It is the fourth largest stadium in Europe after Nou Camp in Barcelona, Wembley Stadium in London and Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid.

England played their first match at the stadium in 1924 against Scotland and for the next 27 years Wembley was used as a venue for matches against Scotland only.

The stadium later became known simply as Wembley Stadium and it became England's permanent home stadium during the 1950s.

The stadium is now owned by the Football Association via its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited.

This was the only time between 1923 and 2000 that the FA Cup final or the FA Cup Final replay was held at a stadium other than Wembley.

Venues used since 1990 include Manchester City's now demolished Maine Road stadium, Manchester United's Old Trafford Stadium, Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium, Arsenal's former home, Highbury ( since redeveloped as housing ), London's Wembley Stadium, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and Aston Villa's Villa Park in Birmingham.

The decision to hold the semi-finals at the same location as the final can be controversial amongst fans However, starting with the 2008 cup, all semi-finals are played at Wembley ; the stadium was not ready for the 2007 semi-finals.

At Live Aid, held at Wembley on 13 July 1985, in front of the biggest-ever TV audience of 1. 9 billion, Queen performed some of their greatest hits, during which the sold-out stadium audience of 72, 000 people clapped, sang, and swayed in unison.

However, within months, England lost a World Cup qualifier to Germany in October 2000, the match being the last to be staged at Wembley Stadium before the stadium was torn down for rebuilding.

The stadium opened in the summer of 2006, and has an all-seated capacity of 60, 355, making it the second biggest stadium in the Premiership after Old Trafford and the third biggest in London after Wembley Stadium and Twickenham Stadium.

* Wembley F. C., which plays at Vale Farm stadium

The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007.

Prior to the 1923 Wembley stadium, international football games had been played by England at various different stadia.

In March 1998, Arsenal made a bid to buy Wembley in hope of gaining a larger stadium to replace their Highbury ground which had a capacity of less than 40, 000 and was unsuitable for expansion, but the bid was later abandoned in favour of building the 60, 000 capacity Emirates Stadium which was opened in 2006.

The first draws are made in August, then the competition runs as two parallel north and south area competitions, before the two winners meet in late March or early April in the final at England's national stadium, Wembley.

The League Trophy final is held at the 90, 000-seat Wembley Stadium in London, the English national football stadium.

The interior of Wembley Stadium, the most expensive stadium ever built.

After beating 5 – 2 on aggregate in the semi-final they met Yeovil Town in the final at the new Wembley Stadium, their first appearance at England's national stadium in fifteen years.

In 2016, it may become the sixth stadium to host both a World Cup final and the Opening / Closing Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics, after the original Wembley in London, host of the 1948 Olympics and 1966 World Cup Final ; Stade Olympique in Paris, host of the 1924 Olympics and the 1938 World Cup Final ; Stadio Olimpico in Rome, host of the 1960 Olympics and 1990 World Cup Final ; Munich's Olympic Stadium which hosted the Olympics in 1972 and the World Cup Final in 1974 and Berlin's Olympic Stadium, host of the 1936 Olympics and the 2006 World Cup Final ( which was thoroughly redesigned and renovated between those two events ), though all those stadiums have hosted the athletics events as well.

His Scottish father was manager of the Midland Bank's Wembley branch.

Wembley Stadium was opened in 1923 and became their home ground.

A 6 – 3 loss in 1953 to Hungary, was their first ever defeat at Wembley by a team from outside of the British Isles.

The original Empire Stadium was built in Wembley, London for the British Empire Exhibition.

Traditionally, the FA Cup Final was played at London's Wembley Stadium.

The 1991 semi-final between Arsenal and Tottenham was the first to be played at Wembley, as were both 1993, 1994 and 2000 semi-finals.

In goal, Banks was checked out by Ramsey for the first time in April 1963 against Scotland at Wembley.

Banks said the decision to sell was difficult – the 4 – 2 cup final victory over West Germany at Wembley was the greatest day of his career.

A year later, Hurst was back at Wembley for the final of the European Cup Winners Cup against 1860 Munich, and West Ham won 2 – 0.

An early 6 kW version, built in England by the General Electric Company Research Laboratories, Wembley, London ( not to be confused with the similarly named American company General Electric ), was given to the US government in September 1940.

His breakthrough building was arguably the Willis Building in Ipswich in 1975 and he has since designed landmark structures such as Wembley Stadium and 30 St Mary Axe.

For the 2007 season, the NFL scheduled the Giants ' road game against the Miami Dolphins on October 28 in London's Wembley Stadium ; this was the first NFL regular-season game to be played outside of North America.

The match was contested by England and West Germany on 30 July 1966 at Wembley Stadium in London, and had an attendance of 98, 000.

The brand was the kit sponsor of Newcastle United football club between 1995 and 2000, during which time the team seriously challenged for the Premier League title and appeared at Wembley four times.

The Magic Tour's highlight was at Wembley Stadium in London and resulted in the live double album, Queen at Wembley, released on CD and as a live concert DVD, which has gone five times platinum in the US and four times platinum in the UK.

On 20 April 1992, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held at London's Wembley Stadium to a 72, 000-strong crowd.

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was an open-air concert held on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992 at London's Wembley Stadium, for an audience of 72, 000.

Metallica's 3-song performance was made into a UK tour edition single for Nothing Else Matters, entitled " Live at Wembley Stadium " and released in Europe just one week after the concert, on April 27, 1992.

Eriksson is the only England manager never to have led an England team out at their permanent home venue of the old Wembley Stadium or the new Wembley Stadium.

Wembley was the main athletics venue for the 1948 Summer Olympics, with Fanny Blankers-Koen and Emil Zátopek among the notable winners.

From now until the closing ceremony on August 14 the BBC will broadcast an average three and a half hours a day of live coverage from the Games, using a special coaxial cable linking the main venue at Wembley Stadium to the television service's base at Alexandra Palace.

Initially, it was announced that the match was scheduled to take place at Elland Road but this was met with dismay by both sets of fans, due to the huge number of supporters wanting to see the match, after a re-think the Football Association decided to switch venue to Wembley.

The tune " Tom Hark " is often played at many stadiums following a goal by the home team and for chants such as " Thursday Nights, Channel 5 ", whilst " Que Sera, Sera ( Whatever Will Be, Will Be )" by Doris Day is generally reserved for matches where the venue of the final is Wembley Stadium.

Wembley was however the venue for some 2012 Olympic football matches.

Wembley will become the second stadium to have been used twice but only host one Olympics after the Melbourne Cricket Ground which was the venue in 1956 and hosted the first game of the Sydney 2000 football tournament.

The venue was renovated, along with Wembley Stadium, as part of the early-21st-century regeneration of the Wembley area.

The Wembley Lions and Wembley Monarchs were two ice-hockey teams that used the venue regularly during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, while the London Lions used the venue for a season in the 1970s.

Wembley Stadium ( 1924 ) | Wembley Stadium, the venue for the 1955 and 1956 FA Cup finals

Wembley Stadium ( 1923 ) | Wembley Stadium was the venue for the final between 1949 and 1974.

The ground has frequently hosted FA Cup semi-final matches as a neutral venue and several England international fixtures while the new Wembley Stadium was under construction.

Stamford Bridge was the venue of the FA Cup Final from 1920 to 1922, before being replaced by Wembley Stadium in 1923.

However, Wembley was dropped as venue, and it moved to the Beijing National Stadium for the 2009 event.

The song was played for the Magic Tour a year later, including twice more at Wembley Stadium ; it was recorded for the live album Live at Wembley ' 86, VHS Video and DVD on 12 July 1986, the second night in the venue.