The President of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has hinted that more matches could be played in Barcelona in the near future, should the city be keen to host it.
Luis Rubiales, the President in question, was very positive about the crowd at the RCDE Stadium on Friday night as Spain beat Albania 2-1 with goals from Ferran Torres and Dani Olmo. Speaking in the build-up to Spain’s next fixture against Iceland in A Coruna, Rubiales had this to say to Diario AS.
“I think the atmosphere we experienced there was unbeatable. I haven’t seen anything like it in my life, either as a footballer or President of the RFEF. It was a long time coming, a lot of people waiting to show their support.”
“I am satisfied with how they received us, for how everything went. It’s good that that certain issues are being normalised, sport is sport and it was a good decision to go there.”
Rubiales also spoke to the idea of returning to Barcelona sooner rather than later, something which Luis Enrique was in favour of.
“Whenever Barcelona wants to host another match, I can assure them that we will go there again. We enjoyed it greatly.”
Jordi Marti of Cadena SER had commented on Cadena SER programme El Larguero that it had in fact been the suggestion of Luis Enrique to take the national team to Barcelona. He was effusive in his praise for the crowd after the match.
Some local journalists did point out the presence of the far-right at the match, which built up some resentment towards the event in Catalonia. According to El Nacional, shouts of [Carles] ‘Puigdemont to prison!’ were heard at the match, as well as ‘Catalonia is Spain’ – both of which have riled pro-independence groups.
La cantidad de fascistas que se han juntado, eh, muy amigables. pic.twitter.com/a6HalE5jz1
— Bernat Castro 🦊 (@Berlustinho) March 26, 2022
