Sant Andreu goes crazy with their team's promotion to Primera RFEF

BarcelonaSant Andreu is celebrating. One of the historic Catalan football clubs has been able to celebrate promotion to Primera RFEF, after the four-bar team's victory (2-1) against Reus Reddis in a packed Narcís Sala. More than a decade later, the club returns to the third tier of Spanish football after a strange week. Last weekend, the team lost at Valencia B's ground in the first match where they could have secured promotion. But in the rain, they lost. Joy turned to concern, not so much for the sporting results as the point difference over Atlètic Balears was quite large. Concern because this week the team's coach, Natxo González, suffered a heart attack which led to him being hospitalized. Today, logically, he could not be on the bench for the match against Reus.

La Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu is experiencing a sweet social moment with a record number of members and thousands of people at every match at Narcís Sala. Not all Catalan clubs can draw six thousand people as the people from Sant Andreu have done today. The neighborhood streets have been filled with people wearing the club's shirt hours before the match against a Reus team that is also having a good season. In fact, the people from Reus, along with Terrassa and Barça Atlètic, are still fighting for a play-off in the same group, to see if a second Catalan promotion arrives.

It had been weeks that it was evident that Sant Andreu would be promoted, which is why the neighborhood was already talking about the future, because the andreuencos have the same problem as their rivals from Europa: an artificial turf field. In the Primera RFEF, you have to play with natural grass, so the club will have to make a large financial investment to install it. The alternative is to play for six months at Narcís Sala, taking advantage of a moratorium granted by the League, but then go to the Can Dragó field, the athletics track where Europa is currently playing its matches, since the Gràcia team has decided to continue with artificial turf at their Nou Sardenya stadium.

Japanese capital in a club rooted in the territory

Sant Andreu has been owned by the Japanese Taito Suzuki since 2024, through the multinational Taica Corporation. Suzuki, who spends months in Barcelona and, to understand the club, has met with fans and even visited Montserrat to meet "la Moreneta", has always stated that his challenge is to take the club to professional football. Sant Andreu has not played in the Second Division since the 1970s. When he invested in the club, he signed a contract under which he commits to the club never leaving the Sant Andreu district, which is why the roadmap is clear: play at Narcís Sala and modernize it. "We have no other idea than to stay in our stadium," says the general director of UE Sant Andreu, José Manuel Pérez.

But the Narcís Sala is municipal and the club is negotiating with the Barcelona City Council, as they believe the investment should be borne by the council. Council sources confirm to ARA that conversations are underway to find the “best solution”. Especially after seeing that leaving the Nou Sardenya has gone against Europa. The rival's experience helps the people of Sant Andreu see clearly that they must remain at Narcís Sala where, until 2005, there was natural grass. That year, to save money, they put in artificial turf. Unlike the Nou Sardenya, where it is very difficult to install natural grass due to the presence of a parking lot under the field that complicates logistics, at Sant Andreu natural grass can be installed more efficiently, but doing so is expensive. David Escudé, the Sports Councillor, explained that "There will be a solution for Sant Andreu. We have been working for some time to see what the possibilities are. We are working along the same lines as with Europa. The investment is almost a national one“. Escudé, however, does not rule out the possibility of seeing the two rivals, Sant Andreu and Europa, together at Can Dragó: “All lines of work are open. I will not go into whether it is one or the other, because it would seem disrespectful to the clubs.” Can Dragó, until recently an athletics facility, has been remodeled this year to allow Europa to play from January, with provisional stands. A solution that does not please Sant Andreu, because the club's idea for next season is to exceed six thousand members, and Can Dragó has space for three thousand people. One option would be to expand the stands of this facility, as the City Council currently does not see a clear path to installing natural grass. The general director of UE Sant Andreu, José Manuel Pérez, also confirmed that the lighting installation will also need to be improved, which means a total expenditure of over half a million euros.

While the fans and players celebrate the promotion, work is being done in the offices to find a solution. If natural grass is installed, whether with municipal investment or from the Japanese ownership, it would also be necessary to see what would happen with the youth football teams, who would not be able to train at Narcís Sala. Both Europa and Sant Andreu have dozens of teams of boys and girls who can train on the field since the artificial turf withstands continuous use. And having many youth football teams is a good source of income. If natural grass is installed, the lower-category teams would not be able to train on the field to take care of the surface that the Federation requires. For now, the club announced improvements to AISS, the club's youth football field, just in case. Such is life, when in 2005 Sant Andreu defeated Mazarrón in the last promotion to Second B, the club opted for artificial turf. Now that the team celebrates a new promotion, it would be time to install natural grass to prevent the club from leaving Sant Andreu.