Havana Cuba. – Far from the Cibeles and the magic of the Bernabeu, at the Stade de France, Paris, this Saturday Real Madrid extended its tyranny in the Champions League after raising its fourteenth Orejona against the mythical Liverpool, with a final score of one goal to zero.
The two teams symbolized the highest nobility on the planet football. Liverpool led by Jürgen Klopp, German coach of the new avant-garde. With Real Madrid, Carletto Anceloti, the cream of the crop Italian of the old guard.
Both teams also represent the struggle between two different leagues, the English Premier and the Spanish Santander, who lead another pulse to lead the commodification and audiovisual platform of the sector. Likewise, the resistance of the clubs with traditional economic management models against the nascent power of the so-called club-states of the sheikhs, emirs and brotherhoods of businessmen and transnationals.
In the round of 16, quarters and semifinals of the tournament, Real Madrid had dropped out of the competition, with epic comebacks, against Paris Saint Germain –PSG–, Chelsea and Manchester City. En route to the throne, Liverpool would complete the flagship quartet of club-states defeated by the White House.
The matches of the European Champions League have not been televised on the Island for more than two years, although the Real Madrid and Barcelona clubs are the sports teams most followed by an overwhelming number of Cubans, who prefer soccer over the national sport: the baseball.
With so much at stake, more than 4,000 kilometers from Paris, the merengue fans of Havana dusted off their white elastics and went out in search of the television signal of the matchwhich was only broadcast in private bars and some of the main hotels in the city.
“It has been crazy, we had full confidence that we would beat Liverpool, who were considered favorites, but when Madrid plays the Champions League it is as if they smell blood, they kill all their opponents. Very happy, really,” said Michel Barceló, a member of the Real Madrid supporters club in Havana, who watched the game at the Habana Libre hotel.
The Salón de los Embajadores of the Hotel Habana Libre is one of the sites that traditionally broadcasts the finals of the Europa Champions League. This year the capacities were sold by reservation at 600 pesos, with two drinks and a sandwich included.
“It is good that the matches are being put on again – in Habana Libre. This is like our Champions house, we always meet here. When they put on –the matches– on national television, I came [el presentador] Héctor Villar and a broadcast was made with the people of the rock. Anyway, it’s still a party, and the important thing is that the team won. There are 14, twice as many as AC Milan, which is second with the most Champions,” said Víctor Manrique, another supporter of the supporters club.
In other hotels, such as the Meliá Cohíba, the price of tickets reached 10,000 pesos per person. However, capacities were sold out days in advance. To follow the game live, most fans had to resort to the chronicles that the specialized digital media published minute by minute.
“I toured half of Havana but all the places were closed due to capacity, I couldn’t watch the game,” said Abel Roca, a Real Madrid fan. “You had to book in advance, but the tickets in several places were so expensive that I didn’t think they would sell out.”
As Adrián Cejas explained, in previous years private bars required minimum consumption. With 10 CUC, five to six beers were consumed in the approximate two hours that a soccer game lasts.
“But now if you are not consuming constantly you have to get up and go, and with 2,000 pesos it is not enough. Locate yourself, a beer is worth 250 pesos and a plate with eight croquetas costs 300. Unattainable for many like me, “lamented Cejas.
Several bars took advantage of the opportunity and advertised promotions to attract a good number of customers. One of them, Bar 2.45, in Playa, received the signal from Spain with the moderation of the journalist Héctor Villar and the Guinness record holder for mastery of the ball Erick Hernández, regular entertainers of the sports programs on Canal Habana.
Leodán Despaigne, who attended the 2.45 broadcast, described that “it was wonderful, but – he said – you have to be aware of reality and very few people can spend the 6,000 pesos that I had to consume there. The fair thing would be that next year they start putting the games on Tele Rebelde again, so that everyone can enjoy them and support their team.
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