By Mark Baber
January 29 – The sponsorship by in Real Madrid by Abu Dhabi through the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) will result in the stadium including the words “Abu Dhabi” in its name, according to comments made to the media by IPIC officials in Madrid. The stadium will be named the Abu Dhabi Bernabéu.
It became apparent that IPIC would be able to add a name to the Santiago Bernabéu on November 19th when Real Madrid president let slip on camera that “The Bernabeu will be called IPIC or Cepsa, what they want.”
Apparently both IPIC and Cepsa (the name of the Spanish subsidiary of the investment group) have been rejected and the words Santiago Bernabéu will remain part of the stadium name, in deference to the history of the club and the wishes of the fans and President.
As part of the sponsorship deal Real Madrid signed at the end of October, Abu Dhabi will be helping to finance a €500 million remodelling of the Bernabeu with a payment of €20 million per season as soon as the work gets underway.
It is hoped that the remodelling will begin in September, depending on an investigation into the stadium plans by the EU, and capacity of the stadium should be increased from 81,000 to 90,000 and a new retractable roof will also be installed.
Perez explained the reasoning behind selling the naming rights (an unusual move in Spain) telling the club’s General Assembly in September, “I am killing myself to create the best stadium in the world
“If you want to do it without debt, the only possibility is that we take a sponsor’s name which could give us the 400 or 500 million euros the new stadium is worth.”
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