City Stadium (Banja Luka City Stadium)

Banja Luka's ground carries the fingerprints of the man who paid for it. Bogoljub Kujundžić, ban of the Vrbas Banovina, financed the build out of his own office, and for years the stadium carried his name — Stadion bana Kujundžića. The architect, Žarko Malić, drew a ground that has never been torn down; it has simply been added to, decade by decade.

The first real upgrade came in 1973, when the main stand got a full roof and the ground got its first floodlights, fluorescent units. Nearly four decades passed before the next big push: between 2010 and 2012 the club replaced old seating with plastic across the existing stands, rebuilt the dressing rooms, added VIP boxes and media rooms, and rewired the lighting, sound and CCTV. The north stand went up last, finished in 2012 and adding just under 2,500 seats on its own — split unevenly across west, east and north.

What's left unfinished says as much as what's done. A roof over the east stand is still on the list, promised rather than delivered. And somewhere in the background sits a much larger idea — a new 30,000-seat stadium, costed at around €50 million — that has nothing to do with this ground and everything to do with what the city thinks it might outgrow one day. For now, the hybrid pitch and UEFA-standard fittings keep this one cleared for European nights, while the east stand waits its turn.