BarcelonaAbout 500 fans of Hibernian, a historic Scottish club from Edinburgh, traveled to Andorra last week to see their team face Inter d’Escaldes in a Conference League game. It seemed like a good plan: fly to Barcelona, once around the Catalan capital and then on to the Principality. A few hours later, the same fans were insulting their own players, accusing them of having humiliated the history of their club: Inter d’Escaldes had defeated them by 2 to 1. This Thursday it is their turn to play the second leg, aware that they can make her fat. The coach of Inter, the Catalan Otger Canals, explains: “The first objective we had was to pass the first preliminary round and we have already achieved that”, recalling the previous round against Víkingur de les Faroes. “Now we have a double feeling, of having done the job and wanting more. We will play without any fear, as we have nothing to lose.” The match is played at the 20,000 capacity Easter Road Stadium. Two thirds of the Andorran population could be there.
What seemed utopian not so long ago now usually happens as normal: Andorran clubs can get past the first rounds of international competitions. When in 1997, for the first time, teams from the Andorran league debuted in Europe, things did not go smoothly. Scotland’s Dundee United would win 0-8 in the EC Principality field that year. More than once, Andorran teams conceded 10 goals, as in a Constellation defeat against Rayo Vallecano by 0 to 10. 2007 would be the time to see an Andorran club enter the first round of the Champions League, losing by a total of 5 to 9 against the Moldavian Sheriff of Tiraspol. Little by little, the results improved and in 2009 Sant Julià would eliminate a San Marino club, Tre Fiori, from the penalty spot. This year, FC Santa Coloma eliminated Pen-y-Bont from Wales in the Conference League, before falling to Sutjeska from Montenegro.
Andorra is experiencing a sweet moment in its football. The professional club, Andorra, is playing in the Spanish Second Division for the first time in 30 years thanks to the investment of Gerard Piqué and other partners. “For Andorran football it is great news, as powerful clubs are coming, fans and many children are signing up for football schools. Now we would like to see an Andorran player in the team”, says the president of the Andorran Federation of Football (FAF), Félix Álvarez, who admits that sometimes the communication with FC Andorra has not been the best, but that in general they see with good eyes that the big club of the Principality succeeds in Spanish football, where it started to compete in the 50s, when there was no Andorran league.
The Andorran national team, where the incombustible Ildefons Lima still plays at the age of 43, has also improved and has only lost 5 of the last 8 official matches. And none of these defeats have been by more than two goals, against tough rivals like Switzerland, Romania or Austria. “He committed very strongly to improving the technical team and the results are there. We have been improving, little by little, and we have gone from thinking about how many goals we would score to competing one on one. This have been recognized at the UEFA and FIFA congresses and these types of recognition comfort and encourage you to continue,” he explained to theNow Andorra Felix Alvarez.
The facilities, keys
In addition, local league teams are managing to compete in Europe, making the league climb up the UEFA rankings. Of the 55 official leagues, Andorra is 52nd ahead of San Marino, Gibraltar and North Macedonia. In a few months, he’ll be over the Welsh and hopefully Belarus too. Andorra is the fifth least populated state in Europe, only ahead of the Principality of Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Vatican City. But of these states, only San Marino has its own league. Andorra has not stopped growing since in the 90s it decided to ask UEFA and FIFA to be able to compete, both in the field of national teams and clubs, which has allowed it to raise the level, gain more experience and receive funds economic of international organizations. The Federation has invested more than 10 million euros in recent years to create new infrastructure, organizing tournaments in the under-17, under-19 and under-21 categories and making it easier for experienced Catalan players to play in Andorra last years of his career. It has also sought to grow the league and just this year it will go from 8 to 10 Primera clubs. “It will be a more competitive category because the clubs that have gone up are strengthening themselves,” said the president of the Federation, Félix Álvarez, in the last assembly.
The big bet has been to try to have new facilities in a small and mountainous country. The Andorran Football Federation (FAF) hopes to complete this year the construction of the new field in Encamp, which will have a system to keep the grass protected against the cold and bleachers for around 3,000 spectators, on the land that had been occupied by the former International Campsite. Key facilities to improve along with the National Stadium and the Prada de Moles Stadium. “When you have few facilities it is difficult to improve. Sometimes the teams have to share training space and you meet rival clubs who cannot practice strategic moves, since the opponents train a few meters away. Having more spaces it makes the job easier,” says Álvarez.
The work done, however, is already yielding results and recently FIFA awarded the Training Center of the Andorran Football Federation of La Massana with the second prize of the Forward program, emphasizing that “one of the challenges that a country of 468 km² has is to have spaces to train and with the Massana Training Center, the FAF has made a great leap forward because teams can train there from the base to the absolute selection”. Álvarez recalled: “FIFA subsidized this magnificent facility, like that of the other 20 participating European federations, and we are comforted to know that they are delighted with the sports infrastructure we have made. This recognition confirms the good regard they have for us since of FIFA and shows that this is the way to go in terms of facilities.”
The improvement of local clubs is explained by receiving more funds, the start of foreign capital investments, attracted by Andorra’s fiscal conditions, and gradually gaining more experience. “Being able to play in European competitions is exciting,” admits Adrià Gallego from Lleida, author of one of the goals against Hibernian. Much of the success of the Andorran league has come thanks to veteran Catalan players who, after years in Second or Third, can thus play in tournaments that they have usually seen on television. “We try to improve every year, but the limitations that the country has also mean that the teams cannot compete at all, but playing these games is the illusion and the goal of many players”, explains Ildefons Lima, captain of the selection, which has been able to play almost a dozen preliminaries of the Champions League. To play in Andorra as a foreigner, you need to prove two years of registered football as a footballer in another country, which allows you to ensure a certain level. The Andorran clubs are improving and Félix Álvarez does not hide the upcoming challenges: having more and more local players and seeing a local club reach the group stage of the Conference League. In two years of this tournament, clubs from Gibraltar, Armenia and Estonia have achieved it.
2023-08-02 12:00:03
#small #miracle #football #Andorra #capable #defeating #giants
