Easter Road

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Easter Road
The Leith San Siro

Location	Edinburgh, Scotland
Broke ground	1893
Opened	1893
Renovated	2001
Owner	Hibernian F.C.
Surface	Grass
Tenants	Hibernian F.C.
Capacity	17,500

Easter Road is the home ground of Scottish Premier League football club Hibernian. Located in the Leith area of Edinburgh, the stadium has a capacity of 17,500^[1], making it the seventh largest stadium in Scotland and the largest stadium used primarily for football in Edinburgh. It is affectionately known by Hibs fans as "The Leith San Siro"^[2].

Hibs first played at the present site of Easter Road in 1893. The record attendance of 65,860, when the stadium had vast terracing sections, was set by an Edinburgh derby on January 2, 1950^[3]. The stadium was long noted for its pronounced slope, but this was removed at the end of the 1999-2000 season^[4].

1 History
2 Future
3 Uses other than Hibs matches
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

The most modern stand at Easter Road, the West Stand

When Hibs were formed in 1875, the club played its matches on the Meadows to the south of the Old Town of Edinburgh. Hibs first moved to the Easter Road area in 1880, which was on the outskirts of Edinburgh at the time, to a ground known as Hibernian Park. Hibs first leased the present site in 1892, played their first match there in 1893 and have played their home games there ever since^[5].

After Sir Tom Farmer took control of Hibernian in 1991^[6], the stadium underwent major redevelopment in order to comply with the Taylor Report. Stands behind each goal (the Famous Five Stand and the South Stand) were built in 1995, replacing covered terracing at the north end (known as the Cowshed^[7]) and open terracing at the south end (known as the Dunbar End).

The West Stand was rebuilt in 2001^[8] to replace the ageing main stand. The West Stand has a capacity of 6,500 and is similar in design to the North and South Stands. The stadium has dining and conferencing facilities within the West and Famous Five Stands^[9]. The Behind the Goals bar in the Famous Five Stand is one of the largest match-day bars in the United Kingdom^[10]. An electronic scoreboard was installed between the two tiers of the South Stand during the 2005-06 season.

[edit] Future

The East Terrace, which is proposed to be redeveloped

The East Stand was a large terrace which has been greatly reduced, roofed and made all seated. Views of the pitch from this stand are somewhat restricted by the supporting pillars. The club does have planning permission to replace this stand with a modern facility similar to the other three stands, but weak finances and low attendances meant that the planning permission has not been acted upon until recently. The club's finances and attendances have improved in the last four seasons, however, which has led to speculation that the planning permission to develop the east side of the ground would be used.

Hibs Chairman and then CEO Rod Petrie said in October 2006 that the development of a training ground in East Lothian was the first priority for the club. The training ground was opened by Sir Tom Farmer on 19 December 2007^[11].

Hibs announced during their annual general meeting in October 2007 that they would hold a consultation process^[12] on the redevelopment of the east side of the ground. This process began during April 2008^[13]. Hibs have announced plans which would mean increasing the capacity of the stadium to just over 20,000 and widening the pitch by three metres, making the stadium fully compliant with UEFA regulations.

[edit] Uses other than Hibs matches

[edit] Neutral venue for cup ties

Easter Road has sometimes played host to Scottish League Cup semi-final matches. Recent examples of this include Dunfermline 1–0 Livingston in 2006, Hearts 2–3 Motherwell in 2005 and Livingston 1–0 Dundee in 2004.

[edit] International football

See also: List of host grounds of Scotland home international football matches

Scotland have sometimes played full international matches at Easter Road. These have been friendly matches against less attractive opposition where a relatively small crowd is expected, and it has therefore been unnecessary to play the match at Hampden Park. Scotland have played four times at the present site of Easter Road.

April 22, 1998	Scotland	1–1	Finland	International Challenge Match Attendance: 14,315 Referee: Herman van Dijk (Netherlands)
	Darren Jackson 16'	(Report)	Jonatan Johansson 10'


SCOTLAND:
GK	1	Jim Leighton
DF	2	Matthew Elliott	Half-time'
DF	3	Derek Whyte
DF	4	Colin Calderwood	71'
DF	5	Colin Hendry (c)
DF	6	Christian Dailly	87'
MF	7	Scot Gemmill	76'
MF	8	Billy McKinlay
FW	9	Scott Booth	76'
FW	10	Darren Jackson	Half-time'
MF	11	John Collins
Substitutes:
DF	13	Tom Boyd	87'
DF	14	David Weir	Half-time'
MF	15	Paul Lambert	76'
FW	16	Simon Donnelly	76'
FW	17	Kevin Gallacher	Half-time'
FW	18	Gordon Durie	71'
Manager:
Craig Brown


FINLAND:
GK	1	Antti Niemi
DF	2	Harri Ylonen
DF	3	Marko Tuomela	65'
DF	4	Sami Hyypiä
DF	5	Jukka Koskinen
MF	6	Sami Mahlio
MF	7	Juha Reini	Half-time'
MF	8	Simo Valakari
FW	9	Antti Sumiala	38'
FW	10	Jari Litmanen	Half-time'
FW	11	Jonatan Johansson	58'
Substitutes:
DF	12	Tomi Kinunnen	65'
MF	13	Aarno Turpeinen	Half-time'
FW	14	Joonas Kolkka	38'
MF	15	Aki Riihilahti	Half-time'
FW	16	Mixu Paatelainen	58'
Manager:
Richard Møller Nielsen

October 15, 2002	Scotland	3–1	Canada	International Challenge Match Attendance: 16,207 Referee: L Huyghe (Belgium)
	Stephen Crawford 11', 73' Steven Thompson 49'	(Report)	Dwayne De Rosario 9' (pen)


SCOTLAND:
GK	1	Paul Gallacher
DF	2	Maurice Ross	Half-time'
DF	3	Lee Wilkie	75'
DF	4	Steven Pressley
MF	5	Christian Dailly (c)
DF	6	Russell Anderson
DF	7	Graham Alexander
FW	8	Stephen Crawford	90'
FW	9	Steven Thompson	80'
MF	10	Scot Gemmill	65'
MF	11	Paul Devlin
Substitutes:
DF	13	Callum Davidson	Half-time'
MF	14	Scott Severin	65'
FW	15	James McFadden	80'
MF	16	Ian Murray	75'
FW	19	Kevin Kyle	90'
Manager:
Berti Vogts


CANADA:
GK	1	Lars Hirschfeld
DF	2	Kevin McKenna
DF	3	Richard Hastings
DF	4	Paul Stalteri
DF	5	Chris Pozniak
MF	6	Tam Nsaliwa
MF	7	Daniel Imhof	85'
FW	8	Tomasz Radzinski
FW	9	Dwayne De Rosario
DF	10	Paul Fenwick
MF	11	Julián de Guzmán
Substitutes:
FW	12	Davide Xausa	85'
Manager:
Holger Osieck

May 30, 2004	Scotland	4–1	Trinidad and Tobago	International Challenge Match Attendance: 16,187 Referee: Pieter Vink (Netherlands)
	Darren Fletcher 6' Gary Holt 12' Gary Caldwell 23' Nigel Quashie 35'	(Report)	Stern John 55'


SCOTLAND:
GK	1	Craig Gordon
DF	2	Jackie McNamara
DF	3	Jamie McAllister
DF	4	Gary Caldwell	78'
DF	5	Malky Mackay	85'
DF	6	Steven Pressley (c)
MF	7	Darren Fletcher
MF	8	Gary Holt	54'
FW	9	Stephen Crawford	67'
FW	10	James McFadden	85'
MF	11	Nigel Quashie	71'
Substitutes:
DF	13	Steven Caldwell	78'
MF	14	Richard Hughes	71'
DF	15	David McNamee	85'
FW	17	Kenny Miller	67'
DF	18	Andy Webster	85'
MF	19	Brian Kerr	54'
Manager:
Berti Vogts


TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:
GK	1	Clayton Ince
DF	2	Ian Cox
DF	3	Marvin Andrews
DF	4	Brent Sancho
MF	5	Carlos Edwards	89'
MF	6	Arnold Dwarika	75'
MF	7	Cornell Glen	28'
FW	8	Stern John
MF	9	Stokely Mason
FW	10	Kenwyne Jones	Half-time'
MF	11	Angus Eve	81'
Substitutes:
MF	12	Densill Theobald	89'
MF	13	Jerren Nixon	75'
MF	14	Andre Boucaud	28'
FW	15	Marlon Rojas	Half-time'
MF	16	Kerwin Jemmott	81'
Manager:

This match had an unusual occurrence: when Gary Caldwell was substituted, he was replaced by his brother, Steven Caldwell.

November 17, 2004	Scotland	1–4	Sweden	International Challenge Match Attendance: 15,071 Referee: Jaroslav Jara (Czech Republic)
	James McFadden 77' (pen)	(Report)	Marcus Allbäck 27', 49' Johan Elmander 72' Fredrik Berglund 73'


SCOTLAND:
GK	1	David Marshall
DF	2	Kevin McNaughton
DF	3	Ian Murray
DF	4	Russell Anderson
DF	5	Andy Webster	54'
DF	6	Jackie McNamara (c)	64'
MF	7	Barry Nicholson
MF	8	Nigel Quashie	89'
FW	9	Kenny Miller	71'
FW	10	James McFadden
MF	11	Stephen Pearson
Substitutes:
DF	16	Steven Hammell	54'
MF	17	Scott Severin	64'
MF	19	Richard Hughes	89'
Manager:
Tommy Burns


SWEDEN:
GK	1	Magnus Hedman
DF	2	Mikael Nilsson	63'
DF	3	Olof Mellberg	Half-time'
DF	4	Teddy Lučić	82'
DF	5	Mikael Dorsin
MF	6	Daniel Andersson
MF	7	Niclas Alexandersson
MF	8	Kim Källström
MF	9	Christian Wilhelmsson	77'
FW	10	Marcus Allbäck	65'
FW	11	Fredrik Berglund
Substitutes:
DF	12	Alexander Östlund	63'
DF	13	Petter Hansson	Half-time'
MF	14	Tobias Linderoth	82'
FW	15	Sharbel Touma	77'
FW	16	Johan Elmander	65'
Manager:
Lars Lagerbäck

There was also one British Home Championship match played during 1888 at Hibernian's home ground, which was known as Hibernian Park. This was not the site of the present Easter Road stadium, which Hibs first used in 1893.

March 10, 1888	Scotland	5–1	Wales	British Home Championship Attendance: 8,000 Referee: John Charles Clegg
	William Paul 6' Neil Munro 30' Alex Latta 35', 75' William Groves 65'	(Match Details)	John Doughty

The Scotland under-21 team also sometimes play their matches at Easter Road. This happened most recently when Scotland beat Lithuania under-21s 3–0 in October 2007 ^[14].

The most recent full international played at the stadium was a friendly match played between South Korea and Ghana in advance of the 2006 World Cup^[15]. This match came about because South Korea (coached by the former Rangers manager Dick Advocaat) had used Rangers' training ground as a pre-tournament training base, and wanted matches to complete this training process. This match meant that international stars such as Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah and Park Ji-Sung played at the ground. Ghana won the match 3–1^[16].

June 4, 2006	Korea Republic	1–3	Ghana	International Challenge Match Attendance: 7,600 Referee: Dougie MacDonald (Scotland)
	Lee Eul-Yong 49'	(Report)	Asamoah Gyan 35' (pen) Sulley Muntari 62' Michael Essien 81'.


KOREA REPUBLIC:
GK	1	Lee Woon-Jae (c)
DF	6	Kim Jin-Kyu	51'
DF	12	Lee Young-Pyo
DF	2	Kim Young-Chul
DF	22	Song Chong-Gug
MF	7	Park Ji-Sung
MF	13	Lee Eul-Yong	81'
MF	17	Lee Ho
FW	10	Park Chu-Young	81'
FW	14	Lee Chun-Soo
FW	9	Ahn Jung-Hwan	Half-time'
Substitutes:
FW	19	Cho Jae-Jin	Half-time'
MF	5	Kim Nam-Il	81'
FW	11	Seol Ki-Hyeon	81'
DF	18	Kim Sang-Sik	51'
Manager:
Dick Advocaat


GHANA:
GK	22	Richard Kingson	Half-time'
DF	15	John Paintsil
DF	6	Emmanuel Pappoe
DF	5	John Mensah
DF	7	Illiasu Shilla
MF	8	Michael Essien
MF	18	Eric Addo
MF	10	Stephen Appiah (c)
MF	11	Sulley Muntari
FW	3	Asamoah Gyan
FW	14	Matthew Amoah	82'
Substitutes:
GK	1	Sammy Adjei	Half-time'
FW	19	Razak Pimpong	82'
Manager:
Ratomir Dujković

[edit] Rugby Union

Easter Road was briefly the home ground for the Edinburgh Rugby professional rugby union team in the late 1990s^[17]. It was reported in the summer of 2007 that Edinburgh Rugby looked into the possibility of using Easter Road again^{[citation needed]} due to a dispute between Edinburgh Rugby the Scottish Rugby Union^[18], the owner of Murrayfield Stadium. This did not happen, however, because the dispute was resolved^[19] and Edinburgh Rugby played their matches in the 2007-08 season at Murrayfield.

[edit] Music

Sir Elton John performed Easter Road's first rock concert on June 25, 2005^[20]^[21]. This had a detrimental effect on the quality of the pitch throughout the following season, and it is doubtful whether further concerts will be held at the stadium^{[citation needed]}.