The great paradox of Catalan football

BarcelonaLast week, work began to replace the turf at the Narcís Sala, which from November will be able to host Primera Federació matches. Sant Andreu's promotion to a higher category obliges them to install natural grass at their stadium, a rule that has caused a lot of controversy recently. "We players like it. If it's in good condition, natural surface is much better than artificial. It's almost like another sport. The ball runs differently and you hit and control it better," says Robert Simón, who has played a large part of his career on natural grass: "It's an aspect to consider when you evaluate offers from clubs. It can sway the decision".

“With artificial grass you have more injuries because it tends to be harder,” adds the winger, who last year suffered plantar fasciitis due to the state of the synthetic turf at the Badalona pitch, his current team. “It is common for players coming from natural grass to have ankle or sole of the foot problems. Also joint pain, knee or hip pain, and especially muscle fatigue. In any case, the key aspect is the condition of the grass, whether natural or artificial. And Badalona's is very old,” comments Pau Vela, physiotherapist for the escapulat club, which is also in the process of changing its turf.

The Badalona team plays in Tercera RFEF and is not obliged to play on a natural surface, but shares a stadium with Badalona Women; the women's First Division does require it. Last season, their players trained in Badalona and played in Palamós, which has natural grass. Robert Simón knows very well what it entails: “In half a year at Cornellà, I played home games on four different pitches: RCDE Stadium, Espanyol's Sports City, Gavà's La Bòbila, and Palamós. It is evident that this is one of the reasons we were relegated from Primera RFEF”.

Europa's forced exile

Like Sant Andreu, Europa also competes in the bronze category. But its situation is more complicated: below the Nou Sardenya there is a gym and a car park, and the work requires much more complex preliminary feasibility and safety studies. The most optimistic outlook suggests that it will not have natural grass until the beginning of the 2027-28 season. This means that the team from Vila de Gràcia will play in exile for another year, at Can Dragó, on a converted athletics track.

“At Sardenya we reached 3,400 members and this season we expect to have about a thousand fewer. The move to Can Dragó also affects sponsorship in terms of and very significantly the ticketing: we went from selling 1,000-1,500 tickets per game to being close to 200 or 300,” explains the president of Europa, Hèctor Ibar, about the economic impact of the change of stadium and neighborhood, estimated at almost 400,000 euros. In this regard, Barcelona City Council, owner of Sardenya, assumes the rent and maintenance of Can Dragó this season and the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, publicly committed to helping Europa find formulas to offset the economic gap derived from the exile.

The Catalan infrastructural drama

In addition to the financial loss, the transfer of a large part of the European youth football to the Llars Mundet field must be added, and the sporting impact of abandoning the Sardenya: "We have gone a whole year without losing at home." The Gracienc club feels deceived by Louzán – "He told us he would help us and he didn't" – and considers it an absurd rule: "In the Champions League you can play on artificial turf, right? And here there are fields that are real potato patches".

The turf rule, incidentally, was approved with the approval of Joan Soteras, head of Primera RFEF at the start and current president of the Catalan Football Federation, an autonomous community with a serious deficit of fields suitable for competing in the bronze category: natural turf and with a minimum capacity of 3,000 spectators. Apart from Barça, Espanyol, Girona, their respective sports cities and Montjuïc, only Nàstic, Sabadell, Lleida, Palamós, Reus, Gavà and Olot meet the requirements requested by the federative body. An infrastructural drama that is not reproduced in Andalusia or Madrid (in the Spanish capital there are six stadiums that are suitable; in Barcelona only two), due to the large number of teams with past and present in the First and Second divisions.

Tona's responsible decision

“Although it may seem that a natural grass field is very sustainable and economical, it is not. We have put aside the romanticism of playing on natural grass and proposed to the City Council to switch to artificial to boost grassroots football. This way we will always have two fields,” explains Joaquim Carandell, president of Tona, from Tercera RFEF. Out of responsibility, from October it will change its surface, just as Vic did years ago or more recently Riuprimer, another iconic field in Osona.

“Between water and maintenance, it costs 50,000 or 60,000 euros a year. All this for only four matches a month to be played there. In addition, during the drought two years ago, we almost ran out of grass,” adds Carandell, who understands that the surface is closely linked to the number of licenses: “Perhaps in Navarra or La Rioja there are towns that can afford to have a natural grass field. But here, an Hospitalet or an Europa can have 500 or a thousand children in the club. It is unfeasible”.

An oasis in Garrotxa

“When Eudald Morera, who was a club director, started the RoyalVerd business, he began to develop his product on our field”, reveals Jordi Sargatal, operations director of UE Olot, a Second RFEF club that plays and trains on natural grass. The volcanic team is the envy of modest football and in the summer, major Catalan and international clubs fight to play pre-season matches at their stadium and at the Brides field of RoyalVerd, a leading company from Garrotxa in the installation and maintenance of grass with a very close link to their home team.

“Natural grass also has its negative aspects, right? It’s logical that clubs consider whether it’s essential. For example, we have youth football moved to other facilities,” says Sargatal, who lives permanently concerned about the weather: “Even if you have the best caretakers, climate is everything. And the climate in Garrotxa helps. But if it rains, we have to relocate sessions so as not to damage the grass. It can destroy it. You have to be very careful,” comments the Garrotxa native, who knows the ins and outs of natural grass like few others and works to make the turf of Olot’s stadium shine every two weeks, a small oasis amidst the infrastructural drama that Catalan football is suffering.