Adrar Stadium (Arabic: ملعب آدرار; Berber languages: ⴰⴱⴰⵔⴰⵣ ⵏ ⵓⴷⵔⴰⵔ (Adrar means mountain in Tamazight[1]); French: Grand Stade d'Agadir), is a multi-use stadium in Agadir, in the Souss-Massa region in the country of Morocco, near the Atlas Mountains, in North Africa, and is used as a home venue by the local football team, Hassania Agadir.
The construction project began on paper in 2003, with the idea of building the stadium for Morocco's failed 2006 FIFA World Cup bid.
The stadium's first plan was to be a host venue as a part of Morocco's bid for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which was instead awarded to Germany.
Then, the project was put on hold and resumed in 2007 for Morocco's failed bid for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, when in 2010, South Africa was awarded the tournament as the host, and plans for the stadium were paused.
[14] Hassania also qualified for the African continent in the CAF Confederation Cup, with games played in Adrar stadium.
However, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation made the decision to play the quarter final home match against Al-Nasr of Libya in Agadir behind closed doors, without any fans in attendance due to the restrictions imposed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
[18] Though the Moroccan government decided to cancel hosting the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations due to fears of the Ebola outbreak, the Adrar stadium would have been used for the tournament.
[20] Former Moroccan men's national team manager Ezzaki Badou has praised the stadium and its fans from the Sous area, also citing the moderate climate of Agadir as favorable for the players.
[9][11][28] Morocco was the destination for the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup as a replacement to the tournament being held in Japan for the then yearly continental competition.
The Moroccan bid was chosen as the first Club World Cup in Africa for 2013, with Agadir playing host to 4 games in the tournament.
The hosting of the tournaments in Morocco gave an incentive in 2022 for the government to expand its high-speed railway, Al Boraq, to finally connect Agadir to other cities.
For 2030, FIFA decided on a new format to celebrate the "beautiful game", which sees three continents (Africa, Europe and South America) uniting to host the football (soccer) tournament.