Obafemi Awolowo Stadium
building in Nigeria
The Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan, Nigeria, originally known as Liberty Stadium until 2010 is a football stadium with a capacity of 25,000 seats. It is located at Liberty road, Ring Road
History
Construction
The stadium was opened in 1960 during the tenure of Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was serving as the Premier of the Western Region at the time. It was named Liberty Stadium in honor of Nigeria's independence. Constructed by direct labour under the supervision of the regional Ministry of Works and Transport, the stadium was the central location of sports in the old Western region of Nigeria. It was sited at the southern end of Ibadan in 1960 near the summit of a hill, and located close to a bypass that leads to the Ibadan-Abeokuta and Ibadan-Lagos roads.
At its inception, besides the football pitch in the main bowl with floodlights, the stadium boasted the indoor sports halls, swimming pool, courts for tennis, volleyball, handball, basketball, hockey, etc.
Boxing
On August 10, 1963, the stadium hosted the first ever boxing world title fight in Africa. The match was initially slated for July 13, 1963. This was for the Middleweight Championship of the World belt and was fought between Nigeria's own Dick Tiger and Gene Fullmer of the US.
African Cup of Nations
In 1980, the stadium hosted several matches during the African Cup of Nations, including a semi-final between Algeria and Egypt.
FIFA World Youth Championship
In 1999, the Liberty Stadium was selected along with eight other stadiums in Nigeria to host the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship.
The public source identifies “Obafemi Awolowo Stadium” as building in Nigeria. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Obafemi, Awolowo and Stadium.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Obafemi Awolowo Stadium”, the useful work is to connect “building in Nigeria” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1823029. Authority coordinates are 7.366, 3.874. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010, 1960, 1963 and 1980.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Obafemi Awolowo Stadium” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.