WEEK IN REVIEW
The stories that made the headlines this week in Mallorca
Mallorca lost the final and some fans had a terrible time
Real Mallorca's dreams of Cup glory last Saturday were shattered by a penalty shoot-out with Athletic Club. On the pitch in Seville, things didn't go as had been hoped, while away from the ground there was plenty for Mallorca fans to have to contend with. An incident started by Bilbao ultras marred what was otherwise said to have been a good-natured atmosphere in the city ahead of the match. Flares, smoke canisters, stones and chairs were thrown when these ultras invaded an area occupied by Mallorca fans. There was some retaliation but fortunately there were no serious injuries. Police intervention meant that the violence was only short-lived.
Travel to and from Seville caused a lot of headaches and a great deal of anger for the 800 fans booked on ferries to Valencia and back and coaches from Valencia to Seville. Going out was bad enough, but at least there was still the optimism of a Cup win. Returning was that much grimmer. There was strong criticism of the ferry operator,
GNV, for having provided a ship that was inadequate. The number of seats and cabins was insufficient. Many fans spent the journey camped out on floors. The cafeteria service was deficient, as were the toilets. Then there were the delays in the ferry leaving port. One fan explained: “We returned more than eight hours late because only one person out of 800 was able to board at a time.” For those fans who had opted to fly, they encountered delays at airport security, where there was seemingly a repeat of what the security workers' representatives had insisted was not a go-slow over Easter. There were concerns about missing flights, passengers saying that they had to queue for more than half an hour. The airport management reckoned there were “occasional queues of fifteen minutes” but that “fluidity” was quickly restored.
It wasn't only Mallorca fans who were affected. One family on a flight to Manchester said that they spent two hours queuing for security and for passport control, the latter not having been an issue for the fans.
Backside promotion
In Seville, President Marga Prohens unveiled one feature of the 2.6 million euro sponsorship of Real Mallorca by the Balearic government and the Council of Mallorca. “All over the world we will be able to proudly display the name of the four islands by our best representatives, who are the Mallorca players,“said the president, while holding up a pair of shorts with the legend ‘Mallorca
Illes Balears' emblazoned on them - on the backside. A headlinewriter's dream, but the opportunity was not taken up. There will presumably be a shorts' rotation system so that the names of all four islands appear.
Still with Real Mallorca, the Spanish Football Federation has announced that there will be an international match at the Son Moix Stadium in Palma on June 8. Spain will host Northern Ireland in a warm-up match for the Euros, which start on June 14. It will be the first international match staged in Palma since October 2013, when Spain played Belarus in the World Cup qualifiers. The first ever was also against Northern Ireland - at the old Lluís Sitjar Stadium in March 1985.