England national football team home stadium

Wembley Stadium in London is the current exclusive home stadium for the England national football team. This has been the case since it was opened in 2007, following on from the old Wembley Stadium it replaced. England have however also played many of their home games away from Wembley throughout their history, both in friendly matches and for competitive tournaments.

While the England team played their first official home match on 8 March 1873 (their second official international), the old Wembley was not built until 1923 (being known at the time as the Empire Stadium, having been built for the British Empire Exhibition). During this period, England used various grounds around the country, including many cricket grounds, as their home venue. Surrey County Cricket Club's ground The Oval in south London was the first and most used venue of this time, following on from its use for the England v Scotland representative matches played between 1870 and 1872.

England played its first game at Wembley the following year in 1924, although Wembley was then only used for games against Scotland until May 1951, when England played Argentina. Wembley was then used increasingly for the next half century, meaning just ten home games were played outside of old Wembley in the period after 1951 until 1999.

The next series of non-Wembley home games, 34 in all, took place between 2001 and 2007, in the period between the old Wembley closing and the new Wembley opening, due to it being built on the same site. When the old Wembley was closed in October 2000, the national team went 'on tour'. The stadium was not demolished until 2003, and the new stadium was not completed until 2007, well behind schedule. Manchester United's home stadium Old Trafford was the most used ground during the tour period.

The first England game at the new Wembley was on 1 June 2007, against Brazil.

The tour programme of the 2000s saw the England team return to several cities, and even some of the same venues, for the first time in over 50 years or much more. While the tour was considered a success, due to the cost of the stadium, the Football Association had no plans to stage home games away from Wembley after 2007.

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