Real Madrid to continue playing at the Alfredo Di Stefano next season

Having secured a 34th league title at their reserve team’s ground last season, Marca have reported that Real Madrid will continue to play at the 6,000 seater stadium to allow work on the Santiago Bernabeu to continue

Having finished the 2019-20 season at the Di Stefano, the move won’t come as much of a shock to Madridistas due to the ongoing work at the Santiago Bernabeu. Renovations of Los Blancos’s historic home remains on course and a retractable turf pitch should be installed this week.

Though the news is no surprise, there were some parts of Marca’s report that caught the eye, namely that the Di Stefano will host Spain’s Nations League match against Ukraine in September. La Roja open their Nations League campaign away to Germany on September 3rd and face the Ukraine on the Valdebebas complex six days later.

Heading into 2020, the Di Stefano stadium had never even hosted a LaLiga game with Castilla boasting just a few seasons in Spain’s second division since moving into their new home in 2004. The coronavirus pandemic and Bernabeu renovations, however, have really pushed the the little stadium out on the edge of Madrid city into the limelight. Its been quite a surreal experience from a viewers perspective.

For the players, it was hard to imagine the emotions of winning LaLiga in the Di Stefano for Real’s Castilla graduates a few months ago. One can’t even fathom what the six ex-Fabrica players in Spain’s current squad will be feeling when they hear their country’s national anthem bellow at the place where it all started.

Despite this all potentially turning into quite a nice moment for Castilla fans, how this added traffic will effect Castilla’s games will be interesting. Segunda B doesn’t have an official start date as of yet, however, it promises to be a very busy season given the third division’s revamp over the summer. In previous seasons, Castilla fixtures have often clashed with senior team games or were played within a few hours of each other. Obviously, this will be taken into account by the Spanish football authorities and the hosts will likely be unaffected.

The visitors, on the other hand, are a different matter and whether this move will disruptive to them will likely depend on well the RFEF and LaLiga organise it. That, in itself, doesn’t inspire much confidence so we will have to wait and see.