Balearics star in European football tournament

The Balearics is caught up in a tough tournament to win the illustrious prize of being a training camp for European football, in an attempt to try and bolster the struggling low season tourist season. The Balearics is having to compete with Portugal, Andalucia, Turkey and Cyprus. The key market is the German soccer scene where clubs are prepared to pay between 170'000 and 221'000 pesetas per week, per person training in a warmer climate. Every year both the German first and second divisions spend up to ten days at an overseas training camp and the Balearics is in the bidding for a slice of the action which kicks off in January. Of the 20 Bundesliga teams questioned by a marketing company, 17 have said they would prefer the Balearics, on either of the three islands. The main reasons is that the players fancy the four and five star hotels on the islands.