THE STADIUM
Name: Westpac Stadium (formely Westpac Trust Stadium)
Address: Waterloo Quay, Wellington, New Zealand
Opened: 4 January 2000
Total capacity: 34500
Covered: 70%
Home teams: Wellington Phoenix (A-League)
Hurricanes (Rugby Super 14)
Wellington (Air New Zealand Cup rugby)
Internet: www.westpactruststadium.co.nz

Westpac Stadium “The Ring of Fire”
With a population of just 4.5 million people and over 60 million sheep, one might assume that the regular tenants of New Zealand’s stadiums are organisers of agricultural field days and sheep-shearing competitions. However, in line with the country’s strong sporting tradition, the small nation at the bottom of the world boasts a surprisingly good number of top-quality, international-standard facilities. One such example is the Westpac Stadium, which despite its tender years, is fast becoming New Zealand’s most respected and popular stadium, as well as the stand-out new home of football in the rugby-dominated nation.
Located not far from the central business district on the stunning waterfront of New Zealand’s capital Wellington, the Westpac Stadium is impossible to miss. Due to its shape, the stadium is often affectionately referred to as the “Cake Tin”, although Wellington locals are more likely to call it by its correct name or simply “The Stadium”. More recently though, the stadium has acquired a new name as it has been dubbed “The Ring of Fire” by the stadium’s growing number of football fans in attendance at Wellington Phoenix matches.
BECKHAM …
The “Ring of Fire” became the new home of the country’s only professional football team in 2007 after the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) suspended the A-League license of the New Zealand Knights and the team subsequently dissolved. After hearing the club’s plight on the radio while he was at the barbers having his hair cut, future club owner and chairman Terry Serepisos stepped in with a cool million dollars to ensure the continuation of the New Zealand franchise. The FFA granted the license to New Zealand Football who then sub-let the license to Serepisos’ Wellington-based franchise, resulting in the home of football moving to the Westpac Stadium.
Football in New Zealand has not looked back since. Attendances shot up from a meagre 1,000-2,000 per game to the point where an 18,345-strong crowd (the largest ever to watch a competitive club football match in New Zealand) cheered the Wellington Phoenix against Adelaide United on 30 November 2007. The following night, all records were smashed in terms of attendance at any football match in the country when the team played a friendly match in front of 31,853 people against MLS club Los Angeles Galaxy and a certain David Beckham. After managing to attract 15,000 children to a training session earlier that week, he continued to delight live international football-starved New Zealanders by scoring a penalty and playing a full 90 minutes with a broken rib.
… ROBBIE AND THE STONES
Driving the cheering fans at the LA Galaxy game and, in fact, all Wellington Phoenix home games was a particular section of the Westpac Stadium found in the rows between aisles 21 and 22. This section is the home of “Yellow Fever”, the Wellington Phoenix supporters club that was founded the day after Wellington’s winning bid for the A-League franchise was announced. The name for the group was established on the assumption that the team would play in yellow, the provinces traditional sporting colour. The name stuck, even after the team announced its strip would be black, and the dominant outfit seen in the stadium for football fixtures is now a yellow T-shirt with a retro-photo of coach Ricki Herbert on the front. Having said that, if the Phoenix (also know as the Nix) are in front with ten minutes to go, the T-shirts disappear and all “Yellow Fever” members (well the male ones at least) follow a new tradition of going bare-chested.
As well as supporting their beloved Nix, “Yellow Fever” has lent its support to other football fixtures including Team Wellington in the national league and the All Whites (the New Zealand national men’s team) fixtures. It is also hoped that they will be in good voice for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup when it comes to town for group-stage and quarter-final fixtures in October and November 2008. In relation to the event, Will McKenzie, Regional General Manager in Wellington for the Local Organising Committee, comments: “The stadium’s relatively large capacity and multi-purpose function presents some challenges for the event of course, but we are extremely proud to offer this facility as a showpiece for the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. It is only new and of international standard with a fantastic playing surface, but the surroundings show off New Zealand’s beautiful scenery in an ideal way. We also have the added benefit of having a hugely proactive city council and a population that continually proves that it really gets behind events in a big way.”
The enthusiasm and support that the city has consistently shown events and the user-friendly nature of the facility have meant that the Westpac Stadium has been a preferred venue for more than just football in New Zealand. Hosting everything from The Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams concerts to international rugby tests and Australian rules football exhibition matches, the “Ring of Fire” seems to be able to accommodate anything — including the recording of 30,000 fans chanting in Black Speech during a cricket match by director Peter Jackson for the sound of 10,000 chanting Urak-hai in the “Battle of Helms Deep” in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Not bad for a stadium that was built on reclaimed railway land that was surplus to requirements and was designed to replace the city’s old rugby stadium, Athletic Park, that was poorly situated for the demands of modern sport and had fallen into disrepair.

THE STADIUM
Name: Ernst Happel Stadium
Address: Meiereistrasse 7, 1020 Vienna
Opened: 11 July 1931
Last renovation: 2007
No, of seats: 50865 (53008 for EURO 2008)
% of stadium covered: 100%
Home team: Austria, Viennese clubs (for European matches)

Ernst Happel Stadium: stage of the stars
There are some songs which, when aired at the Prater Stadium, bring everyone to their feet — even the calmest and most placid of Austrian football fans. For whenever “Austria forever,” the unofficial anthem of the Austrian football team, booms around this arena, the stadium turns into a deafening mass of voices and the atmosphere is quite something to behold. “Austria forever” is the traditional call-to-arms of the Austrian national team and nowhere does this most Austrian of songs sound as loud, as impressive and as atmospheric as at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium, Austria’s home stadium and the setting for the EURO 2008 final on 29 June 2008.
The stadium is a wonderful venue for football matches and the perfect stage for stars, even though the opening match 77 years ago was unquestionably rather less glamorous than the hundreds that followed. On 11 July 1931, Vienna’s Workers’ XI defeated a Lower Austria representative team 3-2 at the second Workers’ Olympiad but the action on the pitch was far less impressive than the crowd. Some 65,000 fans flocked to watch football and handball in the stadium, which has since attracted millions of visitors and enjoyed many an hour in the sun, providing the backdrop for some of Austrian football’s finest moments.
This most modern and spacious of Austrian stadiums was once known as the Prater Stadium after the famous Viennese park where the architect, Otto Ernst Schweizer, chose to build his stadium, but in 1992, it was renamed as the Ernst Happel Stadium in a fitting tribute to one of the country’s greatest-ever players and coaches who had passed away earlier that year.
The 1930s had been the perfect time for Vienna to build its new stadium. Austria were one of the leading lights in the world of football with a raft of star names and one crushing victory after another. Indeed, it was in front of the packed terraces and stands of the Prater Stadium that the legendary Wunderteam, who went 14 games unbeaten, posted comfortable wins over Germany (5-0), Hungary (8-2) and England (2-1) before the dark days set in. During the Second World War, the stadium was used as a detention centre for Jews and opponents of the Nazi regime prior to their deportation, and today there is a plaque in the VIP area to remind visitors of the horrendous events that occurred there.
The stadium was bombed in 1944 and rebuilt – bigger and more modern – after the war. The opening match saw Rapid Vienna overcome Real Madrid 3-1 thanks to a hat trick from the man who would later give his name to the stadium, a certain Ernst Happel. Capacity crowds were commonplace in the stadium at this time. In 1960, 90,726 fans saw Austria beat the USSR 3-1, setting a record attendance that has never been and indeed never will be matched because the stadium was redesigned again in 1986 and brought up to the modern-day standards expected of all-seater, covered stadiums. Once again, the opening match in the revamped stadium proved to be one to remember with Austria inflicting an embarrassing 4-1 defeat on their great West German rivals, who at the time were coached by Franz Beckenbauer. Once again, the stadium was transformed into a deafening cauldron with — what else – “Austria forever” to the fore.
That is not to say that the stadium has not also reverberated to other songs, albeit often those of fans from other countries, because over the years Vienna has established itself as avenue par excellence for finals. The Austrian capital has played host to four Champions League/European Cup finals, one of which went down in history as one of the greatest in European football history. Who could possibly forget Rabah Madjer for instance, who shot to fame in 1987 when he scored a spectacular back-heeled goal to clinch victory for Porto over Bayern Munich? A young man called Patrick Kluivert also made a name for himself in Vienna by scoring the only goal of the game in Ajax’s 1995 victory over AC Milan, providing the springboard for big-money moves to some of Europe’s biggest clubs (AC Milan, Barcelona).
The Ernst Happel Stadium is not all about football though, as many a rock star has also graced the arena. If you cannot hear the “Austria forever” chorus ringing out, the chances are that there is a different type of music in the air as the Ernst Happel Stadium is also one of Austria’s premier concert venues, much like Wembley Stadium in London or the San Siro in Milan. Michael Jackson has played here, as have Tina Turner, Elton John, U2 and the Rolling Stones – all to 50,000 sell-out crowds.
One thine is for sure though, and that is that the average Austrian undoubtedly prefers a thrilling Austria home match to a big-name concert, even though it is also fair to say that Austrian fans and players have had little cause for celebration at the Ernst Happel Stadium in recent times. In fact, as the clock ticked down towards EURO 2008, Austria had to endure a deafening concert of cat-calls and whistles as the players once again found themselves unable to get back to winning ways. Yet as critical as the Austrian fans in the Ernst Happel Stadium can be, they are also connoisseurs who appreciate fine skill and spectacular goals, as they proved once again in two warm-up games for EURO 2008. Although the home team lost both games (3-0 to Germany and 4-3 to the Netherlands), the Austrian fans did not greet defeat with a concert of boos and whistles, and instead proudly belted out their traditional song with more than one eye on this summer’s festival of football.
“Austria forever”, the red-and-white army’s favourite song, will always be heard at the Ernst Happel Stadium … no matter how well or how poorly Austria fare at the European Championship on home soil.

Horacio Elizondo
Born: 4 November 1963 in Don Bosco, Quilmes, Argentina
Career: Officiated at qualifying matches for the 1998, 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups™; the FIFA U-17 World Cups 1997 and 2005 in Egypt and Peru respectively; the FIFA U-20 World Cups 2003 and 2005 in the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands, respectively; the 1995 Pan American Games, the 1997 and 1999 Copas America in Bolivia and Paraguay, respectively; the 2000 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2004 Olympic Football Tournament in Athens. He also refereed the 2002, 2005 and 2006 Copa Libertadores finals. Besides being the only man to have refereed the opening match and the final of a FIFA World Cup™, he also holds the record, together with Mexican Benito Archundia, for the most matches refereed during a single FIFA World Cup™ (five). On 8 January 2007 he was named Referee of the Year at the World Soccer Gala, an award from the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.
Miscellaneous: Married with four children, Malena, Valentina, Joaquin and Agustin.

“Horacio, you are not going to believe it”
Horacio Elizondo is the only referee to have officiated at both the opening match and the final of the same FIFA World Cup™. In December 2006, he retired as a referee and recently started work as a director at the Argentinian football association (AFA).
Spaniard Luis Medina Cantalejo s voice comes in over the communications system and into the ear of Argentinian referee Horadio Elizondo: “Horacio, Zidane has just butted Materazzi really hard in the chest … You won’t believe it when you see it.” With ten minutes to go until the end of extra time in the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ final, a murmur spread around the stadium in Berlin. While the ball was in play in another area of the pitch, the French midfielder had struck the Italian defender, but the fourth official saw it all.
“I usually identify the players and call them by their name, but at that moment they were simply ‘the no. 10 from the white team and the no. 23 from the blue team’. “The referee has to be ready to take decisions whoever the culprit may be, neither his name nor the shirt he is wearing should have any influence when you are taking a decision as important as a sending-off,” says Elizondo in the office he occupies as AFA director of referee training, a position he took up just a few months ago.
Having retired from refereeing in December 2006, he cannot fail to recall the biggest night in his illustrious career: “In the stands there was a feeling of uncertainty, as few people had seen what had happened between Materazzi and Zidane. The French fans were very angry because they didn’t know the reason for the red card. Afterwards, the TV pictures explained everything.”
Elizondo refereed five matches at Germany 2006 and is the only official to have been in charge of both the opening and final match of a FIFA World Cup™, no less a privilege than his impeccable performances deserved. Despite the tremendous importance of the final, he considers the highlight of his career to be the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica: “Stepping out onto the pitch in Munich was the culmination of all the enjoyable moments I have had as a referee. Unforgettable memories went through my head, from my beginnings, when I saw a notice on the door of the AFA in 1984 that said ‘registration period open for prospective referees’, through to my first official matches as an assistant referee. It was like flashbacks of my 22 years in football. 9 June 2006 was the most exciting and special moment in my career. And I was even able to enjoy it.”
NO HAND BALL
The road to Germany started with laws of the game according to which hand ball was not considered an offence. Elizondo explains: “I am a physical education teacher and my teacher, Alfredo Miri, had a lot to do with it: he got me started refereeing handball matches.” The football followed soon afterwards. Elizondo’s debut was as assistant referee for the fourth-division match between Midland and Canuelas. This was the first step in an unstoppable rise which saw him take charge of 11 derbies between Boca Juniors and River Plate – die superclasico of Argentinian football. On 9 October 1996, he refereed his first international match, Ecuador v. Colombia. This was followed by his first international tournament, the FIFA U-17 World Cup 1997 in Egypt, three Copa Libertadores finals and his swansong in the Qatari league before hanging up his whistle.
Following his retirement, Elizondo received all manner of offers thanks to the prestige he had acquired: “I got thousands of offers from political parties to stand for election, to become a civil servant… But I always thought that if I was going to enter politics, it had to be something to do with my vocation. I have spent my whole life thinking about sport.” He became a TV commentator, wrote a newspaper column and finally agreed to become secretary of education and sport in Lujan, close to his home 70km from Buenos Aires. This quickly led to his appointment as undersecretary of state for sport: “This led to a lot of administrative work, so when this came up at APA I knew it was the most important thing,” he admits.
THE REFEREES’ REFEREE
“The idea came from APA President Tulio Grondona in September 2007,” recalls Elizondo. He wanted to change the refereeing structure. I developed the ideas in my head into a strategic plan. All referees are grateful to the associations leaders for accepting this change.” The new referee training directorate (DFA) is based on two central pillars: training and strategy. The new directorate has replaced the referees school, which had existed in the statutes from the very beginning of Argentinian football and had become obsolete. “Under the DFA, refereeing has a 21st-century hierarchy. Previously the focus was on the technical side; we have expanded this to a technical, tactical and strategic approach, we have a psychology department and a coaching department, which is groundbreaking. We have also created a department of performance and research, which is responsible for statistics, produces evidence and assessment and enables the teaching and learning process to be continually corrected. There are also medical and communications departments; previously it was very difficult for referees to communicate with one another. People watch the referee for 90 minutes, but they don’t know about the work he does during the week,” explains Elizondo, while also highlighting the DFA’s “very human focus”: “If a person is not happy with his life, it is not possible for him to be a strong referee.”
Argentinian refereeing is taking a step in the same direction in top-level professional football. The working week starts on Friday, before the referees begin their exercises on the pitch. Elizondo explains the process: “They come in on Monday morning to recuperate physically, have lunch and in the afternoon they analyse videos of first-division matches. On Tuesdays, the referees and assistant referees are separated: they do technical, tactical and strategic work (on the pitch, control, signals, movement, etc.) followed by a fitness session. On Wednesdays it’s the turn of the psychologist, and we focus on coaching, performance, and physical work. On Thursdays, the assistant referees work with the referees and passages of play are created for them to practise their coordination. At the moment, this is all done by referees; in the future, we hope to use youth teams for this task. Friday is a rest day. Those who are refereeing on Saturday gather here at the headquarters in Ezeiza on Friday night.” Elizondo has various duties as director: “Sometimes I’m at my desk, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays you will see me in a tracksuit training with the others. I’m like the ‘technical director of a team of referees’. It’s quite similar to a footballer’s performance: your place can’t be guaranteed; you have to earn it every weekend. Those who are on the bench today could be the big names of tomorrow. Our job is to create the best team of referees week by week.”
A lot of assessment work is being carried out this year. “For example, we put a GPS device on Hector Baldassi to calculate how much a referee runs on the pitch and adapt the training sessions accordingly,” says Elizondo, who has already planned the next stage: “At the end of the year, after intensively assessing them over the year, we will sit down with each referee and tell him what’s in store for 2009. In the medium term, we will work on the refereeing development programme, preparing new blood at the various levels and in the long term we will use another programme for young talent.”
OTHER PASSIONS
Elizondo’s life is not completely dominated by football, however. He is also a golfer and although he does not have much free time, he tries never to be too far away from a course. What most people do not knew about, though, is his passion for poetry. “The Uruguayans, Eduardo Galeano and Mario Benedetti, are my favourites. I also have an anecdote about Galeano: he know I admired him and shortly after I had returned from the World Cup he sent me a package from Montevideo containing a letter and a book with a dedication from him, I was really touched. To thank him for his kindness I sent him one of the shirts which I wore in Germany. I’m now hoping to meet him in person.”