Features

Copa del Rey final heads to Seville in four-year deal

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has announced that Seville’s Estadio de la Cartuja will host the next four finals of the Copa del Rey club competition.

The Junta de Andalucía government’s agreement with the RFEF will enable a percentage of the revenue generated from the matches to be reinvested into renovating the stadium, which has a capacity of 60,000.

The stadium, which opened in May 1999 for Seville’s staging of the World Athletics Championships, closed in 2018 after the local authorities determined that its roof required costly renovation work.

Over the past two months, the necessary renovation work has been carried out on the roof by German engineering company and the stadium is now clear to stage the final of this year’s Copa del Rey on April 18. The stadium will officially be presented as the new home of the Copa del Rey final tomorrow (Friday).

Javier Imbroda, Minister of Education and Sports in for Andalusia, said: “We have to congratulate ourselves on this winning bid, which allows us to relaunch a top-level facility such as the Estadio de la Cartuja.

“(It is) a five-star stadium with a capacity of 60,000 spectators, a heritage for all Andalusians that this government will put back in value, after 19 months closed, and that will generate value and resources, because the expected economic impact of each of these finals is about €43m (£36.5m/$47.3m).”

Seville also staged the final of the 2018-19 Copa del Rey, with Real Betis’ Estadio Benito Villamarín playing host.

The RFEF selected Estadio de la Cartuja as the host of the next four finals ahead of a bid from Atlético Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano.

Estadio de la Cartuja formed part of Seville’s failed bids for the 2004 and 2008 summer Olympic Games, while it hosted football’s UEFA Cup final in 2003. The stadium was the setting for Spain’s staging of the 2004 and 2011 Davis Cup tennis finals, while it has also been used as a concert venue.

Image: V&A Dudush