In praise of Real Murcia

Agosto de 2008. Un tipo galés acude a Nueva Condomina acompañado de uno de sus hijos al partido del centenario contra el Ajax, de los muchos extranjeros que residen o veranean por la costa, y que suelen acudir a los partidos de pretemporada o primeros de liga. Éste en cuestión tiene un blog de dicado al futbol, y en Diciembre de 2010 publicó una entrada sobre su estancia en dicho partido, las experiencias y sensaciones que se llevó del club, la afición y la ciudad.

No es necesario ganar títulos o arrastrar masas para ser un club grande. La letra de nuestro himno así lo atestigua: “El que es socio del Real Murcia es  socio de un club señor”, porque “siempre a tu regazo permanecemos fieles”.

In praise of Real Murcia

In praise of Real Murcia
Posted on December 8, 2010 by ffwtbol

Sometimes you visit a club and it leaves an unexpected impression on you. This is how it was with Real Murcia, a club that I was barely aware of, but which now has a place among my favourite teams due in part to good fortune and happy coincidence, but also due to the more than impressive public relations operation which puts our own clubs’ efforts to shame.

It was August 2008. We were on a family holiday on the Spanish coast near Torrevieja. As usual on holidays I sought a match to watch, and the nearest club was Torrevieja who seemed to have an active ex-pat following. I’ve always found it difficult to to get information on local games abroad, particularly friendlies, and after scouring forums and newspapers and official websites, I gave up. Murcia were playing Ajax, and that would be worth an hour’s drive.

I took my eldest lad Gruff who was 8 years old at the time and we set off. The availability of sat navy has given me the confidence to drive across Europe in a way that I just wouldn’t have done a decade ago. I tapped in the name of Murcia’s stadium, La Condomina, and off we went.

We arrived in the centre of Murcia some time before the advertised kick off, and noticed the streets were surprisingly empty. The Tomtom showed that we were less than a mile away and I started to look for parking places. But where were the fans? I drove on, and on turning a corner I saw the rear of a steep terrace buried in amongst a scruffy street. There was an old man sitting in a shed in an empty car park with a few match posters stuck on the walls. This was Real Murcia?

Well it was once, but it isn’t now. Real Murcia had played here until 2006, but had since moved to a new ground on the outskirts of the City. I was disappointed. This looked like a ground with real character. As close as you could get to a Barnsley or Burnley in the middle of Spain. With a scribbled map and a red face, I drove on.

The drive out of Murcia takes you back onto the autoroute and after a while you suddenly climb over the brow of a hill, and are struck by a dramatic vista. In the distance you are drawn to the glorious sight of the new Condomina, the Estadio Nueva Condomina, sitting there grandly aloof, illuminating the environment like the spaceship from Close Encounters.

Wow! Look at that. We parked up in one of the huge free car parks that surrounded the ground and hurried towards what we thought was an 8pm kickoff. We were speaking Welsh to each other and I was suddenly stopped with a hand on our shoulder. A well dressed home fan in his twenties wanted to know if we were speaking Dutch. Were we Ajax fans?

I needn’t have worried. He had a couple of spare tickets and was looking to pass them on. He welcomed us to Murcia and pressed the complimentaries into our hand. That was the first act of generosity shown by our hosts, but not the last.

As we always, we found our way to the club shop. Straight away, we were struck by a fantastic flourescent green kit. As we’d saved on the ticket price, I bought one for Gruff, and a couple of tee shirts for my other sons. When they heard we were visiting from Wales, the shop manager insisted on adding a free scarf to the order.

The stadium itself was impressive in a Madjeski sort of way.   And we were in amongst the few dozen ultras that had gathered for this friendly against Ajax. These were obviously proud fans, and the club had enough ambition to built a 33,000 capacity stadium despite it’s natural position oscillating between La Liga and the Segunda Division. They now play in the 3rd tier of Spanish football.

I wasn’t aware that 2008 was the anniversary of their foundation, and that this was no ordinary friendly. A host of former players were paraded around the ground, and then a fireworks display began outside the stadium boundaries. Singers sang, and speakers spoke. It was almost 10 o’ clock and the game still hadn’t started.

The match held little interest, and even though Real Murcia won 2-1, it was deadly boring. I know we always say that the football is only a small part of the trip, but in this instance it was totally superfluous.

It was about six months later that I had cause to contact the club again. Gruff was doing a school project on travel, and we were putting together a scrapbook of all the football matches he’d travelled to. A teacher at school asked him to write to clubs he’d visited asking for momentous for his project.


Gee thanks. I knew from my time working for a club that the standard response to this sort of request was to ignore it, or maybe send a generic reply. Nonetheless, I helped Gruff compose his email, and was planning to get something cheap off ebay and pretend that Murcia had sent it. Within a few hours, we received this response.

Hello Gruff, Thank you very much for your e-mail. The next magazine we will published in april. I sell you by post. My inglish is very bad, sorry!!

A lot of kisses from Murcia!
María José Nicolás
Real Murcia CF SAD

A lot of kisses! He got a lot of kisses! Can you imagine Cardiff City sending a lot of kisses? Cardiff City, who charged Gruff £100 to be a mascot, and still made him pay for his own seat at the game? Cardiff City, who charged £100 for him to be a mascot and didn’t even let him run round the pitch?

A few days later came a parcel from Spain. It included free posters, badges, magazines, a keyring and three copies of the club song on CD. What a gesture. What a club. The CD is magnificent and is played in the car on the way to school every day of the week. My three boys all know the words now – it’s like an episode of Dora the Explorer on my back seat.

More was to follow. A month later came a copy of the official club magazine. It included this small item. Fair play to Real Murcia – they’ve got a fan for life now. British clubs could learn a lot.

The club has a couple of Welsh connections. George Higgins from Barry recently left Cardiff City’s academy to play for the Spanish side before moving on, and John Toshack was their manager in 2004 before he took on the Wales job.

They have another Welsh connection now. Every morning at about half past eight, you can hear this fantastic club song blaring out of the windows of a dented blue Renault as it makes it’s shaky way along Bangor Road.

Uo Oh Oh Oh … Real Murcia
You sing
as one soul

Hundred years with you and all who come
Marked by the glory of an eternal flame
If the going gets tough, taste victory
The past and future are brought together by your shield

Because we are one
Because so much is our hallmark
Because we love our land