Neo GSP Stadium
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Neo (New) GSP Stadium or Pancypria Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus. It is currently used mostly for football matches. Being the largest stadium of Cyprus, the stadium holds 23,700 and was built in 1999. It is the home stadium of the Nicosia's teams; of the two greatest clubs of the island, AC Omonia and APOEL and also home stadium for Olympiakos Nicosia
It consists of three sections, the football stadium, athletics stadium and the assistant football stadium (for training). The Owner of the stadium is Gymnastic Club Pancypria or Pancypria Athletic Club, which is athletics club. The club in the past owned the Palaio (Old) GSP Stadium, with capacity of 12 000 seats and it was in the centre of Nicosia. However, the two main clubs of Nicosia, Omonia and APOEL, stop using it as their home and went to Makarios Stadium. In 1994, Olympiakos left from the stadium as well and the stadium was never again used.
In 1999 the new stadium was built just at the entry to Nicosia with a ceremony with the participation of that year President Glafcos Clerides and Archbishop Chrysostomos and a friendly match between Omonia and APOEL, which ended 3-3.
Since then, the stadium is not only the home of Nicosian teams but usually of Cyprus national football team. During the World Cup 2006 qualifying round it was used as home for all matches of Cyprus. The stadium is the only one in Cyprus which satisfies UEFA Criteria. For this reason since 2004 it is used as home for all the teams of Cyprus in European Cups. Annually, the stadium hosts the Cyprus FA Shield (Super Cup). Also until 2005, it was hosting annually the Cyprus Cup final.
Because of the danger conflicts in Middle East, in 2002 the stadium was home forIsraeli teams for the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League matches. It hosted the UEFA Cup quarter final (as home for Hapoel Tel Aviv) between Hapoel Tel Aviv and AC Milan. It was also used by Maccabi Haifa for home stadium for the Champions League Group and Qualifying Round matches and for the UEFA Cup matches. Some matches were attractive for Cypriots like the matches Maccabi Haifa-Olympiacos CFP and Maccabi Haifa-Manchester United, since those two Maccabi's rivals are very popular in Cyprus.
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