Leipzig is one of the host cities for the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2006. Five World Cup matches will be played in the city where the German Soccer Federation (DFB) was founded in 1900. Leipzig's Central Stadium will be the venue for the matches. With a capacity of 45,000, the stadium was erected on the foundations of the former "Stadion der Hunderttausend" in the heart of the city. On 7th March 2004, 29,000 spectators celebrated the official opening of one of the most advanced soccer stadiums in Europe. Spectators, players, sponsors and the media can look forward to enjoying the highest standards here, in a stadium built to the strict FIFA regulations. Enthusiasm for sports and hospitality Leipzig is the only World Cup venue in the east of Germany. During the competition, the city will once again have an opportunity of proving its enthusiasm for sports, its hospitality and cosmopolitanism. The first international soccer highlight to take place in the heart of the 'City of Sports' will be the match between the national teams of Germany and Cameroon on 17th November 2004. In the summer of 2005, Leipzig will be jointly hosting three matches of the Confederations Cup (15th - 29th June 2005). And only a few months later, in December 2005, the football world and billions of people watching on TV will witness the final draw for the World Cup taking place in Leipzig.

The “old” Zentralstadion, which opened in 1956, was once the largest stadium in Germany, with a capacity of 100,000.

In October 1997, the city council of Leipzig decided to construct a new purpose-built football stadium within the old stadium walls.