HERE BE DRAGONS
CITY GETS FIRED UP FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL
A DRAGON has appeared on top of Cardiff Castle to celebrate the Champions League final in Cardiff.
The giant sculpture appeared on the ramparts yesterday morning alongside a replica of the trophy.
The final, which we now know will be between Real Madrid and Juventus, takes place on June 3.
Real will face Juve at the National Stadium of Wales, usually known as the Principality Stadium, after the Italian side breezed through a semi-final with Monaco, winning 4-1 on aggregate and Real overcame an early scare against their city rivals, Atletico.
Passers-by could be seen stopping to take selfies and get a glimpse at what is sure to be a popular attractions among the thousands of football fans expected in the city.
The dragon’s appearance follows the popular giant rugby ball that “crashed” into Cardiff Castle to mark the Rugby World Cup in 2015.
Matt Wild and his company Wild Creations, who were behind it, have also created the dragon.
Matt said work began on the project a year ago. He said: “We sat down, we looked at loads of ideas, and we wanted to steer away from the ball [in the wall] and do something quite different. We then sat around with FA Wales and a representative from Uefa, we looked at various different things.
“The branding for Cardiff was the dragon protecting the trophy. What better place to put that than the top of Cardiff Castle? It’s the same reason we did the ball here. It’s such an iconic part of Cardiff, it’s great to do it here. We’ve been working on it in the workshop for about 12 weeks with around 15 people.”
Creating the dragon involved people drawing, sculpting, hand-sculpting, robot work, a team of artists painting it and metal workers – as well as printing all the banners.
Alan Hamer, project director working on bringing the final to Cardiff, said: “The aim now is to excite the local population, remind people the event’s coming, but also for the fans who are going to be here during the four days to take their photo, give them that kind of memory of Cardiff.”
About two dozen representatives from Real Madrid and Juventus are in Cardiff today to discuss plans, including security and fans’ experiences.
“We have a few meetings. We met them at the quarter-final stage, we met them two weeks ago, and this is the last meeting with them now.
“Up until that point, clubs are a bit superstitious. They can’t really plan too much because they don’t want to jinx themselves but now they know who’s in the final, it’s full on really.”
He added: “When we bid for this event, this was before Wales had even qualified for Europe, so Euro 2016 was great for Welsh football. But the reason for bidding for an event like this was to try and inspire more people, boys, girls, to take up football, otherwise there’s no legacy. To have Gareth Bale play in the final in his home city, there’s no better story.
“What we would hope is that next year when people look at how many people are playing football across the country, or volunteering, or coaching or refereeing, that the numbers have gone up and Euro 2016 plus the Champions League final will hopefully be reasons why that’s happened.”
As well as the dragon, the locations of the two separate fan areas for Juventus and Real Madrid supporters were yesterday revealed by organisers.
They will be at Churchill Way and the other will be at Callaghan Square but which team’s fans will go where is yet to be announced. Only those with tickets will be able to access them.
At both areas, there will be food and drink stands but no alcohol will be served. There will also be toilets and information points.
The times that the two areas will be open to fans is subject to change.
As it stands now, they will open from 7am on Saturday morning and close at about 1am on Sunday. The zones are only open for the men’s final on June 3, not the women’s final.
As previously reported, there will be no fanzone for people to watch the game live.