“Tarragona and Nàstic deserve to be in Segona”, says Josep Maria Andreu, the president of the Grana entity. “The viability of a team like this depends on being in Segona and we would be there without the refereeing we suffered against Vila-real B”, he complains. In Segona, each club receives between 6 and 7 million euros per year for television rights. On the other hand, in the 1st RFEF it remains around 400,000 euros. Nàstic was the Catalan team that came closest to promotion to the silver category last season, losing 2-0 in the promotion final against Vila-real’s subsidiary. “The 1st RFEF (established last season) is a very difficult competition. There are 40 teams and only 4 are promoted. In addition, there are 10 teams in each group that have a significant budget with the goal of promotion. It is more difficult to get promoted now than in the Second Division B”, explains Andreu, who has been the president of the organization since 2012.
Another president with a long career is Joan Agustí, who leads the Unió Esportiva Olot, which is celebrating its centenary and will play in the 2nd RFEF this season after gaining promotion. “In Catalonia we have 185,000 federative licenses and only one group in the 3rd RFEF, the same number as autonomous communities such as La Rioja, Cantabria, Navarra, Asturias or the Balearic Islands, which have around 10,000 licenses”, laments Agustí. “This generates a very large funnel in Catalonia. If Catalonia had the same rights as Asturias, which has a group with 8,000 licenses, proportionally there would be 23 Catalan groups in the 3rd RFEF”, he gives an example. “Football cannot be structured in zones in 2022”, adds the president of Olot.
He agrees with this complaint Alex Talavera, who was president of Cornellà for 10 years, during which he stayed three times at the gates of promotion to the Second Division (he disputed the promotion in the seasons 2017-2018, 2018 -2019 and 2019-2020). “We have been claiming for years that with more than 180,000 licenses we should have two groups in the 3rd RFEF, but we do not have them due to a federative decision”, says Talavera. “Catalan talent is leaving because there are many restrictions here. Thus, the players and coaches go to other clubs in the State or abroad”, he adds.
Lack of investment in sports infrastructure
I Talavera apunta un nou motiu que dificulta la presència d’equips catalans a les categories professionals del futbol espanyol: “Arreu de l’Estat entra capital estranger. And this one goes where there is talent along with good sports infrastructure. That’s why it costs more to settle in a club like Cornellà than in one like Marbella”. According to Talavera, public investment in sports infrastructure in Catalonia has been lower than in the rest of the country in recent years. On the other hand, the former president of Cornellà, who this year will compete again in the 1st RFEF, assures that there has been “inflation with the restructuring of what used to be Second B”. This has meant that they now share the category “budgets of between 3 and 4 million euros with others of 700,000 euros, such as Cornellà”.
In the 2021-2022 academic year, there will be three Catalan teams in the First Division and four in the 1st RFEF (Barça Atlètic, Cornellà, Nàstic de Tarragona and Sabadell). In other words, seven in the first three categories of Spanish football. A figure that seems insufficient.
