Windsor Park
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| Location | Belfast, Northern Ireland |
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| Coordinates | 54°34′57.45″N 5°57′18.68″W / 54.5826250°N 5.9551889°WCoordinates: 54°34′57.45″N 5°57′18.68″W / 54.5826250°N 5.9551889°W |
| Owner | Linfield FC |
| Capacity | 18,614 |
| Field size | 110 x 75 yards |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1903 |
| Opened | 1905 |
| Renovated | 1996 & 2015 |
| Tenants | |
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Linfield F.C. Northern Ireland national football team |
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The National Football Stadium at Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. and the Northern Ireland national football team, and is also where the Irish Cup and the Irish League Cup final is played.
Named after the district in south Belfast in which it is located, Windsor Park was first opened in 1905, with a match between Linfield and Glentoran. Most of the current stadium was designed and built in the 1930s, to a design made by the Scottish architect Archibald Leitch. It had one main seated stand - the Grandstand, now known as the South Stand - with "reserved" terracing in front, and a large open terrace behind the goal to the west called the Spion Kop. To the north, there was a long covered terrace - the "unreserved" terracing - and behind the eastern goal at the Railway End another covered terrace. Windsor Park's peak capacity in this format was 60,000. In the early 1960s, the seated Railway Stand was built at the Railway End, and in the early 1970s a social club and viewing lounge was constructed in the corner between the Railway Stand and the Grandstand. In the 1980s, the 'unreserved terrace' was demolished and replaced by a two-tier, 7000-seat North Stand. In the late 1990s, the Kop terrace was demolished and replaced with the 5000-seater Kop Stand. The Kop Stand was known as the Alex Russell Stand from 2004-2008 in honour of Linfield's former goalkeeper and coach and one-time Northern Ireland international, but reverted to being named 'The Kop Stand' following this.
Owing to the increasingly poor condition of Windsor Park, various proposals for its replacement were mooted, including the idea of a multi-purpose stadium hosting football, rugby union and Gaelic games on the site of the former Maze prison, or a national stadium built as part of a major leisure development at Sydenham in east Belfast. The plans for the multi-purpose stadium at the Maze site was strongly protested by essentially all the Northern Ireland match-going supporters. Various petitions in opposition to the suggestion, as well as organised displays of opposition at matches and the presentation counter-proposals, were arranged by Supporters Clubs in a bid to block any move to the Maze.
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