Damascus: The Syrian Arab Football Association (SFA) is planning to name a dilapidated stadium— Abbasiyyin in Damascus, after the Brazilian football legend Pele.
On Tuesday, January 17, Salah Al-Dien M Ramadan, the SFA chairman, told local radio Al-Madina FM that they are planning to submit a proposal to FIFA to change the name of the stadium.
As per a report by The Guardian, in early January, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that the federation had sent requests to every country in the world to name a stadium in honour of Pele.
Pele, the Brazil great who won the World Cup three times and scored more than 1,000 goals, died on Thursday, December 29, aged 82.
Ramadan said that the Syrian Sports for All Federation had received an official letter from FIFA, but the obstacle remains that 90 percent of the stadiums in Syria are out of service.
“Our proposal is the Abbasiyyin. We did not present it officially because it needs to be ratified first,” he said.
About Abbasiyyin stadium
Abbasiyyin stadium in Damascus is the second most important stadium in Syria after the “Aleppo International Stadium”, and it has been carrying this name since it was inaugurated by the late President Hafez al-Assad in 1977.
Abbasiyyin stadium was built in 1976 to host 30,000 fans. However, since 2011, when the war in Syria began, Abbasiyyin has become neglected, following FIFA’s decision not to host international football matches in the country.
It became a waste ground and a grazing field for animals, while some benches crumbled under the weather, the concrete and synthetic track cracked, and glass blew out.
Abbasiyyin stadium was the result of its use by the Syrian forces and its affiliated militias in bombing operations on areas in Damascus and its countryside, storing weapons, and using it as a training camp by some militias previously.
