1996–97 UEFA Cup in the context of FC Bayern Munich
1996–97 UEFA Cup in the context of FC Bayern Munich
⭐ Core Definition: 1996–97 UEFA Cup
The 1996–97 UEFA Cup was the 26th season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). It was won by German side Schalke 04, who beat Internazionale of Italy on penalties after the two-legged final finished 1–1 on aggregate. Defending champions Bayern Munich were eliminated in the first round by Valencia.
This was the last year in which the UEFA Cup final was played in a two-legged, home-and-away format. From 1998, the final was played as a single match at a neutral venue.
Arena AufSchalke (German pronunciation:[aˈʁeːnaːʔaʊfˈʃalkə]), currently known as Veltins-Arena (pronounced[ˈfɛltɪnsʔaˌʁeːnaː]) for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof and pitch, football stadium in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It opened on 13 August 2001, as the new home ground for FC Schalke 04. The stadium has a capacity of 62,271 (standing and seated) for league matches and 54,740 (seated only) for international matches. It hosted four matches at UEFA Euro 2024. The naming rights to the stadium were sold in July 2005 to the German brewery Veltins.
In the late 1990s, plans emerged to construct a new stadium for Schalke 04 to replace the outdated Parkstadion. Following Schalke 04's 1996–97 UEFA Cup victory and anticipating the club's 100th anniversary in 2004, a contract to build the new stadium was awarded to the German construction firm HBM in 1998. The Veltins-Arena is located near the old Parkstadion on a club-owned property known as "Berger Feld." Due to the presence of two mine shafts beneath the site, the stadium's main axis was rotated to ensure structural integrity. The arena features a two-tier layout with a foundation of cast concrete and packed slag from steel smelting.
