Team Dubai

Could the future be bright for Madrid’s third club?

Real Madrid – 31 La Liga titles, 18 Copa Del Rey’s, 9 Champions League’s

Atletico Madrid – 9 La Liga titles, 9 Copa Del Rey’s, Europa League winners in 2010.

Getafe – Errrm?

Getafe regret their ‘any name, any number for €10’ promotion

I think it’s generous to say that Getafe Club de Fútbol are not a household name. Probably most famous for their recent endorsement with Burger King (see this link if you haven’t already http://bit.ly/Ggepe) the club, in their current form, have only existed for 20 years, but they’ve more than made up for lost time.

 

The team who are based in the city of Getafe, a commuter town just 8 miles outside of Madrid, were formed in 1983 as a merger of the previously standing Club Getafe Deportivo, whose claim to fame was drawing 3-3 with Barcelona in 1978’s Copa Del Rey (they lost the 2^nd leg 8-0), and a Real Madrid supporters club based in the city. At the time they weren’t even a footnote in Madrid’s football scene, with even Rayo Vallecano being a football giant in comparison.

The club was successful in its early days, romping through the Spanish regional leagues before seemingly finding their level as they yo-yoed between the Segunda B and Segunda leagues – the 3^rd and 2^nd tiers of Spanish football. They moved into their new home in 1998, the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez. It’s known as simply the Coliseum to locals and is named after the Spanish journeyman Alfonso – despite the fact that he never actually played for the club.

 

They started their upswing to their current berth in La Liga in the 2001/02 season by getting promoted to the Segunda despite coming 5^th in the league, being in huge debt and having a player murdered mid-season. They managed a mid-table finish 02/03 season before going on a sensational run to finish 2^nd in the league and secure their first season ever in La Liga, exactly 20 years after their first season.

They’ve since been a solid La Liga club and have featured in the Europa League twice – being minutes away from knocking out Bayern Munich in the 2008 Quarter Finals. They’ve probably been most recognised for over-achieving due to some excellent coaches. They’ve had Quique Sanchez Flores (who guided Atletico to Europa League glory) Bernd Schuster (who went to Real) and Michael Laudrup.

This seems to be the trend for a club who are much smaller than their near city rivals and can only hope to keep their heads above water.

Things could be on the up for the club though, due to an investment from the Royal Emirates Group, chaired by Sheikh Butti Bin Suhail Al Maktoum of the Dubai Royal family. The deal was confirmed in April after a bit of a bizarre rumour frenzy in which the group had announced that they had purchased a Spanish club who they would rename Team Dubai. It was originally thought to be Zaragoza, who are in the financial mire, but it was confirmed to be Getafe in a press conference in Dubai. The final deal saw the team compromise and they will be known as Getafe Team Dubai from next season.

The owners seem to be keen to extend the brand name of Getafe, and they will need to. The Coliseum sees the lowest attendances in La Liga and as a relatively new club Getafe don’t have a great fan base to call from. The club is a part of a great metropolitan area but not only have to compete with Rayo and Atletico but arguably the biggest club in the world in Real Madrid. It seems that the new owners have grand plans for them though.

The group have spent around €80 million on buying the club and whilst we can’t expect to see Getafe plundering Real Madrid and Barcelona’s top stars some genuine investment could see them challenging towards the Champions League spaces in years to come. Project manager Suleiman al Butti says “‘Our vision is to now beat Real Madrid”, whilst managing director Kaiser Rafiq has promised a top 6 finish this year.

There are apparently plans afoot to move to a new, bigger stadium (which will probably break Alfonso’s heart) and they will be hoping to secure some new playing talent in time for the new season. I’d suggest that Getafe won’t be signing any players of real quality until they are at least in Europa League again (they only finished 16^th this year and didn’t get out of their Europa League group) but that could see them flourish and take advantage of the decline of the likes of the bankrupt Valencia.

They’ve hired Luis Garcia Plaza, formerly of Levante, as their manager and they can play some good stuff at times, but they will need to expand a small squad which has a small nucleus of quality with ex-QPR and Real Madrid man Daniel Parejo and little Venezuelan striker Miku standing out. They will have to do well to retain any players (and coaches) that perform well as that has hindered them in the past, but with new investment that should be a thing of the past.