Spain’s cavalier clubs dicing with danger

In La Liga’s latest example of club chiefs writing cheques their teams can’t cash, Barcelona announced last Monday that its socios would vote in the new year on whether to spend 300m “remodelling” their current stadium or at least 600m on a new ground elsewhere in the city.

Redeveloping the Camp Nou and expanding it to seat 105,000 spectators is clearly president Sandro Rosell’s preferred option. A new build looks unlikely as Barcelona University won’t sell the only potential site identified, and blaugrana directors regularly warn about the dangers of doing nothing. Even though well-connected Catalan paper Mundo Deportivo claim the renovation will finally cost 500 to 600m, it looks set to go ahead.

Barca’s plans match those of rival Real Madrid to spend 400m upgrading the its Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, adding better match-day facilities including air-conditioning throughout, while affixing a new luxury commercial and hotel complex on one side. The rebuild is a pet project of Blancos president Florentino Perez, also chief of Spanish construction giant ACS, and mastermind of the club’s recently completed suburban training facility and various controversial land-swap deals with Madrid’s city council.