Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium up for stadium of the year award

Abu Dhabi: Al Ain fans will find out on Thursday whether the club’s much-acclaimed Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium has been named stadium of the year in a leading competition.

The Garden City outfit’s 25,000-seater home has been nominated for the accolade by Stadiony.net and StadiumDB.com, two websites dedicated to sports stadia.

The competition is for venues opened in 2014, with Al Ain’s stadium among 32 entries worldwide. Fans had until Tuesday to vote, while a separate poll was conducted by architects from five countries.

“This stadium truly stands out, not only in the Emirates, but among all modern stadiums — even those planned for the future,” Grzegorz Kaliciak, founder of StadiumDB.com, said of the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium.

Kaliciak hailed the seating layout of the stadium, which played host to Manchester City’s friendly with Hamburg last month, and its roof. It was specifically built to deal with hot weather, with shading, ventilation and cool hospitality facilities.

“It’s very likely to become a model for stadia built in this kind of climate,” Kaliciak said.

The stadium, which opened in January 2014, cost $168.6 million (Dh619.3m) and took 18 months to build.

It faces competition from the likes of Athletic Bilbao’s San Mames, Marseille’s Stade Velodrome and eight venues used for the Brazil World Cup last year. Previous winners are the Aviva Stadium, Ireland; PGE Arena, Gdansk, Poland; Gremio Arena, Brazil; and Ghelamco Arena, Belgium.

Meanwhile, Manchester City are taking their City Football School to Al Ain as part of the club’s commitment to junior football in the UAE.

On Monday afternoons, coaches from the City Football School in Abu Dhabi will be travelling to the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium to train boys and girls from the ages of five to 14.

The new Al Ain sessions, run in conjunction with Al Qattara Investment, start on Monday, March 2, and will last for five weeks initially, with places limited. City then plan to introduce a new course in April.

The cost of the five-week course is Dh500. For more information and to book a place, email cfs.abudhabi@cityfootball.com.