The Cursed Stadium That's Taken 40 Years To Build

The Lithuania National Stadium in Vilnius began construction almost 40 years ago, during the mid-1980s, has had tens of millions of euros sunk into it, and it still hasn't been built.

It's symbolic of how football has been neglected in one of the few European countries in which football isn't the most popular sport.

So in this video, HITC Sevens takes a closer look at Lithuania's National Stadium, where the time and money has gone, and what the project tells us about the modern history of not just football in Lithuania, but the country as a whole.

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[Zyguliukas]

Fun fact. My mom came to Vilnius to study when she finished high school and the stadium was in construction. Then she found a job, gave birth to me, saw me grow up and become an adult and the stadium is still in construction. Fun.

[maximtrickett]

The state of Lithuanian football in crisis you say? Lowest attendances in Europe in relation to population size?

I expect Jordan Henderson will arrive in Vilnius imminently. That man doesn't sleep for thinking of where in the world he is needed to help spread and support the growth of the game he so loves.

[rokasgrajauskas]

I have been a big fan of this channel for a very long time. And seeing the title of this video today made me literally jump out of my seat. Thank you so much, your research has been as outstanding as it always is. Amazing work.

As a local Lithuanian, I would like to add some tidbits to what has been mentioned about the sports dynamics in our country. I am 35 years old currently, and one of the first memories that I have is the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where our freshly independent basketball team won the bronze medal after beating the former USSR team in the final match. I remember watching it, I remember watching that entire Olympic run and I remember the emotion at home - my entire family was glued to the TV screen throughout the competition. Everyone experienced such insurmountable emotions of joy and pride, which was such a relief in the early 90's circumstances, that your excellent video describes so vividly. Right there and then, as a four year old rascal I got so addicted to this feeling that I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up - I wanted to be a sports... commentator. As funny as it may sound, even back then in my young mind I felt as if the players on the court, well, they were amazing. But the person whose voice narrated the story - he was a Divine figure. His emotions made all of us laugh, scream, cry and just... live the life that was so different from what we experienced in our every day reality. Providing that hope, that emotion - that felt like a job above all others. And, thankfully, today I have been a professional sports commentator for eleven years. Nearly a third of my life. And I could not be happier - thanks to the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic basketball team and the emotions it brought to my soon to be broken family, I found my purpose in life at a very young age.

Nowadays I am one of the few guys who do the commentary for LKL (Lietuvos Krepšino lyga - Lithuanian Basketball League) games on the TV. I also do the Eurocup (the basketball equivalent of Europa League) games of Lietkabelis Panevėžys and the radio broadcasts of Euroleague (top basketball continental competition) games of Žalgiris Kaunas weekly. Without a doubt, it is a genuine dream-come-true story, but I do also have an immense passion for football. International tournaments in particular, but I have also spent more than two decades rooting for Everton, as if I needed more footballing torture in my everyday life.

Any Howe, this gargantuan prologue is meant to provide all of the interested viewers and readers with some context. Yes, we, Lithuanians, love our basketball, but only to a certain degree. During the past few years I have had the honor and the privilege of providing commentary for Euro2020(21) and the Qatari World Cup. In comparison – the international basketball tournaments attract a lot of attention, when it comes to the games that our national team is playing in. Otherwise – nobody really cares about a, let's say, semi-final game between France and Germany. The ratings are obscure to say the least. But, ironically, if it is a football semi-final game between the same countries – it is one of the most nationally viewed events of the year. In other words – we only care about basketball if it involves our national team or one of our local clubs. But we pay unbelievable amounts of national attention when it comes to international football competitions. Except...

Except when our own national team is playing. We have been heartbroken for so bloody long that even Everton fans would just shake their heads in disbelief if they knew our story. I mentioned Lietkabelis Panevėžys, a basketball team who is playing in the second level of continental basketball leagues – their games usually receive up two five (!!) times more TV audience than the Lithuanian national football team qualifiers for EC's an WC's. Despite the fact that, statistically, we actually enjoy football waaaay more than basketball.

That's the story, I guess. The corruption... What can I say. The LFF would make The Sopranos look like Teletubbies in comparison. The 90's are still alive and well here in this sense. What an epic fact it is, that the only recent victories of our national football team came against Bulgaria of all nations, I wonder why. But – it's a stretch to use this expression here, I know, but I couldn't resist – without any further Adu I just wanted to thank you and your team once more. I guess that's what it feels like to get international attention in football.

[onewinged]

Hello Alfie, your long time viewer and in this case, lithuanian too. Thanks for bringing up this topic, or should I call a national meme, and shedding some more attention to it. First of all, this stadium will never be finished or at least, I don't see it being finished in my lifetime and I just turned 30 so...yeah...

Anyways, hopefully you can see this, I do have some corrections to the mistakes you made in this video:
1) In 2009 FK Atlantas did threaten to leave A lyga with another team from Kaunas but it was not FK Kauno Žalgiris, instead, it was FBK Kaunas, which was owned by Romanovas, a character that you might be interested in making future video about ;) FK Kauno Žalgiris simply did not exist back then as it is a football club being part of wider sports club that started as basketball club specifically BC Žalgiris from Kaunas, the most succesful professional sports team in Lithuania ever and to add more confusion here, this has nothing to do with FK Žalgiris which is seperate entity entirely;
2) I think you made a mistake by mentioning that men's basketball national team won european titles in '37 & '39, which are the only ones we had won? That is not true and might trigger a more concentrated listener since we did win one in 2003, the most recent one. (also silver medalis in '96, 2013, 2015; bronze in 2007; 2010 FIBA World cup bronze medal and then 3 consecutive bronze medals in olympic games from '92 to '00; also also women's national basketball team deserves a mention for historic performances in eurobaskets, winning silver in '38 and then gold in '97; this is just a comparison to no achievements in football)
3) You did mention Dariaus ir Girėno stadium, which is located in Kaunas but you only mentioned it being too old. Well, news flash, it has been renovated quite recently to a modern stadium with ~20k capacity and yes, national football team plays once again outside it's nation's capital. The completion of this project actually sparked further discussions on necessity of national stadium since we already do have modern stadium, why bother with second and who would even occupy this one. As you mentioned, attendance in highest division is quite pathetic, so these questions do persist but that's another can of worms

[Sistema]

Never thought my country will be talked about in one of the biggest football channel.

[luishernandezblonde]

Hi Alfie, you should make a video about Vietnam's football paranoia. I found that an unwritten football policy in Vietnam demanded that a player can only represent Vietnam national team if they have ancestry, must be at least fluent in Vietnamese language, and is common to Vietnamese culture and custom. This is why despite many naturalised players in Vietnam now, only three of them are able to make it to the national team, two are goalkeepers that have to endure a massive language, history and cultural training programs to be able to represent the country. This policy has alienated Vietnam from the rest of Southeast Asia by imposing language, history and culture education, something not even Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines would do and reactions has been divisive ever since, especially when you look at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup where Vietnam was the worst performed of all Southeast Asian sides while Indonesia and Thailand achieved a lot of successes with their newly naturalised players.

This policy, I believe, might have something to do with a friendly between this country and Brazil U-23 in 2008, where a Brazilian naturalised goalkeeper refused to sing the anthem of Vietnam, causing a lot of resentment to even now among the populace.

[Lufefe]

Ranking behind the Faroe Islands with a population of 25 people & a couple of pets is hilarious 😂

[lmaciulevicius]

Fun little fact about the demolition of the old stadium structure: it itself had to be halted temporarily as stadium debris damaged vehicles and buildings nearby. This whole project really seems cursed to fail.

Another fun fact: the National stadium isn't the only piece of sports infrastructure in Vilnius, which has seen massive delays and cancellations in regards to renovation. The Palace of Sports, which has been sitting abandoned since 2008 or so has seen talks of possible renovation for years which haven't materialized largely due disagreements with the local Jewish community, because the arena was built on the site of an old Jewish cemetery.

[JMEAUS]

Video on Deportivo la Coruna would be interesting. Getting 20k to every home game in Spain's 3rd tier after being a top division side just 5yrs ago.

There's also the option of doing a video on Rayo Vallecano. That's a legitimate gold mine of just mental stuff on how that club is run (You can't even buy tickets for games online, you legitimately have to queue up at midnight at the ground )

[stenic]

If you thought Lithuanian football was corrupt have I got a video suggestion for you.
FK Arkadag were created in 2023 several weeks before the start of the Turkmenistan season and were immediately given entry to the top flight and went on to win all 24 games and be crowned champions.
They were founded by the former authoritarian ruler of Turkmenistan (who stepped down so his son could take over) so as with any team in history with links to authoritarian rulers they get alot of help from referees and are just able pick off the best players from their rivals.

[eddie_]

Hi Alfie, I think a video on Ifk Göteborg may be interesting, they have won Allsvenskan 18 times but have been much worse in the past years

[thomasjohnson]

Went to Vilnius for a 2nd time last August. Being a stadium nerd and recent new English follower of Źalgiris and Lithuania, I decided to go and check out the stadium site to see what on earth was or wasn’t going on with the stadium (no1 tourist activity to do I know!). There wasn’t much more there than sand, a few holes, one excavator, and some guard on the site wondering what some eccentric bloke was doing walking around looking in, but what was made in the first “attempt” had been destroyed. Hope I get to go to a game there one day when both the stadium and Rail Baltica are complete!

Also wanted to mention how much I love the LFF Stadium, both the walk to get there from Vilnius city centre and the stadium itself. I’ll be back!

[depekthegreat]

Finally, this is an extremely so fantastic and Lithuania is one of my favourite countries daily and ever and ever and I have used to watch a few of their league matches and have enjoyed watching of course, good friends!!!Despite Lithuania's football is considered second best after basketball, I really hope to see the Lithuanian football, particularly the league football from top till bottom tiers and I am slowly getting to their footballing leagues, good friends!!!LONG LIVE LITHUANIAN FOOTBALL AND LITHUANIA!!! 🇱🇹

[jackfarr_]

I visited Lithuania (Kaunas) last year. I thought visiting the second city would be a good idea on my travels up through the Baltics into Finland.

Kaunas is absolutely tiny in comparison to Vilnius. In Ireland (where I'm from, with a similarly corrupt FA and underfunded national league), we have the same problem - where Dublin holds most of the political capital and most of the decisions made regarding footballing infrastructure are made there.

If the halls of power in the LFF won't sort out the stadium, it will be used as an excuse for Lithuania's poor national team performance and prevent the right infrastructure to develop the A Lyga from being built nationwide. FAI corruption has done similar in Ireland.

[mashiah]

In the last year of the Soviet Union Lithuanian football pefromed pretty well. Žalgiris Vilnius finished 3rd in 1987, ahead of Dinamo Kyiv. Few Lithuanian players played in the Soviet National team. The collapse of the Soviet Union led Lithuanian football, like in many other Soviet republics to collapse

[andorwid]

Hey Alfie, id really like a WHAT ON EARTH happened at Kaiserslautern!
And also maybe a classic 7s video about players that were unfairly treated (by club, media, fans, clubs…)
Or 7 high profile players who haven’t (yet) sold their souls.

[paraguayhastalavistaysenor]

I am still waiting for a video about Paraguay's football crisis and how we become the minnows in South America. In fact, even CONCACAF teams look superior than us now. Sad.

[danielshroyer]

My favorite kind of HITC Sevens video.

[TheTwilightSwirl]

the biggest shock from this video is finding out that Keisuke Honda played in Lithuania

[alastairwood]

It has to be pointed just how much of an anomaly Lithuania is in Europe. Football doesn't even scratch the surface of the culture as Basketball truly is a religiob and thus municipality funding is allocated heavily to Basketball. There is of course mismanagement around this story but equally the peoeple don't care all too much for as long as Basketball is flying.
Zalgris v Galatasaray in the summer was a turning point outside looking in and I think the opportunity of the conference league and nations league will help them grow a lot but still the sport is an extremely low priority