A new Framework
As part of the vision to make football truly global, FIFA promotes the development of football infrastructure. The stadium is at the very core of this objective and these guidelines recognise that this development must be sustainable in every aspect, be it economic, environmental or social. It is eleven years since FIFA last produced some generic stadium guidance in the form of the 5th edition of Football Stadiums: Technical Recommendations and Requirements. Whilst this has been well used throughout the industry, it focused on large stadiums and the requirements of a FIFA World Cup™ final tournament.
A new framework of standards is now required that can be applied to different sizes of stadiums and can support the ongoing core needs of football communities. Therefore the document is designed to be informative and supportive rather than a prescriptive set of requirements.
There are two key parts to the guidelines:
1. General Process Guidelines consists of the first four chapters, which focus on the processes of stadium development, from early initiation and feasibility considerations (Chapter1) through design (Chapter 2) and construction (Chapter 3), and finally to the operational aspects of stadiums from their opening to regular maintenance programmes (Chapter 4). These opening chapters can be viewed as How to… guidelines.
2. Technical Guidelines can be regarded as the What? guidelines. It comprises the main, larger aspects of stadium requirements (Chapter 5), before moving on to the spaces owned by the various main users and groups (Chapter 6). Finally, Chapter 7 provides guidance on the application of these guidelines to different sizes or categories of stadiums.
The guidelines are designed to support the ongoing, regular staging of football matches rather than just the hosting of any FIFA tournament or other competition. Each FIFA tournament has its own set of detailed infrastructure requirements, which are disseminated as part of the bidding process for each tournament.