Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 04/06/2026 20:36:00

The FNB Stadium, also known as Soccer City and as the Calabash for its distinctive ceramic-pot exterior shape, opened in its current rebuilt form in June 2009 in the Nasrec area south of central Johannesburg, around twelve kilometres south-west of the central business district between the Crown Mines and the wider Soweto townships. The original ground on the same site dated from 1989, with the principal 2009 redevelopment lifting the capacity from approximately 80,000 to the current 94,736 spectators and making FNB the largest stadium anywhere in Africa by a substantial margin. The redevelopment was designed by the South African firm Boogertman and Partners working in partnership with the international firm Populous, and was timed to deliver the new stadium for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with FNB hosting the opening match, the principal opening ceremony and the 11 July 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands that Spain won 1 to 0 in extra time. The exterior of the building is wrapped in a multi-coloured ceramic-tiled mosaic of around 33,000 individual fibre-cement panels in shades of brown, orange and red that suggests a stylised African pot, with a long horizontal slit running around the upper perimeter to suggest the fire line of a traditional cooking arrangement. The stadium serves as the principal home ground of Kaizer Chiefs in the South African Premier League and has hosted multiple South African national football and rugby fixtures across the past decade. The FNB also functions as one of the principal large concert and political event venues in southern Africa, with the 10 December 2013 memorial service for Nelson Mandela having drawn around 80,000 attendees and 91 visiting heads of state in one of the largest single political gatherings of the post-apartheid era. First National Bank, the principal naming sponsor, has held the title rights since 2009. The wider Soccer City branding was used through the 2010 World Cup itself, with FIFA tournament regulations prohibiting the display of corporate naming rights inside the stadium across the wider tournament period, and the FNB naming rights have applied across the entire subsequent period since the closing ceremony of the wider competition. The stadium has additionally hosted multiple Rugby World Cup, Africa Cup of Nations and CAF Champions League fixtures across the past fifteen years, with regular Kaizer Chiefs Soweto Derby fixtures against Orlando Pirates drawing crowds of approximately 90,000 spectators that consistently rank among the largest individual sporting events anywhere in the wider African continent. The wider Nasrec area sits along the Soweto Highway connecting central Johannesburg to the wider Soweto townships further south-west.