2023-09-10 04:05:17
Few events in Asturias enjoy the popularity and success of the Oviedo Cup. Started in 2006, the grassroots football tournament attracts some 35,000 people to the region every spring, including children, coaches and families. Now, its promoters (Nacho Canal, Antonio Méndez-Navia, José Ángel Fernández, Chus Hevia and Dani Castelao) have embarked on an adventure linked to a humble club that is experiencing difficult times, Berrón.
The most urgent problem that the president, Chus Hevia – former Real Oviedo player, among others – had to face when he took the reins of Berrón – in the month of March – is related to a recurring evil in modest football: debts. “There was money that had to be paid, and that was the first thing we did: if we came in on a Monday, on Tuesday we paid everyone. It was a fairly significant amount and the staff had not been paid for two months, which affected performance, because it makes the players logically restless,” he explains, and goes into greater depth by focusing on his personal experience as a former soccer player: “At these levels, the contracts are made as they are: the players depend, fundamentally, on the board in office keeping its word. If you have 5, you can’t spend 6. When I played football in Second B it was normal for January to arrive and not to have been paid the entire season and for nothing to happen.”
As it could not be otherwise, the first objective of the incoming board is to strengthen the youth team. “In recent years, many children have left, so we have been losing teams in some categories,” says Hevia, aware of the importance of grassroots football as the economic lung of the club: “The support of humble teams like us are the parents of the kids, who pay the membership fee. We are a very small town, and we are aware that getting teams in all categories is very difficult. We must pull the kids from the surrounding towns, but for them to move here “We have to offer them to compete in a category higher than where they are, if not impossible.”
Before entering the Berrón, the Oviedo Cup considered the possibility of taking the Lugones. “It didn’t come out because other people bet stronger than us and we withdrew,” says Hevia, who affirms that the first step for the group’s arrival at Berrón came from the club’s previous management: “The previous president (Pedro Riesgo) He had already been 26 years old. He went through a delicate moment of health and he was tired. They were the ones who called us. I told them that if no one else showed up, we would take care of it because we didn’t want the team to disappear. El Berrón had always collaborated with us in the Oviedo Cup, we had a lot of trust with the people of the club.
Despite the change in management, Mario Sánchez will continue coaching Berrón, in what will be his seventh year at the head of a team that has competed uninterruptedly in Preferente since 2018 and that has tasted the honeys of the Third Division in three seasons since its founding, in 1969: 93/94, 04/05 and 05/06. However, the club is not considering a new trip to Third in the short term. “Our goal is to save ourselves,” says Sánchez, “we have a very young team. In addition, we have had to focus on non-sports matters that are more common now than they were before. 25 years ago, the Principality and even the City Council gave more aid , now there is less and less money.
This summer, the Sergio Sánchez stadium in El Berrón has hosted some of the most notable preseason matches that have been played in Asturias, such as Burgos-Cultural Leonesa and Oviedo-Racing, which has provided an economic balm that has allowed the Berrón, in addition to alleviating part of the debt, will maintain the natural grass field on which the first team plays its games – the club has another adjacent stadium, with artificial grass. “Our facilities are a delight, but I cannot spend eight or nine thousand euros every two months on the natural grass field, neither can we nor any modest team,” intervenes Hevia, who aspires to stabilize the club’s financial situation before considering fight for higher levels. “When we can afford to sign and offer 200 euros to a player instead of 100, we will talk about raising. For now, we are not going to commit to having an accumulated value of the chips of five thousand euros, like some Third Division teams, who pay up to ten thousand euros in total. I promise that, as long as we are here, not a single euro will be owed,” he concludes.
Derby against Siero to open the season. El Berrón receives Siero today (5 p.m.), recently promoted and historic of the Asturian Tercera, in a council derby to open the Preferente season. “We are very excited after moving up. It is an exciting season and full of objectives. We have strengthened ourselves well, but so have other teams,” analyzes Alejandro Robles, Siero coach, aware of the “runrún” that the duel against the team awakens in the town. neighbors of El Berrón. “It’s only three points, but it’s a nice game,” he says.
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