Stade Abderrahmane Ibrir

Stade Abderrahmane Ibrir did not appear overnight. It emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War, when the municipality of El Biar set out to build something permanent for its sporting clubs. Mayor Vidal Bathélémy commissioned the work, and the ground opened its gates in 1946 as the Stade Municipal d’El Biar. Before that, the local outfit SCUEB had been sharing the Stade Douïeb with hockey players. The site also held a cynodrome that hosted greyhound races from 1954, considered one of the finest in the world at the time.

When Algeria gained independence, the stadium was renamed Stade Abderrahmane Ibrir in honour of the Franco-Algerian goalkeeper and coach who had strong ties to the region. He played for Marseille and Toulouse and later coached the national side, as well as JS El Biar, which took over the ground after SCUEB folded. The club was founded in 1944 and has used this venue ever since, though capacity figures in the available records sit somewhere between 400 and 3,000, depending on who you ask.

The capacity sits closer to 1,000 if you trust the club’s own website or the French Wikipedia entry. Football Manager agrees with the lower figure, the English Wikipedia lists 3,000. The address is not definitively established in public records, though the Plus Code points to Q27F+HHG. The surface type remains unconfirmed, but it hosts professional and amateur matches in Algeria.