Starting with the European Championships in the summer, 2021 saw football fans return to live games en mass for the first time since the start of the pandemic and from all corners of the continent, stadiums have been packed to the rafters with fans screaming for their favourite teams.
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The consumer spending experts at money.co.uk have collated stadium reviews from three different sources to reveal the best-reviewed football stadiums.
They might struggle to beat Bayern Munich on the pitch, but the home of German giants Borussia Dortmund comes in first place in the rankings. The Westfalenstadion (Signul Iduna Park) is one of the most recognisable stadiums in European football, and is home to the ‘yellow wall’ of noise made by Dortmund fans. The stadium achieved its average review score with a 4.5 on Tripadvisor, 4.7 on Google, and 4.5 on Football Ground Map.
Six different stadiums all scored an average of 4.53/5 to rank in joint second place. These stadiums are:
Arena Nationala (FCSB) - Home to FCSB (the most successful team in Romania), as well as the Romanian national team. On Tripadvisor the stadium scored a perfect 5/5.
Camp Nou (Barcelona) - Catalan club Barcelona play their home games at this famous old stadium in the city. Some of the world's greatest players have called it their home, moreover it was the venue for one of football’s greatest moments, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s last gasp winner in the 1999 champions league final.
Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid) - The respective home’s of the two Spanish giants are tied in the rankings, as Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu also scored the exact same on all three review sites.
Millennium Stadium (Wales National Team) - Although the Millenium Stadium does not often get used by the Welsh football team it is one of their grounds, and is famous for a roaring atmosphere. It has also hosted the Champions League final in recent years, and its retractable roof helps protect fans from the elements.
Stadion Narodowy (Poland National Team) - Towering over the nearby woods of Warsaw, the home of the Polish national team is a gigantic stadium, and one well reviewed by fans. Similarly to the Millenium stadium it also has a retractable roof, which is rare for a football stadium.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (Tottenham Hotspur) - The inventively named Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is the final one in joint second scoring an average review score of 4.53. One of the newest stadiums on the list, this purpose built state of the art facility in North London is quickly garnering a good reputation by fans of American as well as Association football.
The worst reviewed major stadium in Europe is Stadio Carlo Castellani, home to Empoli. The average score was brought down by a poor 1.9 out of 5 on Football Ground Map, meanwhile it had low scores of 3 on Tripadvisor, and 3.8 on Google.
Home to Spanish top flight side Celta Figo, Balaidos is one of three stadiums with a 3.37 rating, making it the fourth worst reviewed stadium in European football. It scored 3.5, 4.2, and 2.4 across the different review sites.
Dinamo Zagreb are powerhouses of Croatian football, and have produced some talented players in recent years. However, it appears their stadium is roundly disliked. The Stadion Maksimir scored just 3 on both Tripadvisor and Football ground map.
The home of Belgian football is one of the second worst reviewed stadiums in Europe, they had an average rating of 3.3 and only scored a high of 3.9 on any of the review sites.
The home of newly promoted Italian top flight side Venezia, is the joint fifth worst reviewed stadium. It scored 4.43 on average, which makes it level with the Coliseum Alfonso Perez, home of Spanish top flight side Getafe.
James is our senior personal finance editor and has spent the past 15 years writing and editing personal finance news. He has previously written for ReachPLC, was money editor of Mirror Online and Yahoo Finance UK, and has recently been quoted in City AM, Liverpool Echo and Daily Record as well as featured on national radio shows TalkRadio and the BBC.
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