Thuwunna Stadium

The ground came out of a Japanese aid project and opened under a name that said exactly what it was for: the Thuwunna Youth Training Center Stadium. Myanmar's national team plays here, so does Yangon United, and Shan United and Rakhine United turn up when the calendar sends them.

Its largest recorded crowd is also its most awkward night. On 28 July 2011, 30,000 came for a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Oman. Oman were two goals up when trouble in the stands brought the match to a halt, and FIFA abandoned it. After the ground had been renovated for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, a defeat to Indonesia set off a riot on the same site.

Not everything here has been football. In 2017 the pitch was given over to a K-pop festival with EXO and NCT 127. In 2020, with the pandemic closing the fixture list, the stadium was converted into a 500-bed hospital, and the indoor arena next door was upgraded the following year with Chinese assistance.

It is easy to confuse with Bogyoke Aung San Stadium, the older ground elsewhere in Yangon; Thuwunna sits out in Thingangyun, on Waizayanta Road. It has never carried a sponsor's name. The Myanmar Football Federation runs it, the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs owns it, and it has hosted the 2012 AFF Championship qualification and Group B of the 2016 edition.