Every major European league has a version of the FA Community Shield and each one has interesting little differences. In Spain, however, the differences are much more pronounced.
For one, it is played in Saudi Arabia rather than in Spain. This is something the Italian version, the Supercoppa Italiana, has also started doing in recent years. The biggest difference though is that four teams take part with the semi-finals before a final. Rather than just having the league winner and domestic cup winner, Spain use the winner and runner-up in La Liga and the two Copa del Rey finalists.
That means the teams competing for the trophy in Saudi Arabia this season are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Real B*tis. Here is a look at how the tournament works and when the games are.
In terms of how it is decided who will play who, the current La Liga champions take on the Copa del Rey runners-up in one semi-final, and the La Liga runners-up face the Copa del Rey champions in the other. The format changed to four teams back in 2019, meaning it is still a fairly new system.
One of the finalists has already been determined as Real Madrid managed to get the better of Valencia in their semi-final on Wednesday night. Los Blancos took the lead from the spot through Karim Benzema but Lino’s equaliser took the game to extra time and penalties.
Missed penalties from Eray Comert and Jose Luis Gaya meant Real Madrid progressed to the final after winning the shootout 4-3. The other semi-final between Real B*tis and Barcelona is set to kick off at 19:00 GMT on Thursday evening, with the winner taking on Real Madrid on Sunday, January 15 at 19:00 GMT.
As with almost any sporting event in Saudi Arabia, there is a lot of money at play. A lot of anger has been caused by the prize money situation as it will not be divided equally. The Spanish Football Federation already decided that they will give out unequal amounts.
Real Madrid and Barcelona are set to receive €2.8m each, Valencia will get €1.7m, and Real B*tis just €750,000 for taking part. The winner of the tournament will then get a further €2m and the runners-up €1m.
This is different to last season when an equitable model was in place. The winner got €3m, the runner-up got €2m and all four semi-finalists received €800,000.
To put it simply, revenue. Saudi Arabia offered to pay €30m for each edition of the tournament through to 2029. The Spanish federation said muchas gracias and the deal was done.
It is certainly a good move from a financial perspective, but it does represent a turning of the back on Spanish fans who want to see their team try and lift a trophy without getting on an expensive flight.
Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales defended the decision, saying: “We took a game that was forgotten in the middle of summer and made it into an international event.”
You can guess which two teams are at the top of this ranking. Real Madrid and Barcelona lead the way by a huge margin when it comes to the most Super Cup wins in history.
Barcelona are top of the list with 13 wins, the most recent being back in 2018. Real Madrid are just one behind on 12 and will back themselves to draw level this year. They are also the current holders of the tournament.
There is then a huge drop as the next most successful sides are Athletic Club and Deportivo la Coruna with three, followed by Atletico Madrid with two. After that, the likes of Mallorca, Real Sociedad, Real Zaragoza, Sevilla and Valencia have one. That means Real B*tis are fighting for their first ever Super Cup triumph having historically won the Copa del Rey last season.
The good news for those who may not have spotted that these games are happening is that BT Sport are showing them in the United Kingdom. You can settle down for Real B*tis vs Barcelona on Thursday night and then look forward to a potential Clasico on Sunday.
For those in the United States of America, the games can be found on ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, fuboTV and ESPN+.
The four teams involved in the 2022 Spanish Super Cup were Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Club and Real Madrid. Barça and Atleti qualified as Copa del Rey and La Liga winners, while Athletic and Real made it as cup and league runners-up respectively.
The tournament – also played in mid-January – saw Real and Athletic reach the final. Real needed extra time to eventually see off Barça 3-2 as Federico Valverde struck in added time after strikes from Vinicius Junior, Luuk de Jong, Karim Benzema and Ansu Fati saw normal time end all square.
Athletic pulled off a late comeback to edge past Atletico and into the final. Goalkeeper Unai Simon’s own goal gave the then league champions the lead just after the hour mark, but two goals inside five minutes from Yeray Alvarez and Nico Williams put Marcelino’s side into the final.
However, the gulf in quality between them and Real proved too much in the final. Luka Modric curled in a belter from the edge of the box to put Los Blancos ahead before a penalty from Karim Benzema awarded for handball upon VAR assistant put them 2-0 up.
Eder Militao was sent off late in the piece as his handball stopped a goal-bound shot, but Raul Garcia’s effort was kept out by Thibaut Courtois’ giant legs.
Credit: 90min.com
