Surprise at the Bernabeu: American football league disrupts Real Madrid's plans

Anger in the administration, but the players have reason to celebrate!

Real Madrid are preparing to renovate the Santiago Bernabeu pitch once again, after hosting an American football (NFL) game, despite club officials being satisfied with its current condition, having believed they had finally arrived at a solution to the problems that had plagued the surface for years. But hosting the American event will force them to prepare the pitch all over again, according to the Spanish newspaper "Marca".

Leipzig will be the last visitors to the Bernabeu before the switch, with work on the Atlanta Falcons versus Cincinnati Bengals clash starting on 21 October. That means widening the playing area and painting the lines and the end zone, just as they did last year.

American football is brutal on a surface. The players' weight, the violent movements, the repeated collisions: all of it can wreck the grass.

Madrid explained it plainly last year. When athletes weighing more than 100 kilograms each are smashing into one another, deterioration is simply natural.

Once the match finishes, the club will rip out the damaged sections and plant new grass, an operation planned carefully to shorten the recovery period. The target is a pitch ready for Celta Vigo on 22 November, with the international break used to speed the maintenance along. That game should also mark the return of Vinicius Junior after his four-match suspension ends.

Elsewhere, the date of Madrid's trip to the Mestalla to face Valencia has irritated the club's board. They play just 72 hours after facing Olympiakos in Athens in the Champions League.

Madrid's official channel (RMTV) went after the scheduling, framing fixture dates as one of the main tools Javier Tebas, the president of the Spanish League, uses to squeeze the club.

The irony? Madrid's players do not share the board's objection at all. They are delighted with the date, because a Saturday 7 November kick-off leaves them free to watch the NFL game at the Santiago Bernabeu the following day.

Sunday 8 November was the club's preference for the Valencia match, but that would have kept the players away from the American football. With plenty of fans of the sport in the dressing room, the date that angered the board suits the squad just fine.