Barcelona football marbella mediterranean Real Madrid spanish stadium supporters a
Although it has existed in various guises for over 50 years, the current UD Marbella football club was founded in 1997 by Antonio Perez Ramos and is currently run by Chief Executive Ian Radford and features veteran striker Tommy Mooney as its star player. Currently playing in Spain´s 2nd Division B – the equivalent third tier of England´s 1st Division, Marbella´s football team are only 2 promotions away from playing host to the Spanish footballing giants of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
I went to check them out at their latest match….
The team play in the town´s football stadium, a crumbling arena that, like most Spanish football stadia is open to the elements. Although the views from my seat were pretty impressive – La Concha mountain to my left and the Mediterranean Sea to my right, the views on the pitch were fairly standard. Playing against UD Puertollano, one of the division´s top teams, Marbella soon found themselves one goal down, but managed to claw their way back into the game, capping an impressive second half performance by going into a deserved 2-1 lead. However, just as they had done twice before already this season, Marbella conceded a late goal, this time a penalty converted after a blatant shove by a Marbella defender,
The result left Marbella mid table in 12th position, with 11 points from 10 games, and although they have lost only 3 of those games, they have won only 2 – a case of too many draws I´m afraid.
The crowd was an interesting mixture of local expats and older Marbella die-hards, and also plenty of women in the home section, hardly surprising given that season tickets for ladies are half-price at just 70 euros – not sure if such a concession is entirely legal, but I´ll gloss over that! At least the away supporters kept us entertained with their constant drumming and chanting.
All in all, a thoroughly entertaining couple of hours, followed by a Sunday evening stroll through the darkening old town of Marbella to find a few welcoming beers and tapas.
share your opinion 
