Azadi Stadium

Azadi opened on 17 October 1971, commissioned under the shah as Aryamehr — "Aryan light" — and carried that name until the 1979 revolution replaced it with the one it keeps now: Azadi, freedom. The architecture came out of that same pre-revolutionary ambition: Abdul-Aziz Mirza Farmanfarmaian's firm drew the design, with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and the British engineer James Raymond Whittle handling the structural work, and the original bowl held around 100,000. Three years after opening it hosted the 1974 Asian Games, and in November 1975 Frank Sinatra played there, including Ali Khamenei's 2018 address and a Koranic gathering in 2024.

Two rounds of renovation have since pulled the capacity down from that original 100,000: an all-seater conversion in 2002–2003 to 95,225, then further work in 2016 settling it near 78,000, with the current figure around 74,000 and a further reduction to roughly 71,000 planned once work is complete. The pitch is a Desso GrassMaster hybrid surface, reinforced with synthetic fibres, though by 2023–2024 more than a decade of wear, disease and mould had left it in poor enough condition to need manual repair and partial replacement.

Persepolis and Esteghlal have shared the ground since 1973, and the Iran national team has played its home fixtures there since 1975. The attendance record, 128,000, dates to 22 November 1997, a 1-1 draw with Australia. A separate AFC competition record was set here too: 100,000 for Persepolis against Al Nassr on 8 April 2015.