Real Madrid’s Bernabéu stadium set to be renamed Abu Dhabi Bernabéu

The Santiago Bernabéu stadium will be renamed the Abu Dhabi Bernabéu, according to the Spanish sports newspaper AS. The report has not been confirmed by Real Madrid but their president, Florentino Pérez, was caught on camera admitting to a member of the regional government that the stadium will be called whatever the Abu Dhabi investment group Ipic wants it to be called.

Madrid signed a deal with the International Petroleum Investment Company at the end of October 2014. Ipic owns the Spanish petrol company Cepsa and is in turn owned by the emirate. No figures were given but Pérez presented it as an agreement that would enable Madrid to carry out the redevelopment of the Bernabéu.

The deal was understood to be worth €3m (£2.25m) a year until Madrid begin work, when Ipic would pay €20m a year. Madrid have not said that the stadium will be renamed although Pérez has admitted that it might be given a “surname”.

Privately, he was more explicit. In mid-November TV cameras caught Pérez talking to Lucia Fijar, in charge of the department for sport and education in Madrid’s regional government, following an event organised to present a commercial deal with Microsoft, who had originally been touted as among the candidates to buy naming rights for the stadium. “We’ll call it Ipic Bernabéu or whatever they want … or Cepsa Bernabéu,” Pérez said.

Now AS reports that the stadium will be called the Abu Dhabi Bernabéu after Ipic was rejected as a name. Whether that is the final decision remains to be seen but its days of being just the Santiago Bernabéu are numbered.

Meanwhile Cristiano Ronaldo has been suspended from Real Madrid’s next two matches after kicking an opponent in last weekend’s La Liga game against Córdoba. He will miss home games against Real Sociedad on Saturday and Sevilla on 4 Feburuary. He will return for the derby at Atlético Madrid on 7 February.