The Delegated Commission of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) approved this Thursday to take the next edition of the Spanish Super Cup to Istanbul. It will be the first time that the Turkish city hosts the tournament, in which Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético, and Real Sociedad will participate, and which will be held from February 2 to 7, 2027. The decision to take the three matches — the two semifinals and the final — to the Atatürk Olympic Stadium was made after Saudi Arabia, the championship host since 2020, was ruled out as it is the host country of the Asian Cup, which takes place from January 7 to February 5.
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The Federation, chaired by the Galician leader Rafael Louzán, issued a statement in which it affirms that seven different locations around the world were evaluated and that after a “period of work and negotiations” Istanbul was chosen. “With the agreement reached to hold the Spanish Super Cup in Turkey, the RFEF guarantees the continuity of the benefits that Spanish football obtains from holding this tournament, benefits that are directly destined to almost a thousand clubs of all categories, both male and female, in our football,” the text adds.
The body that governs Spanish football signed a contract with the Saudi public company SELA for the Gulf country to host the tournament until 2030. The RFEF obtains about 40 million euros that serve to support the football pyramid from the bottom up despite the controversial exile of the Super Cup in a country governed by an autocratic regime that violates women’s rights, criminalizes the LGTBIQ+ community, applies the death penalty, and imprisons any hint of opposition demanding more freedoms.
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“The Royal Spanish Football Federation has counted during the selection process of the host city of the Spanish Super Cup with the company SELA, which has worked with the RFEF in the development of the tournament since it has been held in Saudi Arabia,” the body led by Louzán pointed out in the statement. SELA is one of the many public companies in which the Saudi regime — along with the sovereign fund PIF, the oil company Aramco, or the General Entertainment Authority — spends millions of euros trying to whitewash its image as a reactionary dictatorship through sport, which in English is known by the eloquent term sportswashing, as repeatedly denounced by human rights organizations. An investigation by the Danish organization Play the Game published jointly with EL PAÍS in December 2024 revealed that Riyadh then had 910 contracts worldwide to improve the external perception of the absolute monarchy of the Saud.
In the 2025 Super Cup, held in Jeddah, several female fans and relatives of Mallorca players were harassed at the exit of the King Abdullah Stadium by Saudi fans after their match against Real Madrid. It was the first major crisis that Louzán had to deal with after being elected president of the Federation. The body opened an investigation into what happened and the country’s authorities apologized for the events. The Balearic Government even sent a formal complaint to the RFEF for the “serious incidents” and urged it to “reconsider” the suitability of Saudi Arabia as the chosen country to host the tournament.
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