Mỹ Đình National Stadium

The Mỹ Đình National Stadium (Sân vận động Quốc gia Mỹ Đình) is a multi-purpose stadium in Nam Từ Liêm district, Hanoi, Vietnam. It has a capacity of 40,200 seats and is the centerpiece of Vietnam's National Sports Complex. It was officially opened in September 2003 and was the main venue for the Southeast Asian Games later that year, hosting the opening and closing ceremony as well as the men's football and athletics events.

The stadium is home to the Vietnam national football team, and hosts its home international matches. It was also the home venue of the football club Thể Công (now Viettel FC).

Located 10 kilometres north-west of central Hanoi, the 40,192-seat stadium is the second biggest in the country in terms of capacity and was built at a cost of US$53 million. Arched roofs cover the grandstands on the east and west sides of the arena, providing shelter for half of the seats. The area provides training facilities for the teams with two football training grounds located next to the stadium.

Since 2021, the stadium has attracted complaints mainly about the quality of the pitch, starting with its hosting of the Vietnam–Australia match in the third AFC qualification round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It has since come under further scrutiny after hosting Borussia Dortmund in an international friendly, of which the goalpost was broken mid-game, and Southeast Asian teams in the 2022 AFF Championship.

History
Ideas for a new national stadium in Vietnam were marked up in 1998 as the government conducted a prefeasibility study for a national sports complex. In July 2000, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải approved a project of a stadium at the heart of Vietnam's National Sports Complex in preparation for hosting the 2003 Southeast Asian Games. Four firms, namely Hanoi International Group (HISG - China), Philipp Holzmann (Germany), Bouygues (France), and Lemna-Keystone (United States), participated in the bidding of the stadium's construction. The process was controversial due to violations of technical and financial requirements in HISG and Holzmann's bids, corruption allegations involving a French donation, and the intransparency in the panel's decision making. In the end, HISG won the bid and signed a commitment contract on August 14, 2001.

Construction on the stadium started in 2002. During the development phase, the stadium was referred to as Sân vận động Trung tâm ("central stadium"). The stadium was architecturally complete in June 2003. In August 2003, the stadium was officially named Mỹ Đình National Stadium, taking after the name of the commune area the stadium is located within. It was inaugurated on September 2, 2003, to coincide with Vietnam's National Day.

Stands
Mỹ Đình has 4 stands. The A & B stands (or east and west stands, respectively) are covered each by an arched roof weighing 2,300 tonnes. These two stands have two tiers and are 25.8 m tall while the C & D stands (or south and north stands) are single-tiered and 8.4 m tall. In total, the stadium has a capacity of 40,192 seats, including 450 VIP seats and 160 seats for journalists.

Field
The playing grass field has a size of 105m x 67m, surrounded by an 8-lane athletics track and other athletics facilities.

Sporting events
The stadium officially opened on September 2, 2003, with the opening friendly match between the Vietnam U23 and Shanghai Shenhua from Chinese Super League.

It hosted the 2003 Southeast Asian Games (opening ceremony, football and athletics, closing ceremony), and 2003 ASEAN Para Games.

The Hanoi football club was scheduled to play at the stadium, but later backed out of their agreement, citing the embarrassment of using an 40,000+ seat venue for games that routinely draw only slightly more than 5,000.

In July 2007, Mỹ Đình Stadium hosted the Group B of 2007 AFC Asian Cup along with Quân khu 7 Stadium (Ho Chi Minh City), quarter-final match (Japan vs Australia) and semi-final match (Japan vs Saudi Arabia).

Mỹ Đình Stadium held the opening ceremony of the 2009 Asian Indoor Games from October 30, 2009, to November 8.

In December 2010, it held Group B of 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup from December 2 to December 8.

The stadium hosted sections of the 2021 Southeast Asian Games, in particular the opening ceremony, and football and athletics events.

In addition, this stadium held many domestic and international football competitions:

The three runners-up from the third round groups played each other at a neutral venue on 25, 27 and 29 March 2012. Vietnam was later chosen by the AFC Competitions Committee as the neutral venue, with games played at Hanoi's Mỹ Đình Stadium.
 * 2008 AFC Champions League (Nam Định selected this stadium as its own Thiên Trường Stadium did not meet AFC's criteria )
 * 2008 The stadium held an international friendly match between Vietnam and Olympic Brazil
 * 2010 VFF Cup
 * 2011 V-League (25th round match between Hà Nội ACB and Sông Lam Nghệ An )
 * 2011 VFF Cup
 * 2012 Football at the Summer Olympics – Men's Asian Qualifiers Playoff Round
 * On 17 July 2013, the stadium held an international friendly match between Vietnam and Arsenal.
 * On 27 July 2015, the stadium held an international friendly match between Vietnam and Manchester City.
 * On September 7, 2021, the stadium hosted the first match in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round between Vietnam and Australia. This is also the first time VAR and Goal-line have been applied in Vietnam (made by Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd).
 * On 30 November 2022, the stadium held an international friendly match between Vietnam and Borussia Dortmund, which saw a shock host win of 2-1 after a controversial second goal in the last minutes of the match.
 * 2023–24 AFC Champions League (Hanoi FC selected this stadium as its own Hàng Đẫy Stadium did not meet AFC's criteria).

Entertainment events
Mỹ Đình National Stadium has hosted various entertainment events. On March 27, 2010, an MTV EXIT concert was held here with the appearance of Korean boy band Super Junior, Australian singer Kate Miller-Heidke, along with other local Vietnamese singers. On October 1, 2011, the Irish boyband Westlife performed at the stadium as a part of their Gravity Tour; about 11,000 people attended the concert. The stadium was also the starting location of the 2012 season of The Amazing Race Vietnam. On May 26, 2013, MTV EXIT held a concert featuring the Canadian pop punk band Simple Plan.

The stadium has also been the venue for various K-pop concerts. It was the venue for a special concert of MBC's Music Core on December 8, 2012, KBS's Music Bank World Tour on March 28, 2015, Asia Artist Awards on November 26, 2019, and two Born Pink concerts by girl group Blackpink on July 29 and 30, 2023.

Tournament results
The stadium has hosted several international FIFA and AFC matches. Here is a list of the most important international matches held at the stadium.

2010 fireworks explosion
At approximately 11:40 local time on October 6, 2010, an explosion occurred at the stadium. The cause was confirmed to be the ignition of two firework containers due to negligence in the installation of their detonation position; this was a rehearsal for a programme commemorating the millennial anniversary of the establishment of Thăng Long (present-day Hanoi), which was scheduled to be held on October 10. The explosion killed four people and injured three.

2021 and SEA Games 31
Since the second half of 2021, criticism had been raised regarding the quality of the pitch and facilities at the stadium. In September 2021, the Vietnamese national team hosted Australia in the third round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers; Australian media and fans at the time compared the Mỹ Đình pitch to a "cow pasture". According to the Lao Động newspaper, the stadium's turf had not been renovated for nearly a decade. In addition, some areas of the stadium had fallen into disrepair due to lack of maintenance. At the request of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the stadium was renovated by the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism ahead of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and the 2021 Southeast Asian Games. Ahead of the 2021 SEA Games, the Vietnamese government granted more than 400 million VND to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to repair the stadium alongside the wider National Sports Complex. However, the replacement of the turf was not carried out. Up until the third-place match and the final of the men's football event at the 2021 SEA Games, the turf had been damaged due to the installation of the stage for the opening ceremony.

Vietnam–Borussia Dortmund friendly match incident
On November 30, 2022, in a friendly match between Vietnam and Borussia Dortmund, in the 86th minute of the match, the crossbar of the Dortmund goal was knocked out, causing the match to be interrupted for 5 minutes. In addition, during the half-time break, the technical area of the two teams and the referee's area were blown over many times by the wind.

2022 AFF Cup
Criticism of the stadium's condition continued throughout 2022 and 2023. Ahead of the 2022 AFF Cup, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) signed a contract with the National Sports Complex to rent Mỹ Đình as the home stadium of the Vietnamese national team. The rental fee for each match of the Vietnamese national team is 800 million VND, the highest in the venue's history. However, the stadium's turf was described as old, faded, and poor, while not all of its seats had been replaced since their initial installation in 2003. According to the Hanoi Tax Department, the National Sports Complex owed 855 billion VND in taxes as of 2023.

According to the Director General of the General Department of Physical Education and Sports, Đặng Hà Việt, maintenance and care work had been carried out regularly in the past month, but the city's weather conditions had made the stadium's pitch not as green as expected. Moreover, the AFC had assessed that the Mỹ Đình pitch is still in good condition for competition. However, the claim that the pitch's deterioration was due to weather conditions was considered baseless, as the pitch was described to be of good quality when the Vietnamese national team hosted China in the third round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in early 2023.

On January 4, 2023, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính commented on the condition of the stadium, questioning the claim that it was not being exploited. In an effort to address the deteriorating condition ahead of the Vietnam–Indonesia match on January 9, the Vietnamese Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyễn Văn Hùng on January 6 requested the Rector of Bắc Ninh University of Physical Education to organize a volunteer activity in which its students would clean up the stadium.