Real Madrid attack Mayor's 'inappropriate' comments as Celta Vigo postponement row escalates

Real Madrid have angrily refuted suggestions they wanted to disregard security measures following the postponement of their La Liga fixture against Celta Vigo, blasting contentious recent comments made by the Mayor of Vigo as “inappropriate” and “totally inaccurate”.

Madrid were due to play Celta Vigo on Sunday evening, but Abel Caballero, the Mayor of Vigo, made the decision to postpone the match after storms across Spain left the stadium unsafe. Winds exceeding 140 kilometres per hour dislodged pieces of the roof at the Estadio Municipal de Balaidos, with Caballero claiming the stadium was in no fit state to accommodate supporters.

However reporters close to Real Madrid did not initially accept the decision, claiming that the club was desperate to play the game to avoid fixture congestion later in the season. Instead, it was suggested that Madrid could send experts to fix the stadium, or that the game could be moved to a neutral venue.

Those offers were not accepted by Celta Vigo, with the match now rescheduled to be played at a later date.

Real have since been accused of only putting pressure on Caballero’s decision because Celta are in the midst of an injury crisis, and were thought to be prioritising their historic Copa del Rey semi-final second leg against Alavés over the La Liga tie. The Guardian reported that Celta manager Toto Berizzo had freely admitted ahead of the match that he had intended to field a weakened team.

Caballero addressed Real Madrid’s reaction to his decision when he spoke to various media outlets on Monday morning. He mocked the proposed plans to fix the stadium in time for the match, describing them as “crazy”, and saying that he would have “laughed openly” had such a course of action been put to him directly.

The Mayor also said that he had been told "some Madrid employees had told their fans to go to the stadium, knowing there was no game," to pressurize the authorities into staging the fixture.

"If that happened, it is extremely serious, and a danger to public order and security. I want to believe it was only a rumour," he added.

In a later interview with Marca, Caballero described the actions of the club as “inappropriate, wrong, and arrogant,” before controversially suggesting the postponement would hinder Celta more than it would Real. "Celta have a more congested schedule than that of Madrid as they are still in three competitions, and Madrid in just two," he said.

Madrid reacted to Caballero’s comments with a strongly worded statement, which accused the Mayor of providing journalists with “inaccurate” facts.

"Real Madrid C. F. regrets the unfortunate statements made by the mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero, in which he states that this club disregarded the security measures required for the Celta de Vigo v Real Madrid C.F. fixture to go ahead," the statement read.

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"Not only are the mayor's comments inappropriate, they are also totally inaccurate, because at no point in time did Real Madrid C. F. question the security measures in place at Balaidos."

However, the club did confirm that they had provided Celta Vigo with three solutions to the damage caused by the storm. These included rapid repairs; closing the affected stand or moving the game to a neutral venue.

"Having learned of the possibility of the game being postponed more than 30 hours ahead of kick-off, the club proposed three alternatives to the Professional Football League,” the statement continued.

“Firstly, for consideration to be given to the possibility of repairing the damaged stadium roof; secondly, the possibility of the affected stand being closed; and thirdly, if the two aforementioned options were not possible, to look into staging the fixture at another nearby stadium.

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"These proposals were made with a view to avoiding the postponement of the fixture from negatively impacting upon the four competitions, given the knock-on effect it would cause between them, as well as the massive financial losses suffered by television channels from around the world, which will have an impact on future tenders for the sale of broadcasting rights."

Caballero’s actions were however defended by Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga. He invited those criticising the decision of the Mayor to take the matter up with the courts.

"I respect and accept his decision, which furthermore was backed up by technical reports," Tebas told AS.

"There was risk for the public, and for the players. Abel Caballero said that to play was reckless and that's that. If anyone has doubts about the mayor's decision they can sue him for perversion of justice."