stadium with seats close to the pitch. The stadium will get a retractable roof so that other events can be held as well. According to plans in those days, the stadium should be ready in 2016. Due to financial difficulties for all parties involved and the fact that the Netherlands were not chosen to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the plans for a new stadium have been put on hold. A new stadium will most likely be built in the future, though it will likely not have a spectator capacity greater than 70,000. In September 2012, Feyenoord confirmed that they would try to build a new stadium by 2018. The stadium was designed by VolkerWessels, it would have cost around €300 million (~£242 million). Another option was a plan made by a consortium of BAM, Eneco Energie and Siemens. But the plan was rejected by the Feyenoord and Stadion Feijenoord direction. The new stadium should be a 63,000 all-seater. Due to the illustrious history of De Kuip, many fans were against the demolition of De Kuip and instead preferred a renovation of the current stadium. One of those initiatives was Red de Kuip, which is Dutch for Save de Kuip. They made plans of building a third tier on top of the current stadium, increasing the capacity to 68,000. This plan would cost only €117 million (~£94 million). In 2016, Feyenoord announced their plans for a new stadium called Feyenoord City. The planned capacity was set to be around 65,000 seats, which would've made it the Netherlands' largest stadium. Despite the council approving the plans for the new stadium, it once again proved unpopular with many Feyenoord supporters. In May 2022, the director of Stadion Feyenoord, Jan van Merwijk announced that Feyenoord City would not be feasible due to financial difficulties, and that a major renovation of Stadion Feyenoord would also be out of question for the time being. Stadium songs Official Feyenoord hymn Feyenoord's official hymn since 1961 is called "Hand in Hand". Its melody was written in the 19th century by German Wilhelm Speidel. In 1961, Jaap Valkhoff wrote the lyrics which became popular among Feyenoord supporters who adopted the song as their unofficial hymn. Valkhoff wrote lyrics on the same melody for several other teams as well. Among them were Feyenoord's archrivals Ajax. Nowadays, the song is heard wherever Feyenoord play their matches, but also fans