Barca reject Real's final fears

by Setanta Staff , 14 February 2012 football news

Barcelona spokesmen Toni Freixa has rejected Real Madrid's concerns at proposals to stage the Copa del Rey final at the Bernabeu.


Real Madrid officials expressed their reservations with hosting the match, after their 85,000-capacity home emerged as the preferred venue for one of Spanish football's showpiece events.

Barcelona will meet Athletic Bilbao in the final, after they eliminated La Liga front-runners Real at the semi-final stage.

But Real say they are worried about "anti-Spanish feeling" at the match, given the respective Catalonian and Basque heritage of the two competing clubs.

Freixa dismissed those fears, however, instead insisting that it should be an honour for any club to stage the final.

"At the moment, we are in the process of proposing the Santiago Bernabeu as the venue and we hope that it will be possible because it is the ideal scenario," he told Mundo Deportivo.

"We insist that this must be the stadium and I am as optimistic as possible about that. We want to throw a big party for Spanish football."

The match will be the 108th Copa del Rey final and will mark Barcelona's 36th appearance on the big stage.

"We seek a field that meets the criterion of maximum capacity and is equidistant between the two cities, in the interest of both sets of fans," added Freixa.

"We understand that the ground to tick those boxes is the Santiago Bernabeu and that is something we have made known to Federation in conjunction with Athletic Bilbao. "

In the coming days we can hold a meeting with the RFEF [Spanish FA] to nominate the venue."

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Pos
Team P W D L +/- PTS
1.
Man City
38
28
5
5
64
89
2.
Man Utd
38
28
5
5
56
89
3.
Arsenal
38
21
7
10
25
70
4.
Tottenham
38
20
9
9
25
69
5.
Newcastle
38
19
8
11
5
65
6.
Chelsea
38
18
10
10
19
64
7.
Everton
38
15
11
12
10
56
8.
Liverpool
38
14
10
14
7
52
9.
Fulham
38
14
10
14
-3
52
10.
West Brom
38
13
8
17
-7
47
11.
Swansea
38
12
11
15
-7
47
12.
Norwich
38
12
11
15
-14
47
13.
Sunderland
38
11
12
15
-1
45
14.
Stoke
38
11
12
15
-17
45
15.
Wigan
38
11
10
17
-20
43
16.
Aston Villa
38
7
17
14
-16
38
17.
QPR
38
10
7
21
-23
37
18.
Bolton
38
10
6
22
-31
36
19.
Blackburn
38
8
7
23
-30
31
20.
Wolverhampton
38
5
10
23
-43
25
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