page_title: Banadir Stadium
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Banadir Stadium / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A view of Baanadir Stadium in the Abd-Aziz District of the Somali capital Mogadishu, which has recently been re-surfaced with a new artificial playing surface. Funded by FIFA, the Somali Football Federation has had the 7,500-capacity stadium re-turfed and will soon begin repair work on seats, parking and other facilities that are currently riddled with reminders of Somalia's war-ridden past. After two decades of near-constant conflict, Somalia is enjoying its longest period of peace and growing security since the Al-Qaeda-allied violent extremist group Al Shabaab was driven from Mogadishu in August 2011. Under the Shabaab's draconian rule, social pastimes and sports such as football were banned but residents of the city and elsewhere across Somalia in areas liberated by sustained operations by the Somali National Army (SNA) supported by troops of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) are now enjoying their freedoms once again. On January 19, Africa’s top football teams will meet in South Africa to contest for the continent’s most prestigious football title - the African Nations Cup – and although Somalia has never taken part due to insecurity and the hitherto ban on the playing and watching of football by Al Shabaab, the sport is once more growing in obvious evidence across the city and experiencing a surging revival of fortunes and popularity. AU-UN IST PHOTO / STUART PRICE.
context_page_description: The Eng. Yariisow Stadium, formerly known as Garoonka Banaadir Stadium, or simply Benadir Stadium in the Somali language, is a multi-use stadium in Mogadishu, Banaadir, Somalia, that is currently used mostly for football matches. Until the 1970s, the stadium was called the Coni Stadium because it was built by the Italian Coni. It is currently being rebuilt through FIFA's Win in Africa with Africa program.
context_section_description: Originally in the area there was the small Stadio Municipale di Mogadiscio as the main sport area in the capital of Italian Somalia; it was created in the late 1930s just north of the Porto di Mogadiscio and hosted the first football matches in Mogadishu. On the enlarged grounds of this "Campo Sportivo" in the 1950s, the first football stadium in Somalia was built during the Fiduciary Administration of Somalia done by Italy under ONU mandate, the Coni Stadium, later renamed "Banadir Stadium" in the early 1960s. The stadium was a donation of the Italian government to the Somali people and was built in 1956 by the Italian National Olympic Committee. It was inaugurated in October 1956 and was one of the best in Africa when inaugurated, with competitions held in athletics and even bicycle racing.
  The Coni Stadium when inaugurated had an area of 23,300 square meters, with athletics tracks of 200 meters and a covered tribune for 1000 spectators seated. The original real-grass turf was changed to artificial in the late 1990s, after the civil war damages to the stadium. The Banadir stadium was fully destroyed during the Somali Civil War in the 1990s and early 2000s. Later, it was rebuilt by FIFA's Win in Africa with Africa program in the late 2000s and since 2009, it has again hosted football games.
  Built in 1956 by the Italian Olympic committee, the Banadir Stadium is currently being reconstructed under the FIFA-funded project “Win in Africa with Africa” and is being kitted out with artificial football turf. The old stadium, which was not repaired since the early 1980s was one of the loveliest football faciities [sic] in Africa during the late 1950s and early 1960s, according to Abdullahi Huusein Baskuwaale who was a member of the first Somali team to play in the stadium at the end of its construction in 1956. 
  — AIPS
  As of 2010, the stadium is the home field for the following teams:
  Jeenyo United F.C. (formerly Lavori Pubblici)
  Savaana
  Somali Police FC (Heegan)
  Gaadiidka
  Dekedda FC
  In August 2019, it was renamed after Abdirahman Omar Osman, known as "Engineer Yarisow", the former mayor of Mogadishu and governor of the Banaadir region, who died in an explosive attack in his office.
caption: 2012
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