Soccer

Today’s the day Valencia CF has finally resumed their long-awaited works of the Nou Mestalla venue when construction was suddenly stopped due to financial problems coupled with ownership changes since 2009 having originally promised to get things done throughout the last decade.

But hey, following a host of revisions even as realistic as possible through ways and means, Valencia sought some much-needed funding lately from Goldman Sachs with their refinancing deal as well as La Liga’s minority shareholder CVC.  

Now it’s on the club to turn this around from an abandoned field into a state-of-the-art stadium that everyone has been long waiting for having first announced their plans to move from their still current Mestalla venue nearly 20 years ago (2006).

Yes, have heard a few times about Nou Mestalla being able to host the World Athletics Championships by building a large surface over the lower-tier stand in order to make an oval running track and then break it down by going back into football mode once it’s over – take note of that West Ham with their London Stadium from the 2012 Summer Olympics as they can still host Athletics but maybe make the permanent lower-tier structures more closer to do with Football.

However, it’s still too way early to say other than a bare-bones like structure they’ve built so far between 2007-09; if so, the earliest they could do is years after the FIFA World Cup during the 2030s.

So much has been happening since then but good to hear that Valencia CF is still on track in spite of their current league position (19th) as well as their poor owners who doesn’t seem interested in this project by choice but decided to finish off the project anyway out of necessity where die-hard fans still want Peter Lim and his group to go home in Singapore.

Not only the machines have now arrived back into the half-built building, the club also unveiled a logo for the new stadium itself including a 3D model version too for those who want to see it and it’s free of charge anytime between 9-5 weekdays.

Then we’ll see once the works are finally done by the summer of 2027, we could see Nou Mestalla being named one of the final venues for the co-hosted 2030 World Cup by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

It’s still early days yet again but at such a crucial time when there’s a World Cup around the corner, Valencia has taken the first step once more with a still a long way to go before they can feel like home at Nou Mestalla in the hope of challenging Real Madrid & Barcelona for silverware domestically again + European Football.

Valencia CF may be rock bottom right now in this La Liga season so far down in 20th ahead of their next match v Alaves not too long from now, but at least they will finally be able to resume works of their half-finished Nou Mestalla stadium (the one is still sitting there over the past 15 years that dates back to 2009) starting Friday January 10th. This credit comes after the club’s refinancing structure with Goldman Sachs that was struck a few months ago, who will give them half of the €325 million euros, in order to finish the works just 30 months between now through June 2027.

Then it remains to seen even if Nou Mestalla finally comes into life & move there at some point as to whether or not Valencia can host some of the 2030 FIFA World Cup games where Spain is sharing it as co-hosts with Morocco and Portugal.

First of all, it’s sad to see Valencia sunk this low who was once a dominant force in this competition and across Europe back in the early 2000s to now trying to just stay up at the bottom half of the league.

If Valencia lose to Alaves later tonight, we could see the last of Ruben Baraja as head coach irrespective of the board management situation. Regardless of that, glad to hear that Nou Mestalla can be saved with construction workers now allowed to arrive back at the building & finish things off not too long from now rather than knocking it down for something else that isn’t to do with the club. It would be such a pity if this has happened but again, they’re good to go – as long as board politics don’t stand in their way once more like it was before.

Let’s hope they can make the most of the next 30 months that will benefit the club’s full potential including surrounding places like bars, restaurants and mixed-use businesses in the Benicalap area as well.

Time will tell as everyone will be keeping a close eye on this even if Valencia is not able to stay off relegation and had to play the second division competition next season. See West Ham who was once relegated from the PL back in 2010-11 down in 20th, spent a season in the Championship and got that promotion back via Play-Offs, and now have been established back in the top-flight since then including a move to the Olympic Stadium over time back in 2016 despite its drawbacks & yet they’ve also won a European club trophy (Conference League). If West Ham could do it with bad owners, why can’t Valencia – although the ownership could change at some point.

Update on the Valencia v Alaves game: This turned out to be a much-needed draw thanks to Diego Lopez’s last-gasp goal that secured their 2-2 draw right before full-time at the 98th minute. There’s still a long way to go though just four points off the bottom three in 19th.