Barcelona and Real Madrid both boast a lucrative sideline in pre-season tours to Asia or North America. The tours are not popular with the players or coaches, but they help pay their huge salaries and promote these giant clubs in lucrative markets.
Aware of the global popularity of their two leading clubs and an increasingly tough domestic market, the Spanish Football Association wants a slice of the foreign pie. They have done a preliminary deal -reported to be worth €40 million (Dh192.7m) over seven years - for next year's season opening two-legged Super Cup to be held in Beijing's iconic Bird's Nest Stadium. The Italian Supercoppa is already staged there.
Barcelona do not want to play ball. The Catalan club claim it is for sporting and social reasons and because coaches and players won't like it. Money is a more likely issue, though. Barca can negotiate foreign trips for themselves and pocket the money.
Madrid are said to be opposed to the idea for the same reasons, but the stance of both clubs would shift if they were offered a bigger percentage of the proceeds.
There is another problem with this scheme. The Super Cup is between the league champions and the Copa del Rey winners.
A clasico match would fill the 80,000 capacity stadium, but while the last two Super Cups have been between Barca and Madrid, the pair did not compete in a Super Cup final for 14 years before that. Barcelona v Sevilla or Madrid v Valencia would not quite have the same appeal.
sports@thenational.ae
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