Toše Proeski Arena


Toše Proeski National Arena is a sports stadium in Skopje, North Macedonia. It is currently used mostly for football matches, but sometimes also for music concerts or athletics. It is the home stadium of FK Vardar and FK Rabotnički from Skopje, both of which compete in the Macedonian First League, as well as the home ground of the North Macedonia national football team on almost all occasions. On 30 June 2015, the UEFA announced that the National Arena Toše Proeski will host in 2017 for the first time an UEFA Super Cup final. The stadium was previously known as the City Stadium Skopje until 2009 and Philip II National Arena until 2019, when it was renamed in honour of the Macedonian pop icon Toše Proeski.

Reconstruction and expansion

The project for the south stand was designed in 1977 by architects Dragan Krstev and Todorka Mavkova from Beton. Construction of the stadium in its present form began in 1978, with the building of the south stand, which took two years to finish.
The reconstruction and expansion started after a long delay in project implementation in January 2008. The construction of a new north stand was finished in August 2009 and was put in use on 2 August 2009, the Macedonian national holiday "Ilinden". Ten days later, on 12 August, the Macedonia national football team played a friendly match against then European Champions Spain, as part of the 100-year anniversary of football in Macedonia.
The reconstruction of the southern stand started in 2009, which was put into operation on 30 July of that year for the match between FK Rabotnički and Liverpool FC.
Soon after, the construction of the new western and eastern stands started. By mid July 2012, the majority of the stadium was completed with the reconstruction of the new pitch and athletic track. On 25 July 2012, FK Vardar played FC BATE Borisov in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League to re-open the stadium.

Construction cost

Since 2008, the stadium has seen investment of about two billion denari, or €32 million. The second phase, which got underway in November 2011, is the planned reconstruction of the pitch and athletic track. The athletic track around the pitch, from the original 6 will be extended to 8 running tracks and it will use Tartan track surface. Total cost for this phase is €3.5 million. By 2013, it should be finished with the completion of a new illuminated outer facade. The total construction cost for all actions related to the stadium in the period 2008-2013 is estimated to reach over €60 million.

Notable matches