It appears that plans for a new NIS 500 million, 55,000-seat National Stadium will be delayed two years. Construction is estimated to take around two and a half years, but a study found that the national soccer team does not have an alternative stadium for that time that meets FIFA criteria.
"We have the necessary money and I have already approached planners in Germany," said Gideon Brickman, chairman of the Sports Betting Council, which is a partner in the project. "However, the Israel Football Association is unable to provide an alternative to Ramat Gan Stadium, which has a capacity of 35,000. The stadiums we are currently in the process of building will not be ready in the near future," he said yesterday.
