It is official: Sant Andreu and Europa will no longer have to leave home

BarcelonaSant Andreu and Europa, the teams that in recent years have seen a lot of people fill their stadiums, have lifted a weight off their shoulders, celebrating a victory off the field that could change their future. After months of debates, meetings, and controversies, the two clubs were able to announce that after a meeting held this Monday with the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, the Barcelona city council will assume the installation of natural grass on the fields where they play, the Narcís Sala in Sant Andreu and the Nou Sardenya in Gràcia, in the coming weeks. The city council, owner of the fields, will also carry out the necessary renovations so that their first male teams can play at home next season, undertaking actions such as improving the lighting of the Sant Andreu facilities.

The regulations of Primera RFEF, the third division of Spanish football where Europa currently plays and where Sant Andreu has just been promoted after being proclaimed champion of the third group of Segona RFEF, require playing on natural grass. And both fields have artificial turf. Europa, which is doing so well this season that it aims to play in the play-offs to be promoted to Segunda, was able to play for half a year at the Nou Sardenya with artificial turf by taking advantage of a Federation moratorium, but since January it has been playing on the Can Dragó athletics track, on natural grass, a provisional solution agreed with the City Council which installed additional stands in this facility. Europa will now be able to return home and Sant Andreu, after securing promotion, will not have to leave.

One of the problems for both clubs was the management of grassroots football. Both entities have a lot of teams of boys and girls who contribute economic resources and create community. Teams that in many cases train in the stadiums, as more activities can be done on artificial turf. Laying natural grass implies finding new spaces to send formative football there. The andreuencs will have to relocate these teams to the AISS football field, in La Verneda, and also to Bon Pastor and Baró de Viver, with agreements negotiated in recent days. For its part, Europa will transfer a significant part of its youth academy to the Llars Mundet field, which will be managed by the escapulated club after a readaptation process. In this way, the Nou Sardenya will be freed up to place the natural grass there with the added complication of the public car park located just below after the works carried out in the early 90s.

The calendar starts running

Now the key to everything will revolve around deadlines. In Sant Andreu, they are confident that everything can be resolved before the start of next season. “The city council will process the tender through the urgent route so that it is ready as soon as possible. The mayor has also assured the club that the lighting [of Narcís Sala] will reach the 600 luxes required by RFEF regulations”, assures the cuadribarrado club in its statement. The agreement has been made official just a few hours before the press conference of the Platform “Salvem el Narcís Sala”, which was preparing a series of actions in the coming days to pressure the council in this regard.

In Gràcia, the bad taste in their mouths from the defeat at Can Dragó against Murcia last weekend faded after hearing the good news. “We needed a solution that would guarantee the sporting, social, and economic viability of the project [...] Now work is being done on the schedule, both for the installation of the turf at the Nou Sardenya and for the adaptation of les Llars Mundet. In the coming weeks, the club will inform of all the details together with the Barcelona City Council,” explained to the club, which still wants to finish the season with a bang by playing the promotion play-off. Europa and Sant Andreu, rivals on the field, can now celebrate a success for Catalan football together.