Vandals spoil Itaka Arena opening night

Image: City of Opole on Facebook

The grand opening of Itaka Arena in Opole, Poland was marred by acts of vandalism carried out by fans of visiting German team FC Magdeburg.

Gol24 said a lot of attractions had been laid on for fans attending the stadium for the friendly match between the Polish first league team Odra Opole and FC Magdeburg of the 2nd Bundesliga.

Odra Opole is a football club based in Opole, Poland, currently playing in the 1 liga. Their former home ground was the 3,300-capacity Odra Stadium in Opole, Poland.

The 11,600-capacity Itaka Arena is the new home of Odra Opole. Local travel agency Itaka agreed a sponsorship and naming rights deal shortly before the opening of the new venue.

The friendly match on the pitch ended in a 1-1 draw and the players were cheered loudly from the stands. Unfortunately, not all participants of the event focused on following the events on the pitch.

Some fans vandalized the stadium toilets and stickers and inscriptions from the German club appeared on the balustrades.

The mayor of the city of Opole, Arkadiusz Wiśniewski, commented on the matter via social media.

He said, “Unfortunately, not everyone wanted to join the celebration yesterday. Toilets were vandalized on the side where fans from Germany, from Magdeburg, were sitting.

“The perpetrators are being identified, the damage is being assessed and preparations are being made to clean up the damage. The stadium is insured and we will deal with this damage. This does not change the fact that these acts of vandalism are disgusting.

“It’s as if some savage had rolled through the stadium! It is very depressing. Almost 12,000 people had a great celebration yesterday! And a small handful showed that they are closer to pigs in a sty than to people.”

The design of the new stadium was changed to help the venue become a ‘Green’ stadium in the real sense of the term with photovoltaic roofs, heat pumps and other elements which will make the arena largely dependent on conventional energy sources.

The ‘Green Stadium’ project was drawn up and implemented by the main contractor, Mirbud (real estate builders and construction company in Skierniewice, Poland), together with SMG Śląsk, a leader in the development of ecological installation systems.

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