RFEF dragging their feet again regarding the Copa Final venue.

The current predicament plaguing the Spanish league is not about which clubs are able to pay their players’ salaries or the possibility of another strike from the league players. No, the current quandary that has once again put the RFEF in the spotlight again is the uncertainty of where the Copa del Rey final will be played. Madrid’s rejection of hosting the final has put the RFEF in a negative light regarding how inept they are which is a clear contrast of their neighboring countries’ leagues.

The Santiago Bernabéu was the preferred venue for the Copa del Rey final by both FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao. Unfortunately, Real Madrid opted to refuse to host the final because they have bathrooms to renovate, a Bruce Springsteen concert to plan for and that they might be celebrating Champions League title should they win it on May 20. Some thought their refusal was a sign of fear that they didn’t want Barça celebrating a title in their own stadium. Now, if that was the sole reason for Madrid not wanting to host the final, then shame on them for thinking it was a foregone conclusion that Athletic had no chance of winning the cup against Barça.

However, the problem here falls squarely on the RFEF and their lack of planning ahead. Unlike most countries, Spain does not have a “national stadium” to host a cup final. England has Wembley stadium in London to host the FA Cup and also used the Millennium Stadium, in Wales as the temporary home of the FA Cup final. France has the Stade de France in Paris that hosts the Coupe de France. Germany has the Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium) in Berlin as the venue for the German cup/DFB-Pokal final. Italy has the Stadio Olimpico, home to both Lazio and Roma, in Rome as the venue for the Coppa Italia final. Even Spain’s Iberian neighbor, Portugal, has a national stadium, Estádio Nacional/Estádio do Jamor located in Jamor that hosts the Portuguese Cup/ Taça de Portugal final.

All those venues have been hosting their respective domestic cup finals for a long time. Yet, Spain opts to wait till the Semi-finalists, or the finalists in this case, have been decided before deciding on a venue for the final. Supposedly, Madrid’s indirect refusal is the first time that a club has rejected hosting a Copa final. So what can the RFEF do? Put their foot down and remind Madrid who’s the boss? Highly doubt it especially with their laid back approach in punishing Mourinho for attempting to poke Tito Vilanova’s eye or their failure to discipline Pepe after what appeared to be an intentional stamp on Messi’s hand.

The RFEF have three options. The first option is to build a national stadium so they can have their own version of Wembley for Cup finals and for big international matches. We know that won’t happen and they sometimes use the Bernabéu for the big international matches. The second option is to go ahead and pick a stadium to be their national stadium which would probably be the Bernabéu since it hosted the 1962 Euro Cup Final and the 1982 World Cup Final. We know the Camp Nou would never get it and can’t imagine the reaction of the Madridistas if the national stadium was located in Catalan country. The problem is would Real Madrid throw a fit if the final would feature Barcelona in it? RFEF doesn’t need more headaches so it won’t happen. Estadio de La Cartuja in Sevilla probably could be a worthy candidate as a Cup Final venue since it’s not being used but its capacity of slightly over 57,000 would not make it a suitable venue. La Cartuja would allow over 28,000 fans from each of the finalist to witness the final which is not bad based on the average attendance of the Spanish league, which was over 29,000. However, if the finalists are from the big clubs, such as this year’s finalists, then that venue would be deemed too small.

Before I address the third option, it should be noted that FC Barcelona never rejected hosting the Copa final back in 2004. Guti tweeted that Barça pulled the same stunt back then but El País and Marca have come out and said it never happened.  The story that Barça didn’t want Real Madrid playing in their stadium is false. All the semi-finalists back then decided that Espanyol’s old stadium, Montjuic, should be the venue for the final.

So that leaves us with the third option, and that is picking the venue a year in advance. You don’t see the NFL waiting till the last minute to decide where the next Super Bowl will be. You already know where the next UEFA Champions League final will be this year and next year. Munich will be hosting it this year and Wembley will be hosting it again next year. Sadly, we all know the RFEF is going to do nothing. They are going to just sit back and pretend that this never happened and go on with to portray the “mañana attitude” that continues to plague Spanish football. One has to cringe when we see how the Premier League gets things done in terms of disciplinary action; TV revenue; scheduling; and marketability while RFEF is content just not care. Villar was just re-elected as FA president but don’t expect any changes anytime soon.