Stade Félix-Bollaert

Lore & Background

The stadium has hosted matches in the 1984 European Championship, 1998 FIFA World Cup, 1999 Rugby World Cup, 2007 Rugby World Cup, and 2016 European Championship. The France national team has played nine matches at the stadium without defeat. Lille played their UEFA Champions League home matches there during the 2001–02 season when their own stadium was deemed inadequate. It hosted the Johnny Hallyday concert in 2009 and a Jehovah's Witnesses gathering in 2006. The stadium is the setting for a scene in the movie Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, shot during a match between Lens and Nice in April 2007. The song "Les corons" is sung by the public at the end of halftime break. In 2012 the stadium held a rugby league match between France and Wales as part of the 2012 European Cup, with 11,278 fans attending.

In Their Own Story

The bus pulls into the Lens parking lot at 16:40 and the first thing you notice is the cold. Not the polite, dry cold of a Parisian winter, but a wet, grinding cold that gets into the collar of your jacket and stays. The players file out, and the sound hits before the stadium does—a low, continuous hum that seems to come from the ground itself, from the old rail lines, from the terraces that have been packed since noon. A young defender, still in his tracksuit, pauses at the tunnel entrance and looks up at the stand. A man in a faded Sang et Or scarf, maybe sixty, maybe older, is leaning on the railing, arms crossed, watching. He does not wave. He does not smile. He simply nods, once, as if to say: *I see you. Now go and earn it.* The player nods back, pulls his hood up, and disappears into the tunnel. Behind him, the hum swells, just slightly, like a furnace being fed another log.

Reader's Guide

The stadium is constructed in the English style with four separate stands dedicated respectively to: Henri Trannin, native of Bully-les-Mines, goalkeeper at the club for 18 years, sports director for Lens from 1952 to 1956, dying in July 1974; it was dedicated on 4 December 1976. Tony Marek, former player and coach, international in the 1950s (lower part) and Xercès Louis, former player, first French international player from the Antilles (upper part). Élie Delacourt, former fans' group president. Max Lepagnot, former president of the district of Artois. Until 15 September 2018, all parts of the stadium contained seating. However, most supporters in the Marek, being a side stand, used to keep standing during the games as it is considered the kop and are considered as the most fervent supporters in the stadium, which makes the stadium different from most of the other stadiums, as the most fervent fans tend to usually sit behind the nets. Since 15 September 2018, the Marek contains a standing area again, as well as the lower parts of the Trannin and Delacourt stands since the start of the 2022–2023 season. The stadium's capacity is now 38,223.

Did You Know?

• The stadium was originally named after Félix Bollaert, a director of Compagnie des Mines de Lens.
• Construction began in 1931, but Bollaert died shortly before the stadium's inauguration.
• The stadium was renamed Stade Bollaert-Delelis in 2012 after the death of former mayor André Delelis.
• The France national team has played nine matches at the stadium without defeat.
• The song "Les corons" is sung by the public at the end of halftime break.