THE RFEF OFFER BERGANTIÑOS CF FOUR OPTIONS FOR THE COPA DEL REY GAME

The Royal Spanish Football Federation has offered, to Bergantiños CF, four alternative options in order to host the Copa del Rey match on Wednesday 18th December against Sevilla FC. The RFEF have given the Galician club 24 hours to respond to which would be their preferred choice, or else it will be them who will decide where the game will be played. The organisation, of which Luis Rubiales is the President, wrote to Bergantiños CF on the 14th November saying that after analysing the status report of their stadium that was requested in August, they considered their stadium, the 'Fútbol Municipal de As Eiroas', was not a suitable place to play Copa del Rey games.

Now, Bergantiños CF have the choice of: the Ciudad Deportiva de Abegondo, which fits the requirements and would be loaned freely on behalf of Club Deportivo de La Coruña; the Estadio de Riazor; the Estadio Vero Boquete de Santiago; and the A Malata in Ferrol. The Royal Spanish Football Federation has told the Galician club that they have 24 hours to make their decision.

Bergantiños CF had asked the Federation to tell them which requirements they failed to meet, as they had started on works to improve their ground and they thought they were complying with the demands. According to the Federation, there isn't the required minimal distance between the pitch and the spectators, they don't have adequate benches, the artificial floodlights are less than 800 luxes, there are no control points neither entry nor exit points, there's not enough room for the emergency facilities and they lack places from where the media can work.

The Federation urged the club to find a suitable solution where they could play the game. Bergantiños suggested playing it at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, however the governing body said that this "would minimise the importance of the competition as the stadium doesn't meet the geographical requirements that have been taken into account in other similar situations", and that "it violates the new format of the competition". The Federation doesn't understand why Bergantiños "would suggest that the game take place in a stadium that is situated even from 50 to 90 kilometres away with a minimum travelling time of 70 to 90 minutes because it would cause 'enormous difficulty'", and yet, they proposed the Sánchez-Pizjuán as place to play the match.