Super Cup of Spain - train station for two

The Spanish Super Cup is a pretty young tournament. Especially in comparison with many other football competitions of the Old World, which have a very respectable age. In the current format of the Super Cup of Spain there are some three decades, to be exact - since 1982, when the Real Sociedad of San Sebastian and Real Madrid met in a two-legged confrontation. Then it ended with a major victory of "Churi-Urdin" with a total score of 5: 0. Modern "Real Sociedad" can only dream of such an achievement.

Since then, the Spanish Super Cup is held on a regular basis. With the exception of the seasons 1985/1986 and 1986/1987, when the participants in the confrontation could not agree on the dates of the meetings. And the tournament was simply canceled. The winner of this trophy is determined in two-legged confrontation by the champion of the country and the winner of the cup final. They play one match on each competitor's field. With equal goals scored, a victory in the European Cup system is awarded to the team that scored more goals on the road.

If any club made a "golden double", that is, in one season won the championship (Example) and won the cup, the second participant becomes the finalist of the King's Cup. True, in the first two such cases, the Spanish Super Cup was not played at all. In 1984 and 1989, the trophy went to the author of the "golden double" - "Athletics" from Bilbao and Madrid "Real" respectively, without struggle.

For all the past years, the statistics of the drawing of this trophy is quite trivial, especially for someone who is aware of the realities of Spanish football. Ten times the supercup was won by the divine and incomparable Barcelona, nine by Madrid's Galaktikos, three by Deportivo from La Coruña, which rattled throughout Europe at the turn of the century, and now drags a bleak existence in one point from the relegation zone, having A whole heap of problems both purely gaming, and financial and organizational.

At one time, the trophy went to Madrid "Atletico" (another club, in whose richest history there are many nice pages), "Zaragoza", "Valencia" (the permanent champion of the last few years, as they say in Spain, "the rest of the Examples"), Bilbain " Athletics (glorious grandees of the past), "Mallorca", "Real Sociedad" and "Seville".

Supercup although formally refers to the previous season, between the triumphs of which it is played, but chronologically still closer to the championship starting, which opens. In contrast to such a tournament as the Cup of the King of Spain, which completely fits within the framework of one season. Figuratively speaking, the draw of the super-cup is the platform from which Spanish example goes on its long journey of 38 rounds.

And for a long time this platform has turned into a station for two - in such a warm-up between me and myself, "Blaugrana" and "Blancos" ("Barcelona" and "Real"). Before the beginning of any season for many years it is known with a 100% chance which two clubs will share all the trophies in Spain, and in Europe, perhaps, too. Any other outcome is perceived as a deafening sensation and has the effect of a bomb exploding. This fully applies to such a respectable and prestigious tournament, like the Cup of Spain in football.

Hence the fall of intrigue and spectator interest. Not for nothing in our time, of all the diversity of Spanish matches, only El-Classico is able to attract a multi-million audience of viewers, and hence advertisers and sponsors. This contributes to the expansion of the gigantic chasm between these two giants and the rest of the Spanish clubs. So to speak, class inequality is growing, which very seriously weakens the Spanish championship and contributes to a drop in interest in the domestic tournaments of this country. However, this is a completely different topic ...