Small town, big egos – VAVEL Spain

2023-07-29 23:04:30

Palencia is a Spanish town located in the north of Castile and Leon, very close to the capital of the community, Valladolid. with approximately 80,000 inhabitants, Palencia is a city that is not well known at the national level, either because of its sparse population or because of its mainly residential area rather than tourism. The inhabitants of the Castilian-Leonese city are known as Palentinos, although colloquially they are called ”things”, Well, during the 18th century, the best-known wool blankets and cloths were made in Palencia.

Soccer from Palencia, antithesis of altruism

Sport in Palencia is celebrating this year with the rise of the Zunder Palencia to the Endesa League, after several years in which the best representative of the city in the sports field has been the basketball club, born in the cradle of Maristas and which after much effort and sweat has achieved promotion to the highest category of Spanish basketball. What is evident is that, in SpainSoccer has more impact than basketball. So the football team that represents the city is supposed to be up to the task of its fans, right?

Well no, football in Palencia has left a lot to be desired in recent years. The why? Very easy, egocentrism. A few years ago, Palencia had a unique team that used to roam in Monday B, the actual First RFEF. The team managers began with economic problems. Players who arrived in the city with a promised salary that could not be paid, coaches who left the team just a few weeks after arriving and board meetings that resembled a spectacle worthy of the Cirque du Soleil. After several years of immorality and impudence by the upper echelons of the club, Palencia disappeared and a stage of division began. Perhaps the blankets thing did not only come from the woolen cloths of the 18th century. After a time of uncertainty, the Palencia athletic christ and the Palencia Football Club They established themselves as the two strongest institutions in purple football.

Image of La Balastera full in 2008 | Source: Palencia City Council

The union makes the force, but the ego makes the money. The players, even with the ghost of non-payments, reinforced the opinion that the managers of the teams implanted in the city, that ”union in Palencia is impossible”. They handled perfectly to use a morality cover that by removing it revealed the real reasons. Obviously, if there is only one team, there can only be one president. Nobody wanted to give up anything at all, and instead of looking out for the good of the city, they looked at each other. personal interests. As highlighted at the beginning, in Palencia there are 80,000 inhabitants. The city council has less budget than other provinces, the social mass is smaller and therefore, the financing too. The council and the Provincial Council now had to distribute the money between two teams they were at the same level. Well, and the Palentina Popular Union, which is like the middle brother. Now with half of the financing of the City Council and half of the social massif direct proportionality continues to work, the results were half as positive as those that could be achieved with a single club.

The players from the city weren’t interested in the union either, because after years of defaulting, they had found a lesser team that could at least pay their salaries. He fear to poor management if both teams came together increased along with the tensions between both directives, to such an extent that local football began to lose much of its social mass.

Now both teams are in the magnificent Third RFEF, which has always been known as Quinta Regional. Passionate encounters, such as the Palencia Christ Athletic – Athletic Tordesillas, or the Palencia CF – Athletic Astorga, who manage to gather between 200 and 300 people in La Balastera, with capacity for 8,100 people. A complete success. Three hours later, play the Zunder Palencia against Real Madrid Basketball, and of the 5,000 seats, there are none left empty. The only thing that football fans from Palencia can do is murmur ”What a shame”, while they put on their Palencia Basket scarf and head towards the municipal pavilion sports. In the city council, meanwhile, the difficult dilemma arises of increasing the financing of the basketball team, and ACBor to give it to the Christ and the Palencia, both in Third RFEF. Miriam Andrés may not take long to make a decision.

To conclude and settle the issue, irony aside, in football Palencia needs a team that can represent it as it deserves, and that can give the city a worthy spectacle of a provincial capital. The solution may be the union, the disappearance for financial reasons of one of the two teams or any other reason, but as Abel Pascualformer captain of athletic christ mentioned in his last interview in VAVEL, if two mice eat a single piece of bread, they both stay hungry.