Stade Velodrome

The Stade Velodrome in Marseille is home to the most decorated and successful football team in France; Olympique de Marseille, otherwise known as OM. If you were to ask a Marseillais person what was the largest religion in Marseille they would not say Islam or Christianity, they would say OM! The city eats, sleeps and breathes football, you can't walk down a street in Marseille without crossing someone wearing a piece of OM-branded clothing every couple of metres.

Whenever there is a match on in the city all of the pubs and restaurants in Marseille are full of fans there to watch the match. That's along with the 60, 000 or so fans who will fill the awesome Stade Velodrome right in the centre of the city. It really is a huge stadium with the official capacity now at 67, 000 spectators. The atmosphere inside the stadium is the absolute best as the OM supporters are known for being the best in all of France. I was lucky enough to see OM play Arsenal in the Champion's League in 2011 and it only cost €20! A large group of us went to see the match and it was a great experience for us even though OM lost 0-1.

We did not even experience the real OM atmosphere as the stadium was being renovated for the 2016 European Championships that will be hosted by France. One whole stand in the stadium was completely closed so there was only about 40, 000 people there but they made a huge amount of noise regardless! The renovations have now been completed though and the stadium is even more amazing than ever before!

Football is not the only sport to be played in the stadium, RCT Toulon play their most important rugby matches in the stadium and I was lucky enough to see them play Munster in a Heineken Cup semi-final in 2014. The stadium was basically finished at this time and it looked incredible. The stadium is now completely enclosed so that the sound does not escape meaning it's even louder than ever. These days it's pretty much guaranteed that Toulon will reach the semi-finals of the European Cup so there is always a great chance that you will have the opportunity to experience a different sport in the stadium and see one of the best rugby teams in the world play!

This is one of the most famous and best stadiums in the whole of France and I would recommend that if you are in Marseille that you try to catch an OM match or even just do the stadium tour, I'm sure you won't regret it! If you are a KEDGE student there is an association in the university that offers great deals on tickets for nearly all of the OM home matches. Even if you don't go to this school the tickets are usually pretty cheap, especially when compared to what you would pay to see a Premier League match for example.