Visit Cardiff for Olympic Games 2012 soccer
Soccer matches in the 2012 London Olympics in stadiums around the UK
Nov 12, 2009
Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium is on the banks of the River Taff, right in the heart of Cardiff city centre. During the 2012 Olympics, 8 football matches will be played here. It is a short walk from the main Cardiff train station and car access is easy from the M4 and M5 motorways.
For those who have been away on Mars for the last few years, Cardiff is synonymous with international rugby tournaments, as well as top-flight football. Central to all of this, with 74,600 seats and a retractable roof, is the Millennium Stadium. This superb venue is tailor-made for hosting top sporting events, which have included FA Cup finals and the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final.
Sports mad fans should make sure to take a tour of the stadium and follow in the footsteps of the sporting heroes by walking down the player's tunnel, see what it feels like to lift a trophy or get a Royal perspective by trying out the Queen's seat in the Royal box.
The Millennium Stadium is equally a major venue for motor sports such as speedway, rallying and monster truck events. And don’t forget big-name concerts – Madonna, REM, Def Leppard, Status Quo and Dolly Parton, as well as home-grown Welsh superstars Stereophonics and Manic Street Preachers have all played at the stadium in recent years.
When the Welsh national rugby team beat France in March 2008 in the Six Nations championship, this was their second Grand Slam in 4 years and it sent the packed crowd in the Millennium Stadium into raptures. The win was the Welsh team’s 10th Grand Slam victory, carried off 100 years after they won their first, and home fans left the stadium to carry on the party of the century in the city centre – as if Friday nights in Cardiff aren’t already the stuff of legend.
The Cardiff City football team recently moved from its old home at Ninian Park into the spanking new Cardiff City Stadium, built in nearby Leckwith. They opened in style with a 4-0 win against S****horpe in their first league game played on August 8th 2009.
The Cardiff Blues rugby team will also play at the same ground under a sharing agreement until 2029. Previously, their historic home ground was Cardiff Arms Park, where rugby had been played since 1881.
Hotels are fully booked way in advance whenever there is a major sporting event at the Millennium stadium too, so it goes without saying that anyone planning a visit around the 2012 Olympic events should sort out accommodation arrangements way ahead.
And a Final Football Fact
Cardiff City are still the only non-English club to win the FA Cup. They beat Arsenal 1-0 in the 1927 final at Wembley. In fact, the FA trophy was generally known as the English Cup until the Bluebirds' famous victory.
 |
