Major hurdle cleared for new AEK stadium

The Environment Ministry has given the green light for the construction of AEK’s new soccer stadium at Nea Philadelphia in northern Athens after it approved a prerequsitie environmental study.

“I signed the license for AEK’s new stadium,” Minister Panos Skourletis told journalists on Friday. Skourletis’s approval cleared a major hurdle for the construction of the stadium – to be named Hagia Sofia after the historic church and monument in Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, where the club’s founders hailed from.

It is set to cost 65 million euros – out of which 20 million will come from European subsidies granted to the Attica Regional Authority – and will have a seating capacity of between 32,000 and 34,000.

According to reports, AEK now only needs the approval of the construction plans before work can begin. This process usually take two months.