El Molinón

Estadio El Molinón (Spanish pronunciation: [esˈta.ðjo el mo.liˈnon]), officially Estadio Municipal El Molinón-Enrique Castro "Quini", is an association football stadium in Gijón, Asturias, Spain. The stadium is the home ground of Real Sporting de Gijón. With a capacity of 29,029 seats, El Molinón is the 20th largest stadium in Spain and the second largest in Asturias.

El Molinón

UEFA Category 3 stadium
Full nameEstadio Municipal El Molinón-Enrique Castro "Quini"
LocationGijón, Asturias, Spain
Coordinates43°32′10″N 5°38′14″W
OwnerAyuntamiento de Gijón
OperatorSporting de Gijón
Capacity29,029[1]
Record attendance42,000
Field size105 m × 68 m (344 ft × 223 ft)
SurfaceGrass
Construction
Opened1908 or earlier
Renovated1997–98
Expanded1980–81, 2009–10
Tenants
Sporting de Gijón (1917–present) [2]
Spain national football team (selected matches)

History
El Molinón, on the shore of the Piles river.

El Molinón is the oldest professional football field in Spain. It has been in use since at least 1908,[3] and is located on the site of an old watermill, hence the stadium's name, the Spanish word for "big mill".[4]

Real Sporting started to use El Molinón as official ground in 1917. The first official match was held on April 22, 1917 between Real Sporting and Arenas Club de Getxo as part of the 1917 Copa del Rey. Arenas won 0–1. On August 5 of that same year, the first great renovation of the stadium was finished.[5]

On 2 May 1920, El Molinón held the 1920 Copa del Rey Final, where Barcelona defeated Athletic Bilbao by 2–0.[6]

In 1924 Real Sporting bought El Molinón and became the owner of the stadium. In 1931 the main stand was destroyed by fire, but it was later re-built. In 1944, Gijón City Hall re-bought El Molinón due to Real Sporting's bad financial situation.

In 1968 four floodlights were installed at El Molinón and the first night match was played against Mestalla.[7] On 11 April 1969, due to the financial trouble of Real Sporting, the stadium was formally sold to the city Town Hall by 30 million pesetas.[8] On 30 November 1969, El Molinón became the first all-covered stadium in Spain and on 28 January 1970, the first match to be televised in Spain was played at El Molinón. Real Sporting defeated Osasuna by 3–0. The club also played all of its UEFA Cup home-matches in this stadium, including the win against A.C. Milan by 1–0 on 30 September 1987.

On 28 June 1995, Real Sporting beat the record attendance for the club at El Molinón, with 42,000 people at the relegation playoffs against Lleida.[9]

During 1997–98, El Molinón prepared to adapt to the new UEFA and FIFA security legislation: all people must be seated and the fences must be removed. The stadium's capacity was reduced from 42,000 to 25,885. However, plans were put forward for the stadium to be renovated and expanded. After the expansion between 2009 and 2011, El Molinón's capacity again grew to 29,029 seats.

On 28 February 2018, just one day after the death of Real Sporting's all-time top scorer Quini, the City Council of Gijón agreed unanimously to rename the stadium as Estadio El Molinón-Enrique Castro "Quini" in his memory.[10] Three months later, after a popular initiative, the gate 1 of the stadium was renamed as former goalkeeper Jesús Castro, brother of Quini.

On 8 January 2019, El Molinón used for the first time the video assistant referee at the Copa del Rey round of 16 match against Valencia. However, as in that season it was only used in La Liga, the stadium would not have again the VAR until the 2019–20 season.

The stadium hosted its first women's football match ever on 21 April 2019. 9,700 spectators attended the local derby between Real Sporting and Gijón FF.[11]

League attendances
El Molinón, in a game versus Athletic Bilbao in October 2010.

This is a list of league and playoffs games attendances of Sporting de Gijón at El Molinón.[12]

Sporting played all the competitive games at this stadium except one in the 2002–03 season due to the closure of the stadium after the game against Numancia.[13] This game, not included in the table, was played against Almería at the Estadio Antonio Amilivia in León.[14]

Games played under closed doors are not included.

Season Total High Low Average
1988–89 La Liga364,65932,00012,39719,193
1989–90 La Liga350,54626,00013,31818,450
1990–91 La Liga348,32027,33513,15218,333
1991–92 La Liga336,28325,00014,50017,699
1992–93 La Liga307,83920,0009,20016,202
1993–94 La Liga326,24026,20010,30017,171
1994–95 La Liga406,90038,0009,00020,345
1995–96 La Liga453,76831,00014,30021,608
1996–97 La Liga403,60630,00012,00019,219
1997–98 La Liga292,25921,2268,90015,382
1998–99 Segunda División268,74616,2009,50012,797
1999–2000 Segunda División246,90015,00010,00011,757
2000–01 Segunda División252,50018,0006,50012,024
2001–02 Segunda División243,30025,0007,00011,586
2002–03 Segunda División241,00018,6008,50012,050
2003–04 Segunda División332,98925,0009,00015,857
2004–05 Segunda División239,90014,0005,00011,424
2005–06 Segunda División193,15012,5005,0009,198
2006–07 Segunda División228,97514,0006,00010,904
2007–08 Segunda División343,73324,00012,00016,368
2008–09 La Liga411,67024,50018,50021,667
2009–10 La Liga382,60024,00017,10020,137
2010–11 La Liga426,10028,00019,00022,426
2011–12 La Liga417,01528,00018,64821,948
2012–13 Segunda División333,48319,9518,18715,880
2013–14 Segunda División377,30722,31513,26517,150
2014–15 Segunda División405,68626,87312,24019,318
2015–16 La Liga440,72328,14019,53623,196
2016–17 La Liga428,31325,89915,36522,543
2017–18 Segunda División458,39227,50615,43620,836
2018–19 Segunda División386,07026,7488,60018,384
2019–20 Segunda División[lower-alpha 1]280,24522,07213,72817,515
2020–21 Segunda DivisiónSeason played under closed doors
2021–22 Segunda División[lower-alpha 2]288,72923,4708,98913,749
2022–23 Segunda División365,63324,79013,43017,411
  1. Matches played under closed doors not included.
  2. Some matches played with limited attendance.

International matches
Commemorative monument of 1982 FIFA World Cup in front of El Molinón.

Spain national team matches

The first international match in El Molinón was held on 22 April 1928 between Spain and Italy. 49 years later, El Molinón held again another international match between Spain and Norway. On 22 March 2013, El Molinón held a World Cup Qualifying match between Spain and Finland. The match finished in a 1–1 draw.

DataOpponentScoreCompetitionAtt.
22 April 1928 Italy1–1Friendly match
29 March 1978 Norway3–0Friendly match25,000
16 April 1980 Czechoslovakia2–2Friendly match25,000
24 September 1986 Greece3–1Friendly match17,500
12 September 1990 Brazil3–1Friendly match42,000
11 October 1997 Faroe Islands3–11998 FIFA World Cup qualification25,000
31 March 2004 Denmark2–0Friendly match18,600
17 August 2005 Uruguay2–0Friendly match20,000
22 March 2013 Finland1–12014 FIFA World Cup qualification27,637
24 March 2017 Israel4–12018 FIFA World Cup qualification20,321
8 September 2019 Faroe Islands4–0UEFA Euro 2020 qualification23,644

1982 FIFA World Cup

The stadium played host to West Germany’s three matches in Group B. Two of them were famous in the 1982 World Cup, West Germany's shock 1–2 defeat to Algeria being the first. After the result of Algeria's final group game was known, a rather uncontested 1–0 victory of West Germany against Austria sent both teams through at Algeria's expense. In German the match is known as Nichtangriffspakt von Gijón (lit. Non-aggression pact of Gijón)[15] or Schande von Gijón (lit. Disgrace of Gijón). This shameful game at Gijon directly led to a change of the rules, requiring the last matches in the group phase to be played simultaneously to ensure that teams do not gain any advantage or disadvantage from having their matches scheduled last.

West Germany 1–2 Algeria
Rummenigge 67' Report Madjer 54'
Belloumi 68'
El Molinón, Gijón
Attendance: 42,000
West Germany 4–1 Chile
Rummenigge 9', 57', 66'
Reinders 81'		 Report Moscoso 90'
El Molinón, Gijón
Attendance: 42,000
West Germany 1–0 Austria
Hrubesch 10' Report
El Molinón, Gijón
Attendance: 41,000

Other

In 1981, some scenes of the film Volver a empezar, prized with the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1983, were shot in El Molinón.[16]

The stadium has hosted concerts by many famous artists, including:

References
  1. Información RSG; 16 January 2020
  2. "club de futbol gijon :: La Futbolteca. Enciclopedia del FĂştbol EspaĂąol". Lafutbolteca.com. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  3. "El Comercio" (in Spanish). El Comercio. 20 May 1908. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  4. "El Molinón empieza su centenario" (in Spanish). El Comercio. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
  5. "La primera≤ gran remodelación de El Molinón cumple un siglo". Sporting Gijón. 5 August 2017. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  6. "Queda proclamado campeón de España el Barcelona Foot-Ball Club, por dos "goals" a cero del Athletic de Bilbao" (in Spanish). El Comercio Hemerotec. 4 May 1920. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  7. "Con luz solar y con luz artificial, el Mestalla fue un peligroso equipo" (in Spanish). El Comercio. 14 January 1969.
  8. "Ayuntamiento y Noticia" (in Spanish). El Comercio. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  9. "El Lleida cae con las botas puestas en Gijón" (PDF). Mundo Deportivo. 29 June 1995. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  10. "El Molinón llevará el nombre de Quini". La Nueva España. 28 February 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  11. "El Molinón albergará el primer gran derbi femenino de fútbol" [El Molinón will host the first women's football derby] (in Spanish). El Comercio. 9 April 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  12. Asistencia histórica de espectadores a El Molinón; LNE.es
  13. Apelación ratificó el cierre de El Molinón; As, 7 March 2003
  14. Sporting-Almería, en León; Diario de León; 30 May 2003
  15. "Austria shirt/kits World Cup 1978 and 1982". switchimageproject.com. November 20, 2007. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
  16. "El Molinón, inscrito como el estadio español más antiguo" (in Spanish). Real Sporting. 6 September 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  17. "25 años del concierto de Tina Turner en Gijón" (in Spanish). SER Gijón. 8 July 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
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