Donosti Cup: A frenetic Sunday that will end with the first dinner

A new edition of the Donosti Cup starts this Monday. From the first hour, thousands of soccer players and their coaches will once again feel the nerves of the competition, but also of the first times. That rush to arrive in time to unknown fields, to see the level of their rivals, to know how the team will respond… The Monday of the Donosti Cup is always a special day and this time it will be no different.

And it is that this Monday starts the Donosti Cup of the 754 teams from 18 different countries, the one that has more than 12,800 participants and that between this Monday and next Saturday will be played in up to 50 different venues. It will be a record Donosti Cup, like, luckily, so many others.

However, this one is very special: 30 years have passed since that first Donosti Cup, in 1992; the thirtieth edition is being held and, above all, this is the Donosti Cup of reunion. The 2020 tournament, in the early stages of the de-escalation, had to be suspended and the 2021 tournament, despite having more than 400 teams, had to adhere to many restrictions. For this reason, this will be a typical Donosti Cup: a meeting point for more and more teams from all over the world, who come to Gipuzkoa to live an experience they will never forget.

In this same sense, it should be noted that this will also be the first ‘grand’ opening for the teams participating in the Donosti Authentics Cup, that inclusive category that the tournament launched last year and that is held between this Monday and Tuesday. Two teams from Real Sociedad, Eibar, Leganés, two from LePottoak de Bayonne and the English team Newcastle are the participants in this edition.

parade and music

And, returning to that ‘old normality’ of the tournament, the main course on Monday will arrive precisely at the end of it with the inauguration. It will be held from 9:30 p.m. at the Reale Arena, which will host this event for the first time since the remodeling works were completely completed. It is an inauguration that, in addition to tournament participants, can be attended by anyone who wants to experience an event full of emotion, light and color that is always special.

Although in this act there are always surprises that cannot be revealed, it can be anticipated that the first part of it will revolve around the parade of the foreign, state and Euskadi teams. Only one team from each club will set foot on the pitch at the Reale Arena, while the rest of the players, coaches and companions will be in the crowded stands.

Afterwards, the shows and choreographies will begin. This year, the inauguration will feature a performance by Aysha Bengoetxea, a young girl from Irun who was a finalist on the television program ‘La Voz Kids’ and who will perform a song tonight. Those who have been to this act in previous years will surely look forward to the fireworks display that each year puts the finishing touch to the inauguration and that this year will be signed by Pirotecnias Valencia.

tickets on sale

From the organization of the Donosti Cup they are satisfied with the rate of ticket sales (more than 3,000, without taking into account the participants), so the best atmosphere is guaranteed tonight at the Reale Arena. In any case, tickets can still be purchased to be at the opening tonight, whether or not you are a participant in the tournament.

Tickets can be purchased through the Donosti Cup website, www.donosticup.com, but also at the Reale Arena box office. The premium tickets are already sold out, but general tickets are still on sale. The price for the public over fifteen years of age is €12. Members of the Royal Society will see this price reduced to €7 (they must show their membership cards at the entrance). Boys and girls between the ages of four and fifteen will be able to purchase tickets for €5, while those under three years of age will not have to pay.

At around eleven o’clock at night, the inauguration will end and, with it, an edition of the Donosti Cup, the thirtieth, will be officially inaugurated, which promises joy and emotion.

This Sunday was a frenetic day in the outskirts of Anoeta, where the Fan Zone is installed and where the foreign and state teams went. There they had their first contact with Donostia and the tournament and accredited themselves as players and coaches of this edition of the Donosti Cup. The end of the day came with the first dinner, in the dining rooms of the Anoeta and Ficoba Velodrome, this one for computers housed in that area.

From the first hour of this Monday, the ball will start rolling in most of the 50 venues that will host the more than 2,000 games that will be played until next Saturday, with those long-awaited finals in Zubieta and the Reale Arena. One more year, the Donosti Cup crosses the borders of Gipuzkoa and makes inroads in Iparralde, with the Hendaia course, and in Navarra, with the Bera and Lesaka venues.

The Donosti Cup is also an international tournament from the point of view of the referees. Although the bulk of the referees are from the Guipuzcoan Committee, another 23 referees of 15 different nationalities will direct the tournament matches in their different categories. In addition, to follow their progress, the referees who will come to the tournament will be accompanied by FIFA observers.