The Pankritio Stadium (, Pagkritio Stadio, literally: Pancretan Stadium) is a multi-purpose sports stadium located in Heraklion on the island of Crete. It was completed on 31 December 2003, and officially opened on 31 March 2004. As one of the most modern sports venues in Greece at the time, it was used as one of the football venues to host matches of the 2004 Summer Olympic football tournament. It has a capacity of 26,240 seats, and was the home ground of local association football clubs Ergotelis. It also serves as the home stadium of OFI (starting from the 2025-26 season onwards) and also consists of one of Greece national team's home grounds.
Location
The Pankritio Stadium is located in Heraklion, at the Lido district to the west of the city center. It has been built about 50 meters from the island coast, and is neighbored by the Lido Indoor Hall and the city's outdoor pool venue, of which the whole district is named after (Lido).
History
The stadium broke ground sometime during the late 80s, however construction work was not completed on time, and was eventually indefinitely postponed.
Due to its size, age and ranking, the Pankritio was selected as one of the football venues of the 2004 Summer Olympics Football Tournament, hosting in total 10 matches (5 men's Group Stage matches, 2 women's Group Stage matches, one men's Quarterfinals match, one women's Quarterfinals match and one women's Semi-Final match). After the tournament, the stadium was rented out, and has since been used as a training and home ground of the city's football club Ergotelis, and occasionally also by Greece.
In 2015 parts of the stadium's west-side roof were detached following a major wind storm affecting Crete. Eventually the roof would be detached completely for safety reasons. In 2021, the roof was re-attached, however in 2024 the stadium was closed temporarily following another roof detachment, this time at the east side of the stadium.
In 2025, renovation works began at the stadium in light of upcoming friendly matches hosted by the Greek national football team, to meet the highest UEFA category standards, consisting of 50 VIP seats, the addition of extra low energy lights, new sets of railings of different sizes will be installed, and overall exterior rejuvenation.
Facilities
The Pankritio Stadium sports complex features in total two football grounds built to international standards (main stadium and training ground), an 8-lane track, an auxiliary 6-lane track, an indoor gym and swimming pool, multi-purpose halls for boxing, wrestling, fencing, dance, weightlifting, shooting, and tae kwon do, a rowing simulator and a physiotherapy room with sauna and hot tub.
On occasion, the Pankritio has also hosted home games of the Greece, notably attracting large numbers of spectators from all over the island.
Records
The stadium attendance record and first ever sold-out event was set on 20 February 2005, in a Super League match between Ergotelis and reigning champions Olympiacos with 27,950 tickets being sold.
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|12 August 2004||20:30|| Costa Rica ||style="text-align:center;"| 0–0 || Morocco ||Group D||style="text-align:center;"| 3,212
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|14 August 2004||20:30|| Serbia and Montenegro ||style="text-align:center;"| 1–5 || Australia ||Group C||style="text-align:center;"| 8,857
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|15 August 2004||20:30|| Morocco ||style="text-align:center;"| 1–2 || Portugal ||Group D||style="text-align:center;"| 7,581
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|18 August 2004||20:30|| Costa Rica ||style="text-align:center;"| 4–2 || Portugal ||Group D||style="text-align:center;"| 11,218
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|21 August 2004||18:00|| Iraq ||style="text-align:center;"| 1–0 || Australia ||Quarter-finals||style="text-align:center;"| 10,023
|}
Women's tournament
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; width:85%;"
|-
!Date
!Time
!Team No. 1
!Res.
!Team No. 2
!Round
!Attendance
|-
|style="width:200px;"|11 August 2004||style="width:100px;"|18:00||style="width:200px;"| Greece ||style="text-align:center; width: 100px;"| 0–3 ||style="width:200px;"| United States ||Group C||style="text-align:center;"| 15,757
|-
|14 August 2004||20:30|| Greece ||style="text-align:center;"| 0–1 || Australia ||Group C||style="text-align:center;"| 8,857
|-
|20 August 2004||21:00|| Mexico ||style="text-align:center;"| 0–5 || Brazil ||Quarter-finals||style="text-align:center;"| 3,012
|-
|23 August 2004||18:00|| United States ||style="text-align:center;"| 2–1 (a.e.t.) || Germany ||Semi finals||style="text-align:center;"| 5,165
|}
References
External links
- Olympicproperties.gr profile
- Information and photos of Pankritio Stadium