouin Koning Boudewijnstadion | ||
| ||
| Location | Brussels, Belgium | |
| Opened | 23 August 1930 | |
| Renovated | 1995 (€37 million) | |
| Tenants | Belgium national football team | |
| Capacity | 50,093 | |
| Field dimensions | 106 × 66 m | |
| Surface | Grass | |
| Highest attendance | 64,073 (Anderlecht-Dundee, 6 March 1963) | |
The King Baudouin Stadium is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. It was inaugurated on 23 August 1930. Crown Prince Leopold attended the opening ceremony. Located in the Heysel section of the Brussels municipality, it was built to embellish the Heysel plateau in view of the 1935 Brussels International Exposition. The stadium hosted 70,000 at the time. A wooden track for cycling races was later added around the pitch.
May 1985 disaster[]
- Main article:Heysel Stadium disaster
Despite its status as Belgium's national stadium, Heysel was not well maintained. The stadium's poor condition manifested itself at the 1985 European Cup Final, it was in a very poor state. For example, the outer wall had been made of cinder block, and fans who did not have tickets were seen kicking holes in it to get in. Additionally, the only escape route led upward, and there were only three gates on each short side, nowhere near enough for the 22,000 standing places on each side.
The stadium's inadequacies had been well known for some time. When Arsenal played there in the early 1980s, its supporters ridiculed it as a "dump." Indeed, the presidents of the two 1985 European finalists, Juventus and Liverpool, had concluded that Heysel was in no condition to host a European Final. They urged UEFA to move the match to another ground, to no avail. It later emerged that UEFA had only spent half an hour inspecting the stadium.
The Heysel Stadium disaster resulted in the deaths of 39 Juventus spectators after they were attacked by Liverpool fans before the match. Following the disaster, the ground was only used for athletics (track and field) and it still hosts the Memorial Van Damme every year.
| UEFA European Championship final stadiums |
|
1960: Parc des Princes · 1964: Santiago Bernabéu Stadium · 1968: Stadio Olimpico · 1972: Heysel Stadium · 1976: Crvena Zvezda Stadium · 1980: Stadio Olimpico · 1984: Parc des Princes · 1988: Olympiastadion · 1992: Ullevi · 1996: Wembley Stadium · 2000: De Kuip · 2004: Estádio da Luz · 2008: Ernst-Happel-Stadion · 2012: Olympic Stadium · 2016: Stade de France · 2020: Wembley Stadium |
| UEFA Euro 1972 stadiums |
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Heysel Stadium · Sclessin Stadium · Stade Émile Versé · Bosuil Stadium |
| UEFA Euro 2000 stadiums |
| Belgium |
| Jan Breydel Stadium (Bruges) · King Baudouin Stadium (Brussels) · Stade du Pays de Charleroi (Charleroi) · Stade Maurice Dufrasne (Liège) |
| Netherlands |
| Johan Cruyff Arena (Amsterdam) · GelreDome (Arnhem) · Philips Stadion (Eindhoven) · Feijenoord Stadion (Rotterdam) |
 Belgium
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