AEK Arena – Georgios Karapatakis


AEK Arena – Georgios Karapatakis is a football stadium in Larnaca, Cyprus. The new home ground of AEK Larnaca has a seating capacity of 7,400.

Name

The stadium is called "AEK Arena – George Karapatakis" in honor of the father of the President of AEK, during which the stadium was built, Andros Karapatakis.

History

The AEK Arena was built on land owned by the GSZ Stadium. AEK Larnaca and GSZ have agreed to build a stadium on this land. The stadium is owned by AEK Larnaca, which built it by its own cost. The responsibility of the construction had Balltown Holdings Ltd, which was founded for this purpose by AEK.
The design considered the construction of the stadium in two phases. The first phase began on 7 September 2015. Initially, only 3 of the 4 stands would be built. However, in the course of the implementation of the project, a mandate was given to build the fourth stand.
The stadium was inaugurated on Monday 17 October 2016 with the match between AEK and Aris for the 7th matchday of the 2016–17 Cypriot First Division. AEK won the match with 4–0 score. The first goal which achieved in AEK Arena was scored by Jorge Larena. The official inauguration took place on 27 November 2016.
The first match of European competition was held on 29 June 2017 for the first qualifying round of Europa League 2017–18, when ΑΕΚ faced Lincoln Red Imps F.C.. AEK won the match with 5–0 score.

Funding

The cost of building the stadium:
1) €7 million for the first phase
2) €3 million for the second phase

Categorisation

AEK Arena is classified as a UEFA Category 3 stadium. After the completion of the second phase projects, the stadium will belong in UEFA Category 4.