Real Madrid are looking to completely renovate the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and it appears that it will include a facility for esports.
In a new video that was uploaded by the Spanish football club, which highlights the new features of the proposed stadium, it’s clear that there will be an area that accommodates gaming.
Upon further inspection, the clip shows two League of Legends teams – Furious Gaming and Isurus Gaming – battling it out, but the game being played is FIFA. Now, this could be hinting at the club’s presence in both of those titles or it could just be a huge coincidence. It’s worth noting that many football clubs choose to enter the industry through FIFA since it’s a natural expansion of their native sport.
The European League of Legends competition EU LCS is currently in the consideration period for accepting partners for its new franchising system. There has been no word of Real Madrid being one of the properties looking to enter the league, but it would be a good time for it to do so – especially with rumblings of several football clubs being involved in the process.
In May of this year, there was a fake post made on Weibo that claimed that Real Madrid would be entering esports through FIFA Online 4, a free-to-play take on FIFA that was built for the Asian market. This development was quickly denied by the club itself and there has no been official word on any expansion as of writing.
Esports Insider says: This isn’t concrete evidence of Real Madrid entering esports in terms of competing, but it’s undeniable that a space for gaming is in the club’s plans when it comes to its new stadium. With reports of seven clubs being in talks with Riot Games about entering the EU LCS, Real Madrid fans will be crossing their fingers a little tighter after this development.