Away fans dilemma in Spanish football

New Colombian full back Johan Mojica passed the customary pre-signing medical on Monday and looks likely to start against Real Madrid. Misfiring striker, Canadian Cyle Larin, is also available to play but I doubt if he’ll start in new coach Arrasate’s 4-3-3 system.

With Rajkovic and Gio Gonzalez departed, the club are in the market for a right winger and, with a few euros in the coffers, are looking for someone with top European league experience. One name which regularly crops up and who played under Arrasate at Osasuna is the Moroccan international Ez Abde. The ex Barcelona academy player who turned out for Betis last season won’t come cheap but he’s well fancied by both the coach and technical director Pablo Ortells.

For the first time ever La Liga will kick off on a Thursday night (the 15th, a fiesta) with Athletic Club facing Getafe at 7pm and Betis playing Girona at 9.30pm. I mentioned last week about season ticket sales and despite all the faffing around with people unable to change their seat location in the time allocated, the 20,000 plus mark has been reached. Next Friday I’ll be writing on what I think about Mallorca’s chances this season, as well as looking at all the other 19 sides taking part this season.

Mallorca have once again signed an agreement which regulates the price of away tickets. They’ll undertake to offer a minimum fixed quota of 300 tickets at a maximum price of 30 euros. Our away supporters section caused big problems early last season as many Mallorquinistas had their seats taken over by Betis fans. The area allocated evidently has to be at the North end of the Son Moix in the Upper West stand.

The club had totally underestimated the number of “Beticos” travelling and they easily over-filled their away area. Around a thousand had to sit in Mallorca “socios” seats and they in turn had to hurriedly find alternative seating in another part of the ground. For the next home game a much larger area had been set up to accommodate the travelling support.

I’ve no doubt the away area will have many Real Madrid fans there next Sunday but I’m sure there will be far more sitting amongst Mallorca fans which always happens when the big boys come to town. Both sets of fans sitting together can cause friction and let’s just hope everything goes smoothly.

I regularly get asked about why there are not more away fans in Spanish football stadiums on match days. Why is a country that has some of world football’s top club sides, some of the fiercest rivalries and impressive stadiums so far behind when it comes to “away” days? To get to the bottom of why away fans don’t follow their favourites “on the road” geography comes into the equation. Spain is big, huge, so huge that it boasts the longest distance between two football clubs in Europe’s top five leagues. If fans of Las Palmas or Girona want to see their team play away at each other’s ground, they would have to travel a staggering 2,500km, more than twice the size of the UK. Las Palmas is 1,300km from mainland Spain.

Then there’s the 1,200km journey between Andalucia and Cataluña. Compare that to Newcastle/Bournemouth at 605km (the longest in last season’s Premier league). Although Spain has a brilliant high-speed train access from one corner to another, most pass through Madrid in the centre of the country which lengthens journey time. It would take nearly 20 hours and four trains just to get from Vigo (in the north west) to Malaga (in the south). Flying is of course an option across the mainland but many fans cannot afford the expensive air tickets.

A day out at a football match is a lot easier when it’s just that – a day. Many games in lower leagues in Spain kick off at the same time so fans can travel to watch a game and back without booking a hotel for the night. This coming season, games in both top Spanish leagues will be played at 9pm on Friday, followed by Saturday and Sunday both having four games at 2pm, 4.15pm, 6.30pm and 9pm, then there’s a Monday night game which Spanish football fans hate because of work the following day. Another problem is the fixture lists only give you the next three games along with their kick-off times. So there are many hurdles which tend to discourage Spanish fans from travelling to away matches. Cup ties are a joke when the RFEF have an obsession with three rounds of the cup being played in January and the two-legged semifinals before the end of February. Why can’t they play some rounds before the Winter break, and make the cup last through the Spring?

Another thing that’s exclusive to Spanish football is that many grounds shove away fans high up to the far reaches of the stadium. Then, like it is (or was) at the Bernabeu and Nou Camp, netting, plastic cages and plastic screening are found and without fail National Police are on duty dressed head to toe in riot gear. In over 40 years I’ve never seen any Mallorcan fans having a riot. We leave that to parts of the UK and their pink-balaclaved numpties!

And finally

A mate of mine went to get a tattoo of an Indian on his back last week. Halfway through he said “Don’t forget to put a big tomahawk in his hand.” The tattooist replied “Give us a chance, mate, I’ve only just finished his turban!”