(25 May 2025)
LEBANON STADIUM
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 1:56
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut – 23 May 2025
1. Arrival of Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Minister of Youth and Sports, Nora Bayrakdarian at Camille Chamoun Stadium as fireworks go off
2. Lebanese teams Ansar and Nijmeh, walking towards pitch
3. Salam shaking hands with football team members
4. Salam performing a symbolic kickoff of game
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nora Bayrakdarian, Youth and Sports Minister:
"It’s an indescribable feeling because today, the Sports City is more than just a facility, more than just a football stadium. It represents our history, it embodies our culture. So it’s a special feeling where through reviving the Sports City, we are reconnecting with our heritage, our national legacy. And this government has come to say that it is responsible for this legacy and will preserve it."
6. Various of game
7. Various of fans at stadium
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassan Farhat, football fan:
"What is important is that this sports fortress has come back to life, and for the whole of Beirut to come back to life as well as Lebanon too."
9. Various of match
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hadi Mortada, football fan:
"Honestly, it’s a very nice feeling for the (Sports) City to come back to life after a long absence. And God willing, Nijmeh (team) will win."
11. Colored smoke display
STORYLINE:
The main stadium in the Lebanese capital came back to life after being closed for six years as Lebanon sank in its worst economic crisis in its modern history.
The Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium was reopened on Friday with a match between the country’s two top soccer teams, Nijmeh and Ansar, in a ceremony attended by senior Lebanese officials.
"It’s an indescribable feeling because today, the Sports City is more than just a facility, more than just a football stadium. It represents our history, it embodies our culture," said Minister of Youth and Sports, Nora Bayrakdarian.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam attended the opening ceremony, shook hands with players and symbolically kicked off the game.
"The return of life to the sports city shows the new page that began in Lebanon," said Bayrakdarian, referring to the election of a new president and the formation of a government earlier this year.
The funeral of the slain leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, Hassan Nasrallah was held at the stadium in February but no sports event have been held there in six years.
In October 2019, Lebanon’s worst economic crisis rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s political class, broke out with nationwide protests.
A year later the situation got worse with the Beirut port blast that was considered as one of the largest non-nuclear explosion ever recorded.
The 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war followed in 2023, ending last November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
Now, the reopening of the stadium was welcome for football fans and a sign of hope for the country.
"What is important is that this sports fortress has come back to life, and for the whole of Beirut to come back to life as well as Lebanon too," said Hassan Farhat a football fan attending the inauguration.
AP video shot by Fadi Altawil
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