The National Stadium of Peru (sometimes known as Estadio José Díaz or Estadio Nacional de Lima) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Lima, Peru. Its current capacity is 50,086 seats as stated by the Peruvian Football Federation without the lodges for some thousands more. The stadium was first inaugurated on 27 October 1952 for the 1953 South American Championship—replacing the Stadium Nacional—and is Peru's principal and national stadium. It has hosted three of the six South American Championship/Copa América football competitions held in Peru. It is referred to as the Coloso de José Díaz because of its proximity to a street of the same name. It is the home ground of the Peru national football team. The IPD (Peruvian Sport Institute)—a branch of the Ministry of Education—is the stadium's administrating entity. The stadium has undergone several renovations for tournaments such as the 2004 Copa América. The artificial turf was installed for the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship. The most recent renovation started in 2010 and concluded in 2011. The re-inauguration ceremony of the renovated stadium was held on 24 July 2011 with a match between the Peru national under-20 football team and the Spain national under-20 football team.
History
Early history
Peru obtained its first football-based field in the late 19th century, when the club Unión Cricket asked the Municipality of Lima for an appropriate piece of land where they could play football. The municipality gave them a small piece of land in the Santa Beatriz neighborhood which belonged to a shooting club. On July 18, 1897, the field was officially inaugurated and named Estadio Guadalupe. The Liga Peruana de Futbol (known as the FPF today) used it for the first tournaments in Lima.
In 1921, the English residents of Peru that owned the stadium renovated and renamed the stadium from Estadio Guadalupe to Stadium Nacional and donated it to the Peruvian government. It had small wooden stands that were later donated to the Estadio Teodoro Lolo Fernandez when it was demolished to make way for the new stadium which would host the 1953 South American Championship. In the 1950s, Miguel Dasso and the Peruvian President General Manuel A. Odria funded the project for the construction of the new stadium. The new stadium was planned to have capacity of 53,000 and have it entirely made out of cement. The northern and southern stands would have a capacity of 15,000 each while the eastern and western stands would have three levels. On 27 October 1952, the new Estadio Nacional was inaugurated with many comfortable features such as luxury boxes and elevators in one of the stands. The inauguration ceremony started early at 10:00 AM and lasted through the night. The ceremony included an award ceremony for many outstanding athletes including Teodoro Fernández, Alejandro Villanueva, Jorge Alcalde, Olympic gold medalist Edwin Vásquez and Pan American gold medalists Julia Sánchez and Gerardo Salazar. The inaugurating football match was played between players of the Peru national football team that formed two teams that played in the evening under the new illumination system.
1964 tragedy
On 24 May 1964, Peru hosted Argentina in the Estadio Nacional before a crowd of 47,157 for a qualifying match pertaining to the 1964 Olympic Games that were to be hosted in Tokyo. Argentina led the match 1–0 during the second half and in the final minutes Peru equalized; however the Uruguayan referee Ángel Eduardo Pazos disallowed the goal. The spectators were infuriated by the decision and this led to a pitch invasion. The police used tear gas and brutal force to quell the disturbances. The stadium's exits were closed which trapped the spectators inside the stadium. The players and referees had to be escorted off the field by the police. A riot ensued outside the stadium and led the President Fernando Belaúnde Terry to declare a state of emergency which would last for a month. More than 300 people were killed and at least 4,000 were injured. The tragedy led to the reduction of the stadium's capacity from 53,000 to 45,000.