Built: 1937
Capacity: 50,000

Host venue for the Euro 2000 final on July 2nd, Rotterdam's 50,000 seater Feyenoord Stadium should provide a fitting stage for the deciding act in this summer's championships.

A huge city that is proud of its fine architecture, football fans will probably be more concerned about the stadium that is home to Dutch giants Feyenoord who have long battled it out with PSV and Ajax to be the top guns in national football.

The Rotterdam stadium is one of the most atmospheric in Europe and Holland will certainly have vociferous backing should all go according to plan for the hosts and they take their place in that last game of Euro 2000.

The stadium is well known to English fans, having been the venue of Manchester United's victory in the 1991 European Cup Winners Cup Final, an event notorious for scenes of merriment and inebriation, and the not-so-happy occasion when Holland beat England to deny them a place in USA 94. Not a venue Graham Taylor will remember with any pleasure.

Improvements to the stadiums for the championships have seen a roof built to ensure almost total coverage for fans, with organisers boasting that the improved access in and out of the stadium means it can be cleared in well under 10 minutes.

The city is gearing up to stage what will be its biggest sporting event of all time.

Should the hosts lift the trophy on July 2nd, the people of Rotterdam are likely to party for a touch longer than most of their countrymen as they have a reputation for expressing their emotions through both good and bad times. Which is nice.

As well as being the centre of European football for the year 2000, in 2001 Rotterdam takes over from fellow Euro 2000 host city Brussels as the European City of Culture.

And there is plenty to offer the thousands of fans preparing for the festival of football in the city.

Much of Rotterdam was levelled in the Second World War, but the city was rebuilt in style.

The area near Nieuwe Binnenweg and Witte de Withstraat offers as high a concentration of bars as can be found in any other Euro 2000 venue.

And hungry supporters will have no problem finding a selection of cafes ready to serve up genuinely tasty food.

Restaurant Engels contains diners offering Hungarian, English and Spanish specialities, and plenty more decent food can be found in the middle of town.

Getting there

Flights from the UK land in Rotterdam daily. If driving, use the E19 from the south; E25 from the west; E19 from the north; or E25 from the east.