The Spanish Super Cup that begins this Wednesday with the semifinal duel between the champion, FC Barcelona, and Atlético (7:00 p.m., La2) was without a venue until just 26 days ago. The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), in charge of organizing the tournament, announced on December 26 that Butarque (Leganés; capacity for 13,054 people), the same stadium in which it was held last year, would host this edition, which In the other semifinal, Real Madrid faces Real Sociedad on Thursday (7:00 p.m., La2). The late designation of the host city – it is not yet known where the Queen’s Cup final will be played – contrasts with what happens in the men’s category, whose Super Cup and Cup finals have venues established years or months in advance, and above all it makes it difficult for Barça fans and txuri urdin They can balance their agendas and their wallets to travel to one of the most expensive communities in the country. “It seems to me very little time for sports planning, for members and fans of the visiting team. We should have this information with much more time because all parties would benefit,” Barça coach Pere Romeu complained at a press conference this Tuesday.
The tournament has a format final four since its recovery in 2020 – between 1997 and 2000 a two-game final was played but then there was a two-decade break due to the lack of interest from the federation – although it is still dealing with many difficulties in developing due to the low financial amounts distributed , the scandalous superiority of Barça and the half-empty stands. The president of the RFEF, Rafael Louzán, stated in Jeddah on January 12 that the institution he directs is “working” and “has made progress” in having the women’s competition, like the men’s, be held in Saudi Arabia, a country with a autocratic regime that discriminates against women and the LGTBIQ+ community and commits serious human rights violations, according to organizations such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch. In addition, the contract that Luis Rubiales signed when he was federation president for the transfer of the competition is being investigated in court for the alleged collection of commissions.
Louzán’s statements have disturbed an important part of football played by women, a sport in which many professionals are part of the LGTBIQ+ community and where 130 of them sent a letter in October to FIFA to break its sponsorship with Aramco, the state oil company of Saudi Arabia. The players, among whom were Real Sociedad’s Finnish forward Sanni Franssi or Barcelona defenders Marta Torrejón and Fridolina Rolfö, described the agreement with the largest energy company in the world as “a punch in the stomach of women’s football.”
The Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE), chaired by David Aganzo, who is also vice president of the RFEF, issued a statement on Monday after speaking with several players in which it opposed moving the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, considering that it would whitewash the monarchy. absolute of the Saud. María José López, lawyer and legal co-director of the AFE, even believes that soccer players would have the right to conscientious objection to not go there: “In Spain, discrimination against women with respect to men is not accepted. Are some players going to be told to go play in a country where they are discriminated against? “They could raise conscientious objection because that legislation is prohibited here.”
Opposing voices also came from Atlético’s supporters clubs—Las Colchoneras, Los 50 association and Rojiblancas—, which in recent days showed their rejection of the negotiation with Riyadh. The president of League F and vice president of the RFEF, Beatriz Álvarez, said in Madrid last week that she had told Louzán that “there are other priorities.” “The Super Cup has developed little, it has a lot of room for improvement. We have to find a balance between what the business is and the sociocultural context where it develops,” he said.
Álvarez’s words implicitly referred to the recurring images of the semi-deserted stands. In 2024, 7,139 people attended Barça’s rout of Levante (7-0) in the final, 57% of Butarque’s capacity, a capacity similar to that of the Blaugranas’ semi-final triumph against Real Madrid ( 4-0). In the other semifinal, where the granotas defeated Atlético (1-3), there were only about 2,000 fans (16%). The image was harsh for a tournament that distributed between 10,000 and 25,000 euros in prizes—insufficient to even cover the expenses of the teams that are not from the capital and far from the 19 million that the men’s competition gives—and where Barcelona, which has not lost in a national competition with the title at stake since January 2021, is emerging again this year as the hyperfavorite after having swept four of the five editions held since The federation recovered the Super Cup.
