FOOTY FAIR

Throwback Thursdays: Luis Figo Returns to the Camp Nou

2016-03-03T08:00:00.001-05:00

With Manchester City's Raheem Sterling returning to Anfield this week, following his acrimonious departure from Liverpool last summer, he was right to expect a hostile reaction from the Merseyside crowd.

Although Liverpool's followers left him in little doubt what they thought of his perceived treachery, his return still pales in comparison to one of the nastiest reunions in European club football.

In 2000, then Barcelona winger Luis Figo was considered one of the best players in the world after he followed up a terrific season for his club by leading Portugal to the European Championship's semi-final.

Later that year he would be awarded the Ballon d’Or for his efforts, but before being handed that prestigious honour his career would take a very decided turn.

After enjoying a wonderful five years with the Catalan side, Figo had become a hero to Barca's fans and was seen as a symbol of the club.

In the summer of 2000 though change was afoot at their great rivals Real Madrid. Despite winning the Champions League in 1998 and 2000, incumbent president Lorenzo Sanz surprisingly lost out to the charismatic Florentino Perez in the the club elections.

Perez won the election, in part, because of his bold claim that he would deliver Luis Figo and that a deal with his agent was already in place. Furthermore he promised to refund Madrid's 70,000 plus members for their season tickets if he didn't bring in the Portuguese maestro.

True to his word, Perez's first act as president was to pony up Figo's 10 billion peseta (£37.5 million) buyout clause which allowed him to join Madrid on a lucrative salary.

Barcelona were incensed and claimed that Figo had gone against his word and betrayed them, with Barcelona president Joan Gaspart calling the deal "immoral".

The fans and local press were also outraged at what they saw as a betrayal by their now former favourite son.

When Figo returned to Camp Nou for the first time with his new side in October 2000, he was showered with debris and vicious insults from many in the partisan 105,000 strong crowd. Many fans later claimed it was the most hostile atmosphere ever dished out at the famous old ground.

One banner famously said, "We hate you because we loved you so much", which is emblematic of the feeling of being stabbed in the heart that many of us feel when a former favourite defects to the enemy.

Other signs and banners directed towards Figo weren't quite as poetic.

Two years later it wasn't any better, as Figo had a pig's head chucked at him while attempting to take a corner at the Camp Nou.

Sterling can count himself lucky.

The Revolving Door of Real Madrid

2016-01-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

Few were surprised when Real Madrid announced on Monday that they have terminated the contract of manager Rafa Benitez with immediate effect and have appointed Zinedine Zidane to manage the first team squad for at least the rest of the season.

Given Real Madrid's history under President Florentino Perez this hardly qualifies as news, as he's shown little patience with managers during his time with the club and Benitez always seemed like a strange appointment to begin with.

Despite Benitez's fine record at Valencia in the early 2000's and his improbable UEFA Champions League title with Liverpool in 2005, Benitez has not managed a side to a league title in over ten years.

In fact over the past ten seasons, Benitez has only managed to guide a club as high as second place once (Liverpool, 2009), which is hardly the CV of someone taking on one of the most pressurized job's football.

After going through managers with the pedigree of Manuel Pellegrini, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, it seemed as if Benitez was appointed because Madrid had run out of options.

With Benitez's ouster, Zidane becomes the 47th manager in Madrid's 114 year history, but their 19th in only 20 years.

Interestingly enough, across Perez's thirteen seasons across the club (2000 to 2006 and 2009 until the present), the colourful president has gone through eleven managers. Just falling short of one per season.

This absurd instability at the Bernabéu has seen what is one of the richest clubs in the world capture only one league title and one Champions League crown in the past eight seasons. For an institution like Madrid this can only be seen as a staggering underachievement.

Zidane, the first Frenchman to manage the club, was one of the greatest players of his generation and has been groomed for this role for some time. His most recent post has been that of managing the club's "B side".

Whether he can emulate the success of Pep Guardiola at Barcelona, who himself worked his way up from managing his club's second team, remains to be seen, but at some point Madrid are going to have to show a little more patience with one of their appointments.

Santiago Bernabeu Naming Rights Worth €500 Million

2014-09-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

According to reports from Marca, Real Madrid is close to a deal that would see them sell the Santiago Bernabeu stadium naming rights for about 500 million euros.

The stadium is currently named after former player and President, Santiago Bernabeu, who was largely responsible for Real Madrid’s to prominence in European football during the 20th century. This deal if indeed goes through, will be something that not every Real Madrid fan and purist will see as a positive. While the money injection to the Real Madrid safes will be important, losing the epic and iconic name of Santiago Bernabeu, in replacement of something else will not be an easy pill to swallow for most.

The Spanish newspaper, Marca, reports that the deal could be reached with International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), which is owned by the Government of Abu Dhabi. It would a 20 year contract, worth around 500 million euros which turns out to be about 25 million euros per year until 2034.

IPIC also owns the Spanish multinational oil company CEPSA (Compañía Española de Petróleos), so when looking at possible names for the stadium, CEPSA could be one of the names or even Abu Dhabi, since the oil company is owned by the government of the country as I mentioned above.

Real Madrid will be using the money to refurbish the stadium, and the new name won’t be agreed upon until the work on the stadium is completed. There is a possibility of a merger of names that would still see Santiago Bernabeu on the name with the addition of another name to it. Florentino Perez knows that the fallout from changing the stadium name could be massive, but he also knows that the club needs the funds to be able to refurbish the stadium.

Selling of the naming rights to a stadium is very common in modern football, most teams have taken that path, but fans do not always want to see it happen, especially when you are talking about a stadium as iconic as Bernabeu. It won’t be an easy sell for Perez, but perhaps the solution will come by having two names associated with the stadium allowing the current one to still be part of the new stadium name.

I hate to see stadiums like this lose their name over a large sponsorship deal, but I also understand the business side of it. Having said that hearing commentators like Ray Hudson calling a game and referring to the stadium as CEPSA stadium or Abu Dhabi stadium will be without a doubt strange.