A new pitch has been laid at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich to ensure an optimum playing surface when the arena hosts three UEFA EURO 2008™ games.

Well used
With both local clubs, Grasshopper-Club and FC Zürich, sharing the stadium, the pitch had been used heavily during the Swiss Super League season, and it was decided to lay a new surface in time for the finals. The old pitch was taken up shortly after the end of the Swiss season new turf is now bedding in which should be in pristine condition by the time Romania face France in the stadium’s first finals game on 9 June.

Hypo-Arena Stadium Information

Name: Hypo-Arena (built on the grounds of the former Worthersee Stadium)
Inauguration:September 7th 2007
First match: Austria - Japan
Capacity: 32,000

Club Information:

Club: SK Austria Karnten
Inauguration: 2007

Match schedule at Euro 2008:

Match 4 – Germany - Poland Sun. 8th June 20:45

Match 11 – Croatia - Germany, Tue 12th June 18:00

Match 19 – Poland - Croatia, Mon 16th June 20:45

Hypo-Arena:

Hypo-Arena is the home ground of SK Austria Karnten. It was built on the former grounds of the old Worthersee Stadium, which was built in 1960 and had a capacity of 10,900. It’s surface is grass and its construction cost was about 66 million euros. Although it can now hold up to 32,000 people, after the European Football Championship the stadium will be reduced to a capacity of 12,500.

Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt, capital of Carinthia, lies on the edge of the wide Klagenfurt basin, which is bounded on the south by the wooded ridge of the Sassnitz range, with the Karawanken rearing up behind. Although Klagenfurt is an important traffic junction and a busy industrial and commercial town, it has an attractive old quarter with picturesque little lanes and historic old buildings. It is also now a university town.

Founded about 1161 as a market village, Klagenfurt was granted its municipal charter in 1252. The old town was destroyed by fire in 1514, whereupon the provincial Estates of Carinthia petitioned the Emperor Maximilian I to grant them possession of the now impoverished little town.

It was duly transferred to them in 1518, and Klagenfurt then displaced St Veit an der Glan as capital of the province and began to expand.

Between 1527 and 1558 a canal was constructed to supply water for the moat surrounding the town, and this still links Klagenfurt with the Wörther See.

The line of the old fortifications is marked by a circuit of streets, the Ring, around the old part of the town, which today has many parks and gardens.

Klagenfurt is the birthplace of Robert Musil (1880-1942), who became world-famous for his novel “The Man without Qualities”, and of Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-73), well known for her lyric writings.

A literary competition is held every year in Klagenfurt.

Name: Stade de Geneve ( completed in 2003 after nearly 3 years of construction )
Inauguration:March 16th 2003
First match: Servette FC - Young Boys Berne
Capacity: 30,084

Club Information:

Club: Servette FC
Inauguration: 1890

Performances:

- won the Swiss Super League 17 times ( last time in 1999 )

- won the Schweizer Cup 7 times

Match schedule at Euro 2008:

Match 2 – Portugal - Turkey Sat. 7th June 20:45

Match 9 – Czech Republic - Portugal, Wed 11th June 18:00

Match 18 – Turkey - Czech Republic, Sun 15th June 20:45

Stade de Geneve :

Stade de Geneve is the stadium where the swiss team Servette FC plays and with a capacity of 30,084 is currently the third biggest all-seater stadium in Switzerland. It was built in Lancy, in the southern part of Geneva and the construction was completed in 2003 after three years of hard work. The most important match that this fairly new stadium hosted was the friendly between Argentina and England on November 12 2005, which England won 3-2.

Geneva

Geneva (in French Genève; in German Genf), the city of Calvin and the center of the Reformation, lies in the extreme western tip of Switzerland at the southwest end of Lake Geneva (in French Lac Léman).

The town is built on moraine hills of varying height on either side of the swiftly flowing Rhône, which here flows out of the lake and is joined on the southwest side of the town by its tributary the Arve, coming down from the Savoy Alps. Lying between the Jura to the northwest and the limestone ridges of Mont Salève and the Voirons to the southeast, Geneva enjoys a magnificent situation on the largest of the Alpine lakes, within sight of the majestic peak of Mont-Blanc.

As a hub of European cultural life in which French savoir-vivre and Swiss solidity are happily combined, the venue of international meetings on the highest level, as well as conventions and exhibitions of all kinds, and not least as a major financial, commercial and industrial city, Geneva has a lively and cosmopolitan atmosphere which makes it perhaps the most attractive town in Switzerland and the one that attracts the greatest number of visitors.

Evidence of its dynamic growth during the last few decades is provided by the large amount of new building in the city itself and in the surrounding area, where a number of residential suburbs and satellite towns of considerable importance have grown up.