The three major battlegrounds of Catalonia-Palestine
The cost of the Lluís Companys Stadium, where the City Council had already announced that the charity friendly match would be played, is the crux of the matter.
BarcelonaTwo weeks before the Catalonia-Palestine friendly scheduled for next Tuesday, November 18 (6:30 p.m.), the event remains stalled: tickets have not yet gone on sale and the stadium where it will be played is still unknown, although On the Barcelona City Council website, the match is still listed as taking place at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. The crux of the matter lies in the cost of playing the match at Montjuïc.
The Catalan Football Federation (FCF), the governing body of the Catalan national team, states that the cost of organizing the match would be "around 600,000 euros." According to information obtained by ARA, for Barça, renting the Lluís Companys stadium and all the associated logistics for a match costs an average of around 500,000 euros (ranging from 400,000 to 900,000 euros) per game. In the case of the Catalonia-Palestine match, the stadium would also need to be prepared: covering all Barça-related decorations (such as banners) for the international friendly and then uncovering them after the match. All of this puts the cost of the match at €600,000 according to FCF calculations, which is why they argue that they have proposed alternatives such as the Nuevo Estadio Costa Dorada in Tarragona, with a capacity of around 14,500 spectators, or the Nova Creua Alta in Sabadell, with a capacity of around 11,900.
Act x Palestine, the organization encompassing all the social entities promoting the Catalonia-Palestine match as part of a broader campaign to support the Palestinian people and condemn the genocide in Gaza, maintains that the venue, as initially announced, should be Montjuïc. The organizers launched a ticket pre-reservation process this Sunday to demonstrate the need for a stadium with a larger capacity than the alternatives proposed by the Catalan Football Federation (FCF). Act x Palestine also emphasizes that "the match is a historic event, taking place amidst a major genocide and a massive popular mobilization to stop it. Therefore, the match requires a stadium in the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona, with maximum capacity." The organizers claim to have already received over 13,300 pre-reservations. Act x Palestine issued a statement this Monday calling on the Barcelona City Council to hold the Catalonia-Palestine match at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, "as planned, and to respect the will of the people in order to achieve a large popular mobilization." The overall goal of the campaign is to raise "the highest possible amount" to help the Palestinian people in three ways: humanitarian aid and reconstruction in Gaza; support for leading Palestinian human rights organizations; and support for organizations that preserve Palestinian culture. The Barcelona City Council has passed the buck to the Catalan Football Federation.
For its part, the City Council has passed the buck to the Catalan Football Federation (FCF). Following Act x Palestine's statement requesting that the match be played at Montjuïc, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) submitted a written request to the City Council on Monday, demanding that it guarantee that "the football match between the Catalan and Palestinian national teams will be played at the Lluís Companys stadium as originally announced." The ERC's deputy spokesperson, Jordi Coronas, stated that "it is incomprehensible that a city like Barcelona, which has always championed the values of coexistence and international solidarity, would obstruct a match intended as a gesture of support for the Palestinian people." Coronas believes that "it would be disrespectful to the work that the organizations supporting this event have been doing for many days, preparing various activities around it." Both Act x Palestine and ERC point out that for the Euskadi-Palestine match, scheduled for November 15th at San Mamés – Athletic Club's stadium, with a capacity of 53,300 spectators – "35,000 tickets were sold in 24 hours," and that "Collboni has an obligation to ensure their availability and guarantee their full operation."
The Barcelona City Council maintains that it "has offered its full support to the organizers of the Catalonia-Palestine match to collaborate in any way necessary for the game to take place. However, it is up to the organizers to confirm where and under what conditions the match will be played once all the technical and operational aspects have been analyzed." By "organizers," the City Council is referring to the Catalan Football Federation (FCF), which is making the match at Montjuïc contingent on the estimated cost of approximately €600,000. Barcelona de Servicios Municipales (BSM) is the company responsible for managing the stadium. Sources close to Act x Palestine insist that the match should be played at the Lluís Companys stadium and point out that, for example, the opening ceremony of the America's Cup sailing competition cost taxpayers €2.5 million: €62,500 per minute, as reported by Crític.
