New Groupama Arena Opened with Ferencvaros-Chelsea Friendly

(MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orban opened a new stadium in Ferencvaros, Budapest’s ninth district, on Sunday evening.

Orban addressed fans in a televised opening ceremony from the stadium before the match, greeting the English Chelsea team, which plays a friendly with Ferencvaros team to inaugurate the arena.

Orban thanked the 28-time champion Ferencvaros players for helping to preserve “the freedom and independence of the Hungarian nation even during the worst Communist times and to have kept the spirit of Hungarians going for decades.”

He thanked everyone involved in building the stadium and noted that it was built “four years after Hungary was on the brink of bankruptcy”.

Friendly match: Ferencvaros-Chelsea 1-2

The Groupama stadium seats 22,000 at international matches and 23,700 at domestic matches. It took 14 months to build the new stadium at a cost of 14.735 billion forints (EUR 46.74m). Under a sponsorship contract, it will bear the name Groupama Arena for seven years until 2021.

Photo: MTI – Laszló Beliczay

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters