Question being asked if an 8,000 seater football stadium is another GFA Vanity Project, as misinformation is spread about UEFA

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 Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 12:04

by MARK VIALES
The Gibraltar Football Association wants to extend the capacity of Victoria Stadium to 8,000 seats despite struggling to fill even a quarter of that number. The national association claims, as it did when pushing for the highly criticised Europa Point Stadium project, that UEFA is obliging nations to upgrade existing Category 3 national stadiums to Category 4. However, as was the case back then, a Cat 4 stadium is only required when a nation advances to the latter stages of a competition, which no small country has ever achieved.


What would be the point of obliging Europe’s smallest nations to construct 8,000-seater stadiums, which is the minimum capacity to achieve Cat 4 status? Categories one to four would essentially become redundant and a nation like Gibraltar would be forced into building a stadium that would hold a quarter of its population. The GFA’s argument that UEFA is obliging it to build a behemoth of a structure widely excessive of what is needed, surely to become another white elephant on the Rock, is frankly absurd.
EXCEPTION TO THE RULE
Europe is exceptional in the number of small nations with special circumstances dotted around the continent, which UEFA is fully aware of when it gave membership to San Marino, Andorra, The Faroe Islands and several others. The latest edition of UEFA Stadium Infrastructure Regulations, as well as previous versions since Gibraltar was inaugurated officially into the football family, confirm the governing body’s stance:
“Article 3.04: The UEFA administration may grant an exception to a specific structural criterion in cases of particular hardship and upon reasoned request, for instance owing to the current national legislation or if the fulfilment of all the required criteria would force a club or association to play its home matches on the territory of another association.”
UEFA Stadium Infrastructure Regulations also state that each European competition may involve different stadium criteria to compete, which must also be taken into account. As an example, the minimum stadium requirements for countries to take part in the UEFA Nations League also contain similar rhetoric to allow for lower categories in the early rounds.
UEFA Nations League Regulations 2020/21 Article 27.01 clearly highlights; “Unless stipulated otherwise in these regulations, matches in the competition must be played in stadiums which meet the structural criteria defined in the UEFA Stadium Infrastructure Regulations for the following stadium categories: a. Category 4 for the finals; b. Category 4 for the league phase and play-out matches, or exceptionally category 3 if no category 4 stadium is available.”
UEFA ALLOWS SMALL STADIUMS
Therefore, a category 3 stadium, which requires a capacity of 4,500, is perfectly acceptable so long as no Cat 4 is available, but exceptions were seemingly made for several nations, such as for Andorra. The small nation between France and Spain hosted England in a World Cup Qualifier at its Estadio Nacional stadium, which was built in 2013 with a capacity of 3,306 and an artificial pitch. The official number of fans to watch the 0-5 home defeat stood at 2,285, which is slightly higher than the nation’s average (more than double the population of Gibraltar at over 77,000 people).
There are plenty of existing examples of smaller stadiums in other member countries that function within a lower category and hold a low number of spectators.
OLD ARGUMENT
On April 8 2014, when the GFA appeared before the planning commission with its proposal on a new giant stadium at Europa Point, it was viewed with apathy by the community and eventually forced the national association to go back to the drawing board. During the DPC meeting the justification to construct a Cat 4 stadium focussed on the premise that UEFA was behind the decision. The spread of misinformation at the time by the GFA to the nation included that ‘all other nations’ with Cat 3 stadiums required upgrading to Cat 4.
With regards to the question of which stadium category is required, the GFA said that:
“The GFA requires a category 4 stadium in order to be able to think of the future and the possibility of playing at the highest level,” said Principal Architect Mark Fenwick. “UEFA is now imposing this on all other nations as countries which currently have category 3 stadiums are being asked to raise these to category 4.”
The GFA argue that a Cat 4 stadium would allow for Gibraltar to meet UEFA and FIFA requirements competitions to host competitive matches on home soil. In the past, the association has been found guilty of mismanagement of finances, protection from foreign player overflow in the national league and failing to advance youth development. The Europa point project was dismissed as a vanity project but it seems as though the GFA has somehow come full circle and achieved outline planning permission from the Department and Planning Commission.
With the expansion of Victoria Stadium to 8,000 seats gaining outline planning permission, it nevertheless seems a foregone conclusion that another white elephant will trample on the Rock. Gibraltar will forever struggle to fill such a huge arena and the concept of filling it with away fans will consequently create a hostile atmosphere for Team 54, players and supporters alike. It remains to be seen if the GFA will provide any worthwhile justification to the DPC and to the public at large to pursue such a blatant vanity project.

27-10-21 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR