Wembley Stadium

Overview

Wembley Stadium is England’s national football stadium: a 90,000-seat arena in Wembley, London, run by the Football Association — “our iconic Wembley Stadium,” as the FA calls it — and the largest sports venue in the UK and the second largest in Europe (The FA). It is a stadium with two lives: the original Empire Stadium of 1923, with its famous twin towers — home to the 1966 World Cup final, Live Aid, and Michael Jackson’s record seven-night run in 1988 — and the rebuilt Wembley that opened in 2007 beneath a 133-metre steel arch, staging England’s home games, the FA Cup final, the Euro 2020 final, and the Euro 2028 final (Wembley Stadium; UEFA).

This is not Wembley Arena, the neighbouring indoor venue: this profile is about the football stadium alone. The arch — the world’s largest single roof structure, supporting the north roof and 60% of the south roof — is visible across London, and the sliding roof, 52 metres above the pitch, covers every seat, which the stadium says makes it the largest fully covered stadium in the world (Wembley Stadium).

The Empire Stadium and the twin towers (1923–2000)

The original Wembley was built in under a year as the centrepiece of the British Empire Exhibition, at a cost of £750,000 — 250,000 tons of clay dug out to form the bowl, 25,000 tons of concrete for the stands (Wembley Stadium). Its first event was the FA Cup final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United on 28 April 1923: the official attendance was 126,047 — still the largest for any football match in England — though estimates of the crowd that actually entered put the number at around 200,000 (Wembley Stadium). The twin towers at the entrance became the symbol of English football, and the stadium went on to host 78 FA Cup finals, 258 England senior internationals, 40 League Cup finals, six European Cup finals and Euro 96 (Wembley Stadium).

The old Wembley was never just football. Great Britain won 23 medals at the 1948 Olympic Games, with the football events at Wembley; Henry Cooper floored Cassius Clay in 1963; rugby league’s Challenge Cup final has been a fixture since 1929; the NFL’s glitz arrived in the 1980s; and even the Pope graced the turf in 1982 (Wembley Stadium). The defining day came on 30 July 1966, when England beat West Germany 4–2 after extra time to lift the FIFA World Cup on home soil — England’s only World Cup triumph (UEFA). The last football match at the old stadium was England’s World Cup qualifier against Germany on 7 October 2000: a 1–0 German win via Dietmar Hamann’s free kick, watched by 76,377 (Wembley Stadium).

The arch era: the 2007 rebuild

Rebuilding was a saga in itself. While Wembley was being rebuilt, Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium hosted six FA Cup finals — including the 2006 classic in which Liverpool beat West Ham United on penalties after a 3–3 draw — and the new £750 million venue finally opened in 2007 (Wembley Stadium). The first official match was an England Under-21 friendly against Italy, a 3–3 draw on 24 March 2007; Chelsea became the first team to win the FA Cup at the new stadium as Didier Drogba’s strike beat Manchester United, and John Terry scored England’s first goal at their new home in a 1–1 draw with Brazil two weeks later (Wembley Stadium). The biggest attendance so far was the 89,874 who watched the 2008 FA Cup final between Portsmouth and Cardiff City; the record for an international is 89,107, set when England played Kazakhstan in 2008 (Wembley Stadium).

The new Wembley has collected finals. Barcelona beat Manchester United in the 2011 UEFA Champions League final, Bayern Munich triumphed two years later, and earlier European Cup finals at the stadium include Manchester United’s 1968 and Liverpool’s 1978 wins (UEFA). England’s home games are the core business, but the stadium is deliberately multi-use: the NFL has staged International Series regular-season games at Wembley since 2007 — the first, Giants 13–Dolphins 10 on 28 October 2007 before 81,176 — and the 13th game, on 25 October 2015, brought the one-millionth NFL fan through the turnstiles (Wembley Stadium). Tottenham Hotspur played their home games at Wembley for two seasons (2017–2019) while White Hart Lane was rebuilt, with the FA agreeing to host their remaining 2018–19 fixtures (Sportstar).

A music mecca and a tournament stage

Wembley’s concert history is part of its legend. Live Aid in 1985, Queen in 1986, the Rolling Stones in 1990 — and in 1988, Michael Jackson played seven sold-out nights on his Bad World Tour, drawing 504,000 fans in total and entering the Guinness Book of World Records, beating the record previously held by Genesis (Wembley Stadium; This Day in Music). Demand for the first five July dates alone exceeded 1.5 million — enough to fill the 72,000-capacity venue twenty times over — which explains why no artist had done it before, and why the run remains the stadium’s defining concert story (This Day in Music). Muse’s 2007 H.A.A.R.P. tour was voted Wembley’s Greatest Event in 2011, and the 2013 calendar ran from The Killers to Bruce Springsteen, Robbie Williams and Roger Waters (Wembley Stadium).

The tournament stage keeps growing. Wembley hosted both semi-finals and the final of Euro 2020: Italy beat England 3–2 on penalties on 11 July 2021 after a 1–1 draw (UEFA). Next comes Euro 2028: the UK and Republic of Ireland host from 9 June to 9 July 2028 — the bid was appointed on 10 October 2023 — with Wembley staging the final and both semi-finals, plus four group games and a quarter-final among nine stadiums and around three million tickets (UEFA).

Wembley at a glance
Opened	2007 (original stadium 1923–2000)
Capacity	90,000 seats (The FA)
Arch	133-metre steel arch, the world’s largest single roof structure (Wembley Stadium)
Build cost	£750 million (the stadium’s own figure)
Operator	The Football Association
Record attendance	89,874 — 2008 FA Cup final, Portsmouth vs Cardiff City (Wembley Stadium)
International record	89,107 — England vs Kazakhstan, 2008 (Wembley Stadium)

Frequently asked questions

How many people does Wembley hold? The stadium’s capacity is 90,000 seats, which the FA says makes it the largest sports venue in the UK and the second largest in Europe. The biggest crowd for a football match at the new stadium was 89,874, for the 2008 FA Cup final between Portsmouth and Cardiff City.

Who owns Wembley Stadium? The Football Association — Wembley is the national stadium of England and “the home of English football,” in the FA’s own words. Tottenham Hotspur were temporary tenants for two seasons (2017–2019) while White Hart Lane was rebuilt, but no club calls it home.

What was the old Wembley famous for? The twin towers, the 1923 FA Cup final (126,047 official attendance), the 1948 Olympics, England’s 1966 World Cup triumph, Euro 96, Live Aid in 1985, and Michael Jackson’s seven sold-out nights in 1988. The last match there was England vs Germany on 7 October 2000.

Will Wembley host the Euro 2028 final? Yes — UEFA has confirmed that Wembley will stage the Euro 2028 final on 9 July 2028, along with both semi-finals, as the UK and the Republic of Ireland host the tournament. The stadium also hosted the Euro 2020 final, when Italy beat England on penalties.

What this profile does not claim

• It does not resolve the build-cost conflict: the stadium’s own history says £750 million, while other sources quote £789–798 million. The official figure is used.
• It asserts no attendance records beyond the stadium’s official history (89,874); newer claimed records were not verified in this pass.
• It does not claim the Euro 2028 schedule cannot change; the final is confirmed by UEFA but remains a scheduled future event.
• It does not use the “EE” sponsorship branding, which was not verified in a full read.
• This is Wembley Stadium, the football stadium — not the neighbouring Wembley Arena.