Atletico Madrid’s creaking Estadio Vicente Calderon Stadium was not a ground any opponent fancied visiting, especially on big Champions League nights when the old concrete bowl literally shook with emotion and noise.

The death of a Deportivo La Coruna ‘ultra’ in fighting before last Sunday’s La Liga match at Atletico Madrid has led to attempts at expelling all such radical ‘supporters’ from the Spanish game.

WE DROVE across the bare Meseta, the tableland at the centre of Spain, on a Sunday morning, the sky big and blue overhead and snow-capped mountains on the horizon, rising above a band of blue mist.