“El Clasico” is the most important soccer game in Spain. Not only because of the huge number of people who watch it, but also because the two biggest teams in the history of Spanish soccer participate in it, such as Barcelona and Real Madrid. So why was decided to play not only this match, but also the entire Spanish Super Cup in the Arab country? Here we will explain it.
But before that, let’s first do a bit of history to remember other opportunities in which “El Clasico”was played outside of Spain. To date there are two antecedents: the first of them was a friendly in Miami (the International Champions Cup was at stake), with a 3-2 victory for Barcelona with goals from Leo Messi, Ivan Rakitic and Gerard Piqué for the “Culés” and Kovacic and Marco Asensio for the “Merengues”.
We have to go far back in time to find the second antecedent. Nothing less than the year 1982, more precisely on May 30 of that year. At that time, it was a 1-0 victory for Real Madrid with a goal by Vicente del Bosque, in a match that served to settle third and fourth place in the Luis Herrera Campins tournament, which had practically no spectators.
Changes in the tournament dispute format and new investors
In order to make the tournament more attractive, La Liga decided to introduce changes in the mode of dispute for the Spanish Super Cup. Formerly, this cup was contested by the champion of the Copa del Rey and by the La Liga champion. As of the 2019/20 edition, the runners-up of both competitions were also included.
This was a decision that, of course, had its detractors. However, the controversy was even greater when something even more surprising was determined: the Spanish Super Cup would not be played in Spain, but in Saudi Arabia. For what reason? Obviously, financial reasons.
The agreement between La Liga and the Saudis was for in federal accounts, in addition to television agreements for seven million euros from the beginning of the first three years of the competition (the agreement would be for 10 years). That is why, in compliance with the provisions, the Spanish Super Cup will be played again in Saudi Arabia, after the previous edition was played in Andalusia (despite being scheduled to be played in the Gulf country) because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
