Despite the concerns about a crammed fixture calendar in a season badly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, Spain is going ahead with its four-team Super Cup this week as Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao provide the opposition for Barcelona and Real Madrid.
However, after being taken to Saudi Arabia in January 2020, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) is organising this year’s version in Andalusia, with the final on Sunday at La Cartuja in Seville.
From the shores of the Red Sea back to Spain, which has been battered in recent days by Storm Filomena delivering the country’s worst snowfall in decades as well as brutally cold temperatures.
Barcelona play Real Sociedad in the first semi-final on Wednesday in Cordoba, before trophy holders Madrid face Athletic Bilbao in Malaga on Thursday, with the winners remaining in southern Spain to contest Sunday’s final. All of the games will be behind closed doors.
In ordinary times the RFEF would not have given up on its controversial money-spinning Saudi venture, after initially agreeing a 120 million-euro ($146m) three-year deal to play an expanded four-team competition in the Middle Eastern Kingdom.