Poland venue shut down due to ‘roof flaws’

Article posted by Coliseum, November 14^th, 2022

Image: National Stadium Warsaw, Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Poland’s national football stadium in the capital Warsaw – PGE Narodowy – has been temporarily closed down after technicians found a serious flaw in the facility’s roof.

‘Polskie Radio’ stated that the decision to shut down Poland’s prime football venue – the National Stadium – was announced on November 11^th.

The PGE Narodowy (official name since 2015) or the National Stadium is a retractable roof football stadium located in Warsaw, Poland. It is used mostly for football matches and it is the home stadium of the Poland national football team.

The stadium has a seating capacity of 58,145 which makes it the largest association football arena in Poland. Its construction started in 2008 and finished in November 2011.

‘Polskie Radio’ further stated that the ‘roof flaw’ came to notice after a routine technical review of the stadium revealed a defect in its steel roofing, officials said.

After consulting the venue’s designers and experts, officials decided to suspend all activity at the stadium, from sporting events to conferences and tours of the facility, with immediate effect.

Later on November 11^th, Sports Minister Kamil Bortniczuk summoned a special crisis-response team, made up of officials from the Ports Department, Poland’s football federation (PZPN) and the national stadium, to discuss the next steps to be initiated.

Poland’s football team was due to play Chile at the National Stadium on November 16^th, in its last warm-up game before the 2022 World Cup, which starts in Qatar from November 20^th.

Now, the game with Chile has been moved to the 31,800-capacity Legia Warsaw Stadium in Warsaw, Poland.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup™ is scheduled to be the 22^nd running of the FIFA World Cup™ competition, the quadrennial international men’s football championship contested by the senior national teams of the member-associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Qatar from November 20^th to December 18^th, 2022.

It was not immediately clear for how long the National Stadium would remain out of action, officials said.

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