The Villarreal president underlined the importance that the transformation of La Cerámica will have for Vila-real
Villarreal CF president Fernando Roig appeared in front of the media alongside Vila-real mayor José Belloch and César Azcárate, representative from engineering company IDOM, to announce the changes that will make up the important transformation of the Estadio de la Cerámica. The event took place at the El Ceramista Restaurant, with Roig underlining: “It’s extremely satisfying to reach 100 years and have a great stadium in this brilliant town. The city has always improved alongside Villarreal, and this will be the culmination. The match against Liverpool was the culmination of the link between the team and the fans, and this is the culmination between the club, the town. And the province.” Benlloch added: “This is a great day for Vila-real and for the whole province, as the town is intrinsically linked to sport, as possibly the town in Europe with most football pitches per inhabitant.”
Constant growth
As the president underlined, “Villarreal is always growing. We started in the 1997/98 season. During all of the refurbishments, we have never stopped playing at our stadium, but now, the size of the works doesn’t allow it, so we’ve capitalised on having the World Cup this year. In 2005, we did a refurbishment before playing in the Champinos League. In 2009, we reformed the away stand, and in 2017, we unveiled the Estadio de la Cerámica. Later, in 2019, thanks to the collaboration of the Fundación Hortensia Herrero and Mercadona, two sculptures made by Jaume Plensa were installed in the square outside the stadium.” Now, in the club’s centenary, and celebrating 25 years since the president arrived, Villarreal will unveil a spectacular stadium, which will cost between “30 and 35 million euros,” depending on the final cost of the materials.
The club, as well as the company in charge of the project, underlined that the works will start after the last home match of the season, which will take place on Sunday at 6:30pm CEST against Real Sociedad, a match where the president asked for the fans to support the team as they try and get into Europe next season. These works will finish completely before Villareal’s centenary, although fans will be able to enter safely from Matchday 15, the last game of 2022, and the first after the World Cup.
