Location | Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
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Coordinates | 44°12′20.7″N 17°54′25.5″E / 44.205750°N 17.907083°ECoordinates: 44°12′20.7″N 17°54′25.5″E / 44.205750°N 17.907083°E |
Owner | City of Zenica |
Capacity | 15,600 |
Field size | 105 x 68 m |
Surface | Grass |
Construction | |
Broke ground | 1972 |
Opened | 1972 |
Renovated | 2012 |
Tenants | |
NK Čelik Zenica Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Bilino Polje is the home football stadium of Bosnian Premier League football club NK Čelik from the city of Zenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of two stadiums of the national football team of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also sometimes used for the Bosnia and Herzegovina national rugby union team as well.
The stadium was built and opened in 1972. It was used in Bosnia and Herzegovina's first match, a friendly played against Albania in 1996 with the final result being a 0–0 draw. The stadium is considered a "curse" for foreign national teams, because the Bosnian national team usually wins or rarely loses their home games at Bilino Polje stadium. In a period stretching from 1995 to October 2006, Bosnia went undefeated at home in around 15 games played in Zenica. The city of Zenica had to wait another 4 years (1996–2000) before the next match of the national team was played at the stadium. This match was also a friendly, this time against Macedonia, with the final result being a victory for the home side 1–0. The Bosnia national team never lost on this field until the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Hungary.
NK Čelik was formed in 1945 as a club and played its home games at Blatuša. At the time, the stadium was mainly built with wooden stands and could have an attendance of 15,600 spectators. Zenica, being an industrial city and having Željezara as the main provider for most of the population of the city, needed to provide some kind of job offer for its hard workers. Now, the decision was made to build a larger stadium since NK Čelik was taking part in the Yugoslav First League.