Most child-supporters present at an official European match, Romania sets world record

September 8, 2025

Bucharest, Romania--At the invitation of the Romanian Football Federation, a total of 29,854 spectators filled the stadium, most of them children, when Romania faced Norway in their European Championship qualifier match; they set the new record for the

Most children's spectators for a UEFA match, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.

"Romania faced Norway in their European Championship 2020 qualifier match on Tuesday in Bucharest, but the majority of the spectators watching were under 14 years old. Almost 30,000 children watched the game, far outweighing the number of adults in Bucharest’s National Arena," the Euro News reported.

"Romania had been sanctioned for racist behavior by UEFA in previous matches and the game against Norway was to be played 'behind closed doors' with no spectators in attendance. The match between Romania and Norway finished 1-1.

"At the invitation of the Romanian Football Federation, a total of 29,854 spectators filled the stadium, most of them children, with an adult accompanying every 10 children as per UEFA regulations. This reportedly set a new record for the number of child-supporters present at an official European match. After the match, Romanian players took to the pitch with a banner, thanking those in attendance for their support.

"Over 30,000 children under 14 and their companions will come to watch Romania’s national football team play against Norway on Bucharest’s National Arena on Tuesday, October 15, Romania’s Football Federation (FRF) has announced," the Romania-insider.com reports.

"Romania was sanctioned due to supporter misconduct at the matches with Spain and Malta and the national team has to play the next two matches without supporters. However, the rule doesn’t apply to children under 14 who come to the stadium with an adult companion.

"Romania will thus set a new record for the number of child-supporters to be present at an official match. Each group of children has to have one attendant for every 10 children."

"The largest official attendance at a football match was 173,850 for the game between Uruguay and Brazil at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 16 July 1950," the Guinness World Records said.

"Unofficial figures for this game put the attendance as high as 199,854 people with thousands entering the stadium without a ticket to watch what they expected to be Brazil’s first World Cup triumph. The British record paid attendance is 149,547 at the Scotland v. England international at Hampden Park, Glasgow on 17 Apr 1937."

"The largest official attendance at a FIFA World Cup finals match was 173,850 for the match between Uruguay and Brazil at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 16 July 1950," the Guinness World Records says.

"The 30,000 children present at the National Arena for the match with Norway, which ended in a 1-1 draw, came to the attention of the international press. The match was supposed to be played behind closed doors, but UEFA decided that spectators under 14 years of age could enter the match, accompanied by a limited number of adults (one adult for every 10 children)," the DIGI FM reported.

"Following the chants of fans in the matches with Spain and Malta, Romania was not allowed to play with spectators in the stands, in the matches with Norway and Sweden. However, the Romanian Football Federation was able to call 30,000 children to the match with Norway, who animated the stadium in Bucharest. Moreover, this was even a new world record.

Because these little ones need to be supervised, there was also an adult for each group of 10 children, to take care of them and to guide them. UEFA believes that such sanctions should not affect children up to 14 years old, so they were allowed access to the stadium."

"In Romania - Norway, the Romanian Children's Day was celebrated on the National Arena, in an unforgettable multi-colored atmosphere for our future, with 29,854 souls in the stadium, an absolute record. They deserve to be at Euro 2020, they would be champions there!" the gsp.ro says.

"With vocals that fill the atmosphere with overflowing enthusiasm and that gave us, those of us with many years behind us, the energy to hope that the game of the "tricolors" could also be infected by the joy of the young spectators. Vibrant! Wonderful! Extraordinary!

"How good it would be if this were the future of Romania, in football, in any field, if last night's kids kept the same line in life! The Nordics were right, precise and with cold smiles, to wrinkle their noses at the news that they would come across an animated, lively, effervescent stadium, which would directly push the men in yellow towards Jarstein's goal."

"With the ban on having regular fans in the stadium, the Romanian Football Federation took advantage of UEFA's proposal and gathered approximately 30,000 children at the National Arena. This took both the Norwegians and the rest of the countries by surprise, Mediafax notes," the tvrinfo.ro says.

"Onefootball noted: "The National Arena in Bucharest welcomed 30,000 children this evening. This special atmosphere was possible as a result of the sanction that Romania received. Even though Romanian fans were racist in the matches against Spain and Malta, UEFA allowed them to bring an impressive number of children to the stadium. This is a new world record."

"The nearly 30,000 children and their companions who were at the National Arena broke the UEFA all-time record for a match with exclusively children's spectators," the Romanian Soccer Federation says.

"And they made Romania's match one of the games with the largest number of spectators in this stage of the preliminaries."

Photos:

(1) X/Romanian National team

(2-6) Facebook/Romanian National Team