Champions league final Madrid – The flip side

In our earlier post we extolled both the virtues of the Santiago Bernabeu as the host of this years Champions league final and explained the official means for obtaining tickets to the event. Unfortunately for many demand for tickets far outstripped supply many times over and many “neutral” fans will not have found tickets through the Uefa draw.

For those lucky fans of Europes premier football competition that did receive tickets and those supporters of the finalists Madrid offers some of the most secure surrounds possible and a fantastic city to enjoy before and after the match itself. However there are a few pertinent points that visitors should take into account when planning their visit to Madrid:

1, The airport is a good 40 minutes from the Stadium by car / taxi / bus and coupled with the spectacle and increased security of the final visiting fans should schedule their flight arrivals with no less than three hours before kick off.

2, Security, with high unemployment in Spain (almost 20%) the number of petty crimes has shot up by a corresponding amount. Unfortunately football fans celebrating pre or post match are an easy target and pickpockets on both the Metro and in the popular nightime tourist areas are common. Apart from keeping ones “wits about them” the only practical solution is to invest in some form of insurance although this is another minefield with premiums for Madrid over a weekend being higher than other countries. An effective way around this is by purchasing an annual travel insurance policy which will cover you both in Madrid and for other trips.

3, When it comes to accomodation Madrid offers every class and price however in the same manner as the airlines prices are substantially higher for the Saturday night than normal. The best advice is to take a “weekend break” package covering the Friday and Saturday in a Hotel that is normally used for business instead of tourism. There are actually deals where the weekend costs less than the saturday night on its own!

4, As happens with any major sporting event, the traditional “low cost” airlines have substantially increased flight costs for the 22nd May. An indirect routing or flying to an alternate destination such as Sevilla, Valladolid or Zaragoza (all conected to Madrid by very high speed train) will work out far more economical.

6, For the final there will be two types of police on duty; the Madrid city police (easily recognised by their flourescent jackets) and the National police (Navy blue uniforms). The former are friendly and accostomed to resolving tourist problems whilst the later are trained as riot police and tend to be far less cordial or approachable.

Whilst parts of this blog post may seem slightly “alarmist” nothing could be further from the truth as millions of visitors to Madrid each year are testament! So, enjoy the tapas, latin love of a party and make the most of Europes premier sporting event!

Champions League final 2010 – Madrid

This years Champions League final will be played on May 22nd in the Santiago Bernabeu. Unfortunately this showpiece occasion will not feature either of the Madrid teams as Real Madrid followed Atletico Madrid out of the competition before the quarter final stage.

For fans wishing to attend the champions league final 2010 they needed to have registered their interest via the Uefa website before the 19th March. A long time before the finalists are even known…

Whilst European football is over for another year for Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid have been steadily progressing in Europes second football tournament, The Europa League, and have now reached the quarter final stage where fate has paired them against the only other Spanish team in the competition, FC Valencia. Most fans of both clubs lament the draw as an all Spanish final was their wish!

For the Champions league finalists they’ll find that the Santiago Bernabeu offers some of the best views of the pitch of any stadium. Unfortunately the 3rd and 4th tiers also offer some of the worst and for fans on the losing side in the final that paid out a hefty amount for these seats the combination will be a bitter pill to swallow. Just as well then that Madrid offers 24hr drinking for those wishing to celebrate or simply drown their sorrows!

Atletico reach cup Final

Atletico Madrid reached their first final in major competitions for 10 years last night after a 3-2 defeat against Racing Santander in the second leg of the semi final of the Copa del Rey, the Cup of the King. Although a defeat on the night Atleticos 4-0 victory in the first leg was enough to see the “rojiblancos” (red and whites) safely to the final.

For a football club that has had a torrid season so far the Copa del Rey has provided a welcome distraction after elimination in the Champions league group stages and a league season that sees Atletico Madrid languishing in the bottom half of La Liga.

The final is provisionally pencilled in for the 26th May and the winners will be rewarded with a spot
in next seasons Europa League. Atleticos opponents in the final are Sevilla who although losing 1-0 in the
second leg of their semi final against Getafe reached the final thanks to a 2-0 home first leg victory.

Copa del Rey

The Cup of the King is Spains only cup competition and is open to all professional teams from Spains
four leagues; La liga, Segunda, Segunda B and Tercera. All rounds are two legged with home and away
matches up to and incluiding the semi final. The final is a one off affair played at a neutral venue agreed
between the participating clubs and the Spanish football federation.

Early speculation has seen Real Madrids Santiago Bernabeu stadium emerge as a possible venue for the 2010 Copa del Rey final. Some might see it as strange that the final could be played in Madrid with a Madrid club being one of the participants however the alternatives such as Barcelona or Valencia provide more transport difficulties than Madrid does from Sevilla.

2009 Madrid derby

As an Atletico abonado the visit of Real Madrid to the Vicente Calderon is always awaited with great expectation but not a little trepidation. Whilst the match always seems to co-incide with Atletico on the “up” and Real Madrid on a “downer” the results this last decade have always favoured the Whites from the north of the city.

Unfortunately the 2009/10 derby was no different!

From a fans perspective the occasion is sometimes an anti climax as for all the bluster, hype and tension Real Madrid always score an early goal. This year it wasn’t until the 4th minute that Madrid went 1-0 up but instead of the optimism that prevaded amongst Atletico fans in previous years there was a sigh of resignation as if to say “yet again?” By the time the second half was 10 minutes old Atletico were 3-0 down and looking at receiving a hiding!

Cue the entrance of one Sergio “Kun” Aguero.

This “pint sized” Argentinian center forward is Atletico Madrids only saving grace in what has been an awful season so far but injury problems mean that his appearances are limited to “half matches” for the foreseable future. What he lacks in inches or minutes on the field “Kun” more than makes up for with his impact on matches. Minutes after coming on Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos was shown a red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity and Real Madrid were down to ten men with 30 minutes remaining on the clock….

Atletico went over to the attack instantly but it wasn’t until the 82nd minute that Kun grabed a goal to reduce the deficite to 3-1. Four minutes later veteran and golden boat winner Diego Forlan scored a second for Atletico but for all their huffing and puffiong Real Madrid held out for a 3-2 win and maintain their record of ten years without being defeated in the Calderon!

Sanctions against Atletico?

The Madrid derby never passes without incident and this years event saw:

• Real Madrid manager receive a object thrown from the stands in the face
• Commentators positions bombarded with plastic drinks bottles
• Various flares and smoke cartridges let off within the ground
• All manner of objects thrown on the pitch
• Pre match riot police firing rubber bullets at the Atletico Madrid Ultras

Despite all the above the ground is a safe place to visit and Real Madrid supporters had no problem getting to or from the stadium unmolested! Just wish they didn’t take the 3 points back to the Santiago Bernabeu with them!

Real Madrid Jerez – Away fans make the day!

Real Madrid Jerez is hardly a fixture to get the pulse racing but theres more to this match than a simple La Liga fixture. Jerez have finally clawed their way into the top flight of Spanish football for the first time in their history and the trip to Real Madrids Santiago Bernabeu was something the people of this Andalucian town were not going to miss!

One has to understand two things about Spanish football to see why this match was different to other fixtures. Namely that:
- Real Madrid are considered to be a national institution and tourist attraction in their own right.
- Away fans in Spains La Liga frequently number less than a hundred. Even for matches between teams just an hours travel away.
The upshot of these factors, combined with the match been Xerezs first visit to the Bernabeu as an equal, was a fleet of coaches carrying around 3,000 travelling Jerez fans leaving Jerez early on the saturday morning for the 8 hour trip to Madrid.

Away fans in the Santiago Bernabeu are always allocated the 4th tier at the northern end (Fondo Norte) of the Bernabeu accessed via Torre D and are normally seperated from home fans by a movable police cordon. The view of the pitch itself is marginally interupted by a net designed to prevent missiles being thrown but this doesn’t detract from the view. There are even gas heaters in the roof of the stadium for those cold mid winter games! Pre match the residential area just behind the northern end of the stadium offers a large number of bars for pre match “refreshments” and places to purchase the ever popular “bocadillos” (half a baguette stuffed with anything from deep fried squid rings to pork belly slices and tomatoes) for half time.

Whilst the tickets we had for the match were for the Real Madrid part of the ground a few words with the police saw us let into the Xerez part of the ground and what a good move that proved to be. Its a curious fact that with multi million Euro players on show and one of the best football stadiums in Europe the atmosphere created by Real Madrid fans is generally flat. A couple of those irritating blow horns / truppets are about the sum total of 75,000 peoples contirbution to an afternoons football. The atmosphere created by the 3,000 Xerez fans was however the complete opposite. What else would one expect from people treating the game as their “cup final” and after having spent 8 hours on coaches partaking of varying quantities of “liquid refreshment”!

Whilst the match itself was a flattering 5-0 to Madrid Xerez were “in the game” for the first hour trailing to a single Cristiano Ronaldo goal. After the hour mark the difference between a recently promoted team and a 9 times European champion club showed with a fine display of clinical finishing and fast counter attacking from the Madrid midfield and forwards. One must say however that the result was not why the Xerez fans were there. It was more of a symbolic statement of 90 minutes of non stop singing, chanting and clapping to say “We’ve arrived”! Drowning out the little noise made by the real Madrid fans the Xerez supporters certainly did so in style!

If you are looking to take in a Real Madrid match whilst visiting the city check out our guide to purchasing Real Madrid tickets direct from the club.

Atletico Madrid reach Champions League group stages

In what was best described as an instantly forgetable match Atletico Madrid secured their qualification for the 2009-10 Champions league with a 2-0 victory over Panathinaikos in the Vicente Calderon.

Atletico Madrid now join city neighbours Real Madrid in Thursdays (27th August) draw where leagues of four teams will be decided although teams from the same country cannot be drawn together at this stage so a European Madrid derby is not on the cards just yet.

Other points of note from the match against Panathanaikos were:

• The scoring of Atletico Madrids 100th goal in Europes top competition by, appropriately enough, star forward Sergio “Kun” Aguero
• The half empty stadium due to the Atletico Madrid executives decision to require payment from Season Ticket holders for the qualifying match whereas the season before the match was free to the same group of fans

Atletico Madrid season tickets

Last week saw Atletico Madrid season tickets holders, or abonados as they are known in Spanish, receive their tickets for the 09-10 campaign. The sending out of these signifies the start of the opening of season ticket sales to the general public starting with those that joined the waiting list. It also saw Madrid guide Spain receive a few enquiries and seeing as the topic came up earlier this year in the forum we thought it would be a good idea to complete the picture with pricing and process details.

Pricing:
The Atletico Madrid season ticket prices are in this section of the official website choosing from the menu:

Precio de los abonos

Application

All applications have to be made in person at the clubs offices inside the Vicente Calderon between the hours of 0900-1900 Mon – Thurs and 0900-1500 on Fridays.

Applicants will also have to present the following documentation:

a) A photocopy of their passport or residents certificate
b) Contact details
c) Bank account number

For those who enjoy the passion of the fans the Grada Joven in the Fondo Sur, where the more passionate Atletico fans congregate, has sold out but the tier above still has some availibility.

Spanish football fixtures 2009-10

The La Liga season kicks off on the 30th August with Real Madrid playing at home to Deportivo La Coruña and Atletico Madrid away against Malaga. For the full set of fixtures for the Spanish football season 2009-10 check out the official website of La Liga.

If you want to see a match whilst in Madrid and experience the unique atmosphere that Spanish football has then check out the Sport section of the main website where it explains getting hold of Real Madrid tickets and also Atletico Madrid tickets direct from the clubs themselves!

Note: Matchday timings are normally 5pm on Sunday but for the start of the season this changes to 7pm and for a number of matches each weekend their timings change for television.

Anyone for Snooker?

Thats right, Madrid has a Snooker club thats open to all. So if you fancy relaxing and shooting some framesto escape the midday sun then it’s possible in Madrid. Its not that easy in most Spanish cities mind you as the bars tend to be dominated by “futbolin”, this is Table Football to you and me excepting Joey and Chandler from Friends that insisted in calling it “Fussball”.

Located in the North of Madrid the Westbury snooker academy has a number of full size Snooker tables as well as 9ft snooker tables which are ideal for children. Westbury also partake in the Spanish snooker leagues so if you like the game and are going to be in Madrid for some time then its an ideal place to meet friends whilst enjoying a common interest.

Location

Westbury’s are located in the Northern Madrid barrio of Fuencarral which is easily accesible from line 10 of the Madrid metro which passes through the centre of the city on its way to the stations of Fuencarral and Tres Olivos. For directions by car and to see the route from the station to the Snooker club simply use the following: directions to Westbury snooker club

Times and Prices

Opening hours: Everyday 1700 until 2300

Prices:

• 12ft table: 14€ per hour
• 9ft table: 12€ per hour

For additional information and enquiries check out the Westbury snooker Madrid website Which although it is in Spanish it does give you an idea of the facilities on offer… That and the telephone of English speaking Mark to assist you with your visit!

Atletico Madrid reach the CL

In end of season drama Atletico Madrid qualified for the 2009/10 Champions League on the last day of the calender.

Needing to win at home in the Vicente Calderon against Almeria a three goal rout ensued infront of 54,000 fans. Of note was a goal by Diego Forlan which saw him crowned Europes leading striker and winner of the Golden Boot for most goals scored in a season.