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Atletico officials prefer Barasat pitch
Officials met with co-owners on a short visit to Kolkata and discussed issues pertaining to the viability of facilities as well as pitch conditions...
Atletico Madrid officials, who were on a brief stopover to Kolkata, expressed their displeasure over the artificial turf used at the Salt Lake stadium, whilst favouring the pitch at the Barasat Stadium.
“The Barasat Stadium turf is better than the Salt Lake Stadium. But the distance is a factor. The Salt Lake Stadium is in the city and can accommodate over one lakh spectators,” opined the director of Marketing for Atletico, Emilio Gutierrez, to The Telegraph.
He was a part of a delegation of Atletico Madrid officials, which also consisted of CEO Miguel Angel, who were in the City of Joy to conduct business regarding the finalising of a deal with the Kolkata Franchise of the Indian Super League (ISL). The Madrid Club were said to have picked up a 25 percent stake.
Gutierrez also claimed, “We will invest a lot of money at the grassroots level here. So we have too see how to get the best result. It’s a whirlwind tour. We will come again, hopefully before September, to get a better idea about the way things are run here.”
"There is a lot of potential here. Calcutta is a city where people are passionate about the game. I saw so many framed photographs of international footballers in the dormitory where the kids are staying. This shows this city has a footballing culture," expressed Gutierrez optimistically.
Whilst carrying out an inspection of the grounds facilities, Angel elucidated, “We would like to have better parking facility here. The stadium is superb. I cannot imagine 1,20,000 spectators coming to the ground to watch a Derby. That means there is support and passion for the game here.”
Club Co-owner Sourav Ganguly also expressed his satisfaction after holding talks personally with the delegation. “It was very constructive. We had a series of meetings. Jose Ramirez Barreto and Oscar Bruzon (Sporting Clube de Goa coach) came for interviews. We also told them that the ground belongs to the state government. So we have to speak to the government first. We have told them that we will try our best to provide the facilities.”
The Atletico delegation also expressed their willingness to bring the La Liga Trophy or the UEFA Champions League trophy or both if they were to win any of the competitions.
"Probably they were looking for more than one fields, where the academies can be run simultaneously. They asked me once, is there any field attached that we can use? I answered in the negative and that may have made them a bit disappointed. Otherwise, they were in good mood but didn't give any comments. Only Emilio could speak in English," Sankar Dhar, who is in charge of the fields in both Kalyani and Barasat, told Goal on Tuesday evening after accompanying the Atletico officials in Barasat.
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