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This decision follows the addition last November of the Bernabéu to UEFA's Elite Stadium list. The other candidate stadia to host the final were London's Wembley, Munich's Allianz Arena, Berlin's Olympiastadion, and Valencia's Mestalla. UEFA president Michel Platini hinted that Wembley may have been passed over because of insufficient assurances that players competing in the final would not be taxed by the British government. Such taxes would not apply in Spain and the German government had assured UEFA that it would not seek to impose them. Perhaps this is also why the UEFA Cup final for 2010 was awarded to Hamburg stadium in Germany.
The 2010 Champions League final will mark a departure from tradition, as the game will, for the first time, be played on a Saturday instead of a Wednesday.
Friday, 28 March 2008
It's coming home
Monday, 19 November 2007
The Bernabéu rejoins the elite
When Italy beat West Germany in the 1982 World Cup final, few could have predicted that more than a generation would have to pass before the venue, the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, could once again host an event of similar magnitude. The Bernabéu, which turns 60 this December, was recently added by UEFA to their "Elite Stadium" list, making it eligible to host the Champions League final.
The Real Madrid stadium has hosted the final of the top European club competition three times (1957, 1969 and 1980), but only in its previous incarnation as the European Cup, never as the Champions League. The final venues for the 2008 and 2009 editions have already been chosen, and the Bernabéu will face stiff competition from the new Wembley, Munich's Allianz Arena, Berlin's Olympiastadion, and Valencia's own Mestalla for the 2010 final. The decision will not be made by UEFA until March of next year.
The Bernabéu was inaugurated on December 14th 1947, when Real Madrid played against the Portuguese side Os Belenenses. The initial ground capacity was 75,432. Initially named Nuevo Estadio Chamartín after its earlier incarnation located in Madrid's district of that name, it was renamed in honour of its then president on January 4th 1955, prior to Real Madrid's unequalled run of success in the European Cup.
In 1953, due to enormous demand from the fans, the stadium was extended with a third amphitheatre (known as the "gallinero", or "henhouse"). During Real's golden period, in the 1950s and 1960s, the ground held crowds of up to 120,000, mostly standing. On the international scene, the Spanish national side won its only official title thus far in the Bernabéu, beating the U.S.S.R. in the final of the European Nations Championship in 1964.
In the early 1980s, the ground saw its first major refurbishment to bring it up to the standard necessary to become a World Cup venue. The façade and access to the ground were modernised, and a cover was added, decreasing the capacity to about 90,000. The distinctive access towers were added during further work carried out in 1992. Once again, the capacity increased above 100,000, to 106,500.
However, according to Spanish legislation and new UEFA rules, from the 1998/99 season, all stadia had to be converted to be all-seater. Real Madrid was one of the few Spanish clubs unable to complete all the necessary alterations in time and they were granted a 2-year extension by UEFA to make the changes, reducing the stadium capacity to just under 75,000. Recent work to the stadium has once again increased the capacity to 80,354, but it has been other changes which have brought it recognition from UEFA: The Presidential Balcony was relocated to the East Stand in order to be in the same area as the press zone, the dressing rooms and all the club's administrative offices. Other changes include the new "Multipurpose" building which houses its own press and board rooms and the new Real Madrid store, the panoramic elevators and the escalators in the access towers.
Curiously, no indication that these changes could bring the desired acknowledgement from UEFA was given at the recent AGM. The alterations have been cumulative, rather than as a result of some heavily hyped grand design (compare with the proposed redesign of Barcelona's Nou Camp by Norman Foster) and so it is difficult to judge whether they form part of an overall vision to guarantee the stadium's future as a venue of international renown. They will, however, suffice for now.
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Unopposed, yet ineffective?
What a difference a year (and two league titles - in football and basketball) makes. All through last summer, after the disputed election result, and even into the AGM in December, Ramón Calderón's authority, and even his legitimacy as president of Real Madrid was constantly called into question.
On Sunday, Real Madrid held their AGM and approved, by an overwhelming majority, the accounts for last year, which showed the club had a healthy balance sheet, although also a significant amount of debt (not necessarily a major issue in an entity of this size). However, only 654 out of the 2,106 socios compromisarios made an appearance for the initial speeches by the president and the board, and a mere 353 remained for the voting. By the time questions from the floor were allowed, only about 100 socios remained, a worrying level of interest (or perhaps overcomplacency) in how the club is run.
I've written before about the voting process at AGMs and how I feel that it is an undemocratic way of doing things, and one which has little transparency. In most democratic institutions, the lack of participation would be seen as a source of concern, because it directly affects the validity of the mandate the leadership has over that institution. This sort of thing promotes cronyism and corruption and should be reformed as a matter of priority, but, of course, it's not going to happen unless the members attend in numbers and demand it.
A number of announcements were made regarding the building of a new High Performance Centre to be managed by the club physio Walter di Salvo, a new residence for the players to spend time together before matches, and a new arena for the basketball team. However, nothing was said about any upgrades to the Santiago Bernabéu to make it one of the best stadia in the world, something the "richest club in the world" should aim for. Contrast this with Barcelona announcing that they have engaged one of the most prestigious architects in the world, Sir Norman Foster, to do with the Nou Camp what he did for Wembley stadium.
My personal bugbear with this AGM was the inability of the management to reform the statutes of the club to ensure the postal voting debacle at the last presidential election does not happen again. After all this time, they are still working on them and they did not furnish a date when they would be presented to the members for approval. The club has entered the 21st century as a business that makes rather than loses money, but the same cannot be said for the transparency and fairness of its processes. Continue reading this article »
Friday, 14 September 2007
General Disassembly
The club is bullish about the club's performance over the past year, claiming it as "the best fiscal year in its history" with €351 million in ordinary revenue (20% up), €83 million in earnings (EBITDA, 43% up) and profit of €44 million before tax. It seems clear that the club's finances are sound and the structure put in place by former president Florentino Pérez to run the club as a modern business is reaping the rewards. However, there is concern in the Real Madrid blogosphere (see El Triangular Madridista in particular) that good results should not overshadow a number of questions that need answers, aside from the reform of the electoral process:
More details next week.
