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Lille’s original home until 2004 was Stade Grimonprez-Jooris until they moved away to Stade Lille-Métropole with a view to redevelop their dated facilities. When plans failed to come to fruition, the club’s management assessed the economic viability of building a new stadium in 2008, and in 2010 construction of the €300 million, multi-purpose stadium began. Officially opened with an inaugural Ligue 1 match between Lille and Nancy on the 17th August 2012 (1-1), the stadium was originally going to be known as Grand Stade Lille Metropole. Following the death of former mayor of Lille and Prime Minister of France, Pierre Mauroy (1928-2013) however the name of the stadium was somewhat controversially changed in his honour. Built as an ultra-modern sports facility, the Stade Pierre Mauroy is architecturally impressive, with a unique transformer design allowing for 5 different configurations including rugby, basketball, concerts and of course football. With such cutting-edge features, it’s no surprise that Pierre Mauroy has been selected as one of the football stadiums for the 2016 Euro Championships, and surely it heralds the future of all sporting facilities.

DRIVING Lille’s stadium is adjacent to the N227 motorway and can be reached by taking exit 3 Villeneuve d’Ascq with the address for satnav being: 261 Boulevard de Tournai, 59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq. Car Parks We don;t currently have any information about parking, sorry. TRAIN Lille has two train stations located pretty much next door to each other with Lille-Europe Station (Gare de Lille-Europe) connecting the city to a range of European destinations and Lille-Flandres Station (Gare de Lille-Flandres) serving regional train lines, often at slower speeds. Located near to the border of Belgium, Lille lies on an important crossroads of the European high-speed rail network and as a result is approximately 1.20 minutes from London, 1.35 from Paris and only 35 minutes from Brussels making it one of the most accessible footballing cities in Europe. METRO To travel to Pierre Mauroy on matchdays, you can either use Line 1 and get off at either Cite Scientifique and 4 Cantons, or Line 2 which has the Meadows stop plus a free shuttle bus to the stadium. On matchdays both lines run at increased frequency up to 2 hours before and after the game, ensuring that your journey isn’t too congested which is always nice. Lille Metro Train One of the many trains which form the Lille Metro system. In total it stretches over 45 kilometres with 60 stations and counting. The driver-less system is one of the most advanced in the world. BUS The bus is another solid option to have, with Bus Line 18 being the one you should be using and Versailles stop being the one you should be getting off at. AIRPORTS Lille is served by Aéroport de Lille (Lille-Lesquin International airport) which is located approximately 15 minutes away from the city centre by car (11km). Lille-Lesquin Airport is probably the largest flight hub in the Nord-Pas de Calais region and the airport handles over 1.3 million passengers per year.