# Enjoying Spanish life in the lower leagues



## nigele2 (Dec 25, 2009)

For those interested in seeing some football when they get to Spain.

After seeing Sporting Gijon in La Liga a few months ago, I commented on it here somewhere, I went to see a Div 3 local cup match. My local village Candas played Luarca.

Well it was 10Es to enter and I’d estimate a crowd of 300 including player family and friends.

Nice stand with spacious plastic bucket seats and more seating at one end. You could roam as much as you wanted and stand on terraces (o what memories).

The bar appeared dry, as it was in the ground at Sporting, but if you asked for a beer you got one from under the counter, a nice Estrella de Galicia and with a packet of crisps 2.50 seemed good to me 

The gents was a patch of grass behind the stand and no indication where to stand and were to deposit . Seemed odd as the stand was quite respectable, there was an electronic score board, and the pitch wasn’t bad.

As for the football Luarca might be lower half conference level and sadly as my local team Candas were much the poorer. One goal, a very good diagonal into the box met at the far post, but Luarca by three would have been a fairer reflection. Towards the end at about 9:30pm flood lights would have been good but a club like Candas has to think about the electricity bill. 

At half time everyone seemed to be on the pitch playing (OK mainly the kids) but I was surprised the ref didn’t clear the pitch until seconds before the second half got underway. Lots of kids and families despite the only shouts questioning the career choice of the referees mother 

The locals were friendly. I was on my own but had no trouble chatting with the locals. I’ll go again but maybe expect a little less on the skill side. But sadly Spanish football for me doesn’t deliver, lacks atmosphere, and with almost no away support offers little banter. I’ll be getting back to my Watford for the real thing whenever I can. But as a window on Spanish life well worth a visit


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## gerrit (Jul 15, 2008)

Just to avoid misunderstandings, are we talking about nationwide 3rd division (= Segunda Division B) or are we talking about the 3rd division of the local regional leagues (like Catalunya, Andalucia, Baleares, etc all have regional leagues below the lowest nationwide level) ? Because if it's 3rd level of the regional league, then we talk 7th division overall, knowing that there's 4 nationwide levels.

Anyways, I guess you mean nationwide because 10 € would be a silly amount for a 7th division game  I went to the last home game of last season of my local team (and they are in what you'd call 7th level overall, promoted from 8th level) and the gates were just open with no entrance fee at all (there was not even anyone sitting by the entrance of the ground). And FYI, the bar was full of drinks of all sorts and the crowd was an estimated 150 or so (probably all family and friends of the players) including a 5 or so away fans.

I've been to a few English games back when I lived in Ireland. I do prefer the Spanish football simply because of the stadiums. Most grounds seem less modern and less alike, while in the Premiership all stadiums look so very similar. That said, I'm sure that below Premiership level there's a few authentic ones as well, the gems are usually in the lower leagues.

When is football starting again here in Spain anyways? I know the Primera Division kicks off last weekend off August but what about the local cups and lower leagues?

PS: atmosphere-wise nothing in Europe beats Turkish football. The atmosphere I experienced at a Galatasaray home game was (despite lack of away support) insane. Not a single second of silence from 2 hours before the game until long after the final whistle, the stadium probably filled above the normally allowed capacity (except for the away stand), fireworks from the stands... It was all there. The game was a UEFA Cup game versus a Swiss team, hence the lack of away fans, but the Galatasaray fans were beyond belief.


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## nigele2 (Dec 25, 2009)

Gerrit would have loved to share the turkish game with you. I've been to Turkey but never when a match was on worst luck.

In the UK I am usually at Championship Games (Div 2 if you like) and thus as you might say 'the real football'. I also prefer away games. We travel with an average 1200 or so and it is like a party of very united friends. Also at Watford we rely on our academy and the kids often less than 20 years old but at least they are ours and not multimillionaire pampered ?????? 

Despite liking the tradition like you I did find the toilet arrangement a little odd 

But I would recommend people visit such games as Candas just for the people watching experience.

The Candas league starts end of August and sadly for them against the same oposition as last nights cup game


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## gerrit (Jul 15, 2008)

The team closest to my place is a real barrio team. That means: almost all players are from the barrio, and most fans are as well (they often know the players personally). They promoted from 8th level (= 4th level in Catalunya) to 7th level (= 3rd level Catalunya) and the level is very amateurish. But nonetheless I like it, there's a very friendly cosy atmosphere and the entrance is free so you got nothing to lose, if the game is bad then you didn't lose a cent  An oddity is that the team's ambition is to reach the highest level of the Catalan football system. They are not interested in promoting from that division into the nationwide leagues because they say the costs involved to upgrade the stadium and longer travel distances would be impossible for them. Odd as well if you look at all barrio teams here in Barcelona, several of them have artificial grass fields and a quite nice stand compared to teams at that level (5th - 8th division) in for example Belgium, Germany, ...

A nice coincidence: my first English game was West Ham-Watford in 2004 

I'd somewhat like to play more football, but well, an autistic person in a regular game with a lot of physical contact involved... won't work out, I'm realistic. If something like separate leagues for people with a disability (the rules tend to be adapted slightly and the result is not focussed on like in regular leagues) exist in Spain, I may would consider it.


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## nigele2 (Dec 25, 2009)

gerrit said:


> A nice coincidence: my first English game was West Ham-Watford in 2004


mmm been 25 years since we beat West Ham (in 1985 we beat them 5-0 but they have had there revenge many times since). I guess you went to Upton Park and saw us get thumped 4-0 ?  At least at our place that year we managed a respectable 0-0 .

As you say little teams in Spain seem to have quite luxury stands. 

I liked this comment on the Candas fc web site after the recent cup loss:

"dejó al Candás 2332 euros en caja" from 320 spectators. Seemed to be more important than the result. At this level it is all about survival  Hopefully my 10Es and bar spend helped


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## gerrit (Jul 15, 2008)

When I went to my local team, I brought my own drink and paid no entrance fee... Next time I will be a bit more supportive and at least buy a drink 

Yep, West Ham-Watford 4-0, that was it. Nonetheless I like the Watford fans, seems a friendly bunch and the club seems to be well managed. Is Elton John still donating money to the club?


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## nigele2 (Dec 25, 2009)

gerrit said:


> When I went to my local team, I brought my own drink and paid no entrance fee... Next time I will be a bit more supportive and at least buy a drink
> 
> Yep, West Ham-Watford 4-0, that was it. Nonetheless I like the Watford fans, seems a friendly bunch and the club seems to be well managed. Is Elton John still donating money to the club?


Yup Elton is life president and did a concert at the ground end of May which gave the club about £600K which for us is big money. Close to 20000 went to the concert which is bigger than our maximum gate at a match (normally 12 to 16 thousand).

And Graham Tailor is now chairman. You couldn't find more loyal hornets than our Elt and GT :clap2:

I'm sure every centimo you spend on refreshments will help and be appreciated. I imagine finding sponsors in Spain is harder than in the UK at the moment.

Tx for your observation of the fans. We were the first UK family club and I like to think the majority are good 'uns although like anywhere you get the odd idiot. And of course we have not suffered racism even when it was widespread having watford legends Luther Blisset and John Barnes


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## gerrit (Jul 15, 2008)

Luther Blisset, epic!  

The local club here by the way gets sponsored by the local gas society, so they did catch a sponsor with financial means (although I doubt they spend a lot on the club, it's not because they're a rich company that they donate much money ...). I'm not too sure how much it would cost to run a club at an amateur level here. I do know the local team has a first team, a veterans team, a ladies team, and several youth teams ; so they're quite active. Nonetheless, they made it clear their target is getting to the highest Catalan level but not higher than that, as they said playing at nationwide level would not be affordable due to ground redevelopments alone.


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