Barcelona football in March 2008
 

I will be escorting a group of high school students to France and Spain in March 2008. Quite a few of them would like to see a Barcelona match but I can't figure out their playing schedule. Can anyone help me find out where and when Barcelona is playing on the 15, 16 or 17 of March?

You can thank your lucky stars that they are playing away during that period. The tickets are very expensive and Barcelona can be a heated affair for high school students.

There will be enough atmosphere in a local cafe/bar to keep your students going.

http://www.barcelona-football-ticket...n/eur/fixtures

Barcelona has two first-league football clubs: The FC Barcelona, which is the Catalan club, and Espanyol Barcelona, which is Castilian club.

FC Barcelona plays on 16 March in Almeria. Almeria is at the southern coast, near Granada.

See http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/

Espanyol will play on 16 March in their home stadium against Mallorca.

http://www.rcdespanyol.com/

Even if a game is scheduled for a certain date, they can move it, so you can't rely on going to a game on the date you wish. This happened it us in September with the Barcelona vs. Seville game.

Thanks Markrosy, traveller1959 and Images2. I appreciate the links and the suggestions. Coming from rural Canada we know it would be a "real" experience to attend a first-league match. The Espanyol game might work for us. Nice to know they are playing at home. I'll let you know how things work out.

Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Espanyol is as catalan as Barcelona is !! Don't be mislead by the name..it does not come from now, but from their foundation. Barcelona was founded by a swiss man , Jan Gamper and all the players then were foreigners (mostly swiss and english). Espanyol players were all from Barcelona. That is the story :)

We were in Barcelona last March and watched an Espanyol game as FC Barcelona was not playing home while we were there. It was a lot of fun, so I would recommend doing it, if it is in your budget. We just walked up before the game to buy the tickets.

On a semi-related note...when I was in Barcelona in January I wanted to go to a football match. Unfortunately, they were only playing away while I was there. Instead I went to Camp Nou (their homeground) which has a football musuem - bad move!! I would not recommend going. It is all about the money and the experience is not worth it (unless of course you are a diehard fan). From what I remember, you pretty much follow a piece of tape along the ground and go into totally deserted change rooms, conference rooms, different levels of the stadium and a museum at the end where everything is written in Spanish (or maybe Catalan). Pretty dodgy...

What parallel world is it that has Barca tickets as expensive and the experience of a spanish football match too much for delicate little high school students?

Neither are true.

Go - you'll have a blast (unless they're playing Real Madrid which can get a bit lairy)

Camp Nou or not?

For an American, visiting Camp Nou may be as boring as for a European visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But for real football fans (what the American call "soccer"), Camp Nou is like a sanctuary. Going through the change room where Ronaldinho takes his shower is something special. Someone who doesn't have a relation to football sees just a change room.

So, let your kids decide. You take the underground train to a kind of suburban area, walk a bit, pay a handsome fee and walk self-guided through part of the stadium, land in a football museum and end in the gift shop. For millions of Europeans and South Americans, this is a kind of pilgrimage; for North Americans it may be boring, I admit.

kenderina: thank you for correcting me, you are perfectly right!

We did the Camp Nou tour and enjoyed it. Our kids both play soccer (football) and thought it was neat to see the stadium and sit in the stands (especially since we couldn't see an FC Barcelona game). Espanyol plays at the Olympic stadium). Plus, the photography exhibit in the museum was EXCELLENT!!

audere - you prat they are playing away I think we established that!

No mark they aren't. Barcelona are playing away. ESPANYOL are playing at home, in Barcelona - and that's who the OP is now planning to see. Good to see the comprehension skills are as good as ever.

In any case there's nothing dangerous about the NouCamp. I've been there loads of times (well about 6) and I've never had any grief. And I have been for the Real Madrid match (which can get a bit lairy - but nowhere as bad as say, the North London derby)

You referred to Barca tickets!

I was addressing your point about Barcelona's football matches being "too much" for delicate septic kids. It isn't. Nor is it expensive (certianly by english standards)

I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. Quite often, over the past 2 years I have read long threads and not known how they have ended up. I wanted everyone to know our next steps. I have polled our travelling students as to whether they would like to attend a first league football match in Barcelona while we are there. Without exception they all said YES. Through the links provided by Traveller1959 our travel agent was able to find available tickets and we will be purchasing 40 seats in the second tier for 35 Euros each. It promises to be one of many experiences the students (and teachers) won't forget on our trip to France and Spain. The Olympic stadium has a great reputation for being filled with "all good seats" and we expect to have a lot of fun. It has been suggested we wear blue and white (Espanyol colours). Any other suggestions??

Good for you guys!! It will be a lot of fun. Just one thing to note, going to the Espanyol game was the one area we found a ton of smokers. Atleast you are outside, but still a lot of smokers were seated near us. Just to be prepared. Have a wonderful time!!

Hi Teacher:

Good to hear that everything worked out fine.

Football can be fascinating. Yesterday I was in the stadium to see the Champions League match Schalke-Chelsea and although (or better: because) it ended with a 0-0 draw it was one the most exciting sports events I have ever seen.

You may give you student some match reports to get some understanding of the game and the tactics.

Here is yesterday's report from the Guardian:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/news/...206196,00.html

Enjoy your trip!

We are also going to be in Barcelona (and Madrid) in March 2008, and were thinking of going to a match. We are four American adults and a 4 year old who love sports, especially live, but only occasionally watch (or play) soccer. We were thinking of going to see either Real Madrid-Espanyol in Madrid on March 9, or Espanyol-Mallorca in Barcelona on March 16.

Can anyone tell me if one of or both of these is likely to sell out in advance (we'd prefer not to pay the scalper prices), or if there's a reason we should pick one game over the other (because of price, or family-friendliness, or general atmosphere)?

thanks!

If I were picking I would plump for Real Madrid. They are the biggest club in the world (no matter what those northern monkeys may say).

There team is a roster of the greatest players in the world.

They are of course quite the crowd pullers but you should be able to get tickets without too many problems.

I hope following this trip you are planning a week at a swanky spa just for yourself. Anyone who is courageous enough to take on escorting HS students to France and Spain deserves a medal of honor.

I was unable to have children but I always say if I had I would have hoped they would be exchange students because it is so important for people in the world to understand one another better.

Your totally rule for being a cool adult and taking kids to Europe, which is so important if kids today are going to appreciate cultural diffences in the world. This is a very important thing you are doing. Bravo.

Wow I can't believe how many typos I had in that previous post. That is rather unlike me. I can tell I was in a hurry before I hit the "Post Reply" link...! Sorry!

Thanks Wanderlust5. Such kind words Only 40 days until we board our jet airliner to whisk us to Paris. We've had a lot of fun pulling this trip together. We don't buy packaged trips offered by companies, but make up our own and send out the itinerary to various travel companies and ask them to quote an all-inclusive price. We have 15 days away in France and Spain ending in Valencia for Festival Fallas. My reward at the end is observing the changes in the 36 participants. I don't think the School Board would go for the spa idea - but I'll suggest it.

Doh, we are attending the Barcelona Espanyol vs. Mallorca match (March 16)because that fit our itinerary. We had a choice of 25, 35 and 45 Euro tickets. We chose the 35 Euro seats because they were "upper", but not in the ends. The RCDE website is quite useful and our contact at RCDE was Carlos Ferrer. We purchased our tix with an international bank transfer to the RCDE account at their bank in Valencia. This was all done at our local small town bank for a bank cost of about $35. They don't set the start time for the game (likely 2 p.m. or 6 p.m.) until about 10 days prior. For this reason they will forward a chit (in this case to our travel agent) which we will exchange for tickets on game day. We have been informed our seats are not in the "intense" section reserved for "dedicated" Espanyol fans, but I am sure we will have a good view of their antics. I do have a fiduciary responsibility to bring my students back to their parents! Doh, if you would like to contact me you can do so at cooperfam1 at yahoo.ca.

At 2 p.m ? I have never seen a match at that hour here in Spain..I think that's a misunderstanding...
They cannot tell the exact time because it depends if it is broadcasted on TV (most matches are ) or not but the schedules are most often 6 pm or 7pm. If it is broadcasted on a national TV then it will be 9- 10 pm...

The match is at 4pm GMT.

ah, ok, so 5 pm here in Spain. We are on GMT +1 although Greenwich Meridian touches my place , Castellón :)

Thanks for the info. teachercanada, and best of luck!

I think as of now we are leaning towards playing it by ear and seeing which game fits better with our schedule once we're there (we have a slight preference for Real Madrid, for the reason expressed by Cholmondley Warner, but we have less time in Madrid and it's at the beginning of our trip, so we're thinking it might make sense to be flexible). Of course if anyone thinks one or both games will sell out in advance, please let me know and we'll reconsider.

Doh - no problem at all. If you would like to arrange to meet while we are there, please contact me. We'll be waving a large Canadian flag - at least for a little while.

Chomondley - how do you know the game time? They told us it would not be determined until just weeks before March 16.

Chomondley - how do you know the game time? They told us it would not be determined until just weeks before March 16.>>>>

It's on the ESPN site. However no European football game's start time is set in stone until a few weeks before as they are at the beck and call of the TV companies who move kick-offs around.

And Kenderina - only the classiest places are on the Prime Meridian. Innit.

Hey, we even have a park called "El parque del Meridiano" (Meridian's Park) where there's a plaque marking the point.
Maybe it should be a tourist attraction...LOL

Well those of us who work in Greenwich are vaguely aware of the meridian!

Hello all

We're back from our wonderful time in France and Spain. I just wanted to end this thread with a summary of what actually happened and to thank everyone for their input.

As you know, we purchased the 35 euro tickets with a bank transfer about 2 months before we left.

We spent the day of the game in Barcelona seeing Sagrada Familia and walking las Ramblas. We took a subway from Christoper Columbus' column to close by the Olympic Park. We then boarded busses to take us up the hill to the Stadium. The game was due to start at 5 p.m. and we were there at about 2:30. Picking up the tix was no problem at all. The students purchased loads of Espanyol team merchandise (jerseys, scarves, banners etc.) In fact we left with so much, the team's public relations manager followed us and asked to get a group shot of the Canadians with all their gear to put on their website! Our seats were reasonable, but we faced the setting sun which made it difficult to see. They announced about 20,000 seats were sold, but I'm sure there weren't that many people in the stadium. The stadium holds 65,000.

The game was interesting and fun to watch. Some students are football nuts and they were enchanted. The home team won 2 - 1 and the crowd left happy. We boarded the shuttle busses to return to the metro with no problems at all (the busses were crowded, but that added to the excitement).

Overall, a very positive experience for everyone - very safe.

Hi TeacherCanada,

Glad to hear the trip went well! We ended up at that game too (also facing the sun-- warmer at least). We tried to see Real Madrid at Bernabeu, but all they had left for sale was single seats, so we went to the Espanyol game instead, which was fun (a great header to break the tie in the 89th minute or so). Our only regret is we didn't buy any Espanyol gear, because it seems the only place we saw it for sale in Catalonia was actually at the game.

Doh (It sure feels funny using Doh as a salutation!)

We were near the end zone that held the Olympic flame (and near the "fan"atics section), closer to the top of the stands. We had a large flag of Canada displayed on the railing in front of us.

We arrived at the stadium early enough that we all had a chance to go to the Espanyol team store. Nearly everyone purchased something in team colours and enjoyed waving it around. You can purchase any of the Espanyol souvenirs from their website.