Athletic will play at L’Hospitalet on the 28th after the Sagnier row

Athletic will play the Thursday 28 Copa match between Prat-Athletic at Municipal de L’Hospitalet after the Sagnier stadium was ruled out for not meeting the minimum seating requirements set by the Spanish football federation (RFEF). The game is about five kilometres away and will be on artificial turf, with capacity for roughly 6,700 spectators.

It’s not the first time this has happened nearby: Getxo faced the same issue last year in their Copa game against Alavés. L’Hospitalet also has history with Athletic, because in the Copa fourth round back in 2005 (single-leg), the club ended up playing elsewhere after initially refusing due to the poor condition of the synthetic pitch at the Catalan venue.

That time, on 9 November 2005, Athletic won at Nova Creu Alta (Sabadell) 1-3. Quique Cárcel had put the hosts ahead at half-time, before Yeste and a double from Fernando Llorente completed the turnaround.