Barça to play benefit game in Igualada

The mayor of Igualada, Marc Castells, has announced today that Barça have made a commitment to play a benefit match in order to raise money for the ‘Consorci Sociosanitari Igualada (CSSI)’. Therefore, when circumstances permit, Barça will pay a visit to the Les Comes stadium to face CF Igualada to help the CSSI, an organisation formed by the Igualada City Council and the Social and Health Service of Catalonia and which offers social and health services to older people and those who are dependent in order to improve their quality of life and the independence. Helping those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19, the CSSI offers this service in the areas of Igualada and Anoia. 

The announcement by Mayor Castells came during his daily press conference on the development of the coronavirus in one of the areas most affected economically and socially. The mayor stated that Barça had accepted the request made by the president of CF Igualada, Francesc Jorba, who was beside him at the press conference. “CF Igualada, together with FC Barcelona, would like to present to you this initiative which we greatly appreciate and I hope that it will provide excitement and make us aware that we are not alone; that there are many people outside of the Conca d’Òdena who love us and who are looking after us,” said Castells. He continued: “In moment like this you always find people who give you support, ideas and a vision and help to being you good news for when all this is over. Everything that is happening has an end point and as my grandfather used to say, when it has rained it has stopped raining.”  

Castells explained that the blaugranes accepted the idea straight away in a telephone call on Wednesday evening. “Yesterday I had the chance to talk to the president of FC Barcelona and his first vice president Jordi Cardoner, whose family comes from the area of Igualada and he told me that we could make the annoucement in a council meeting at Igualada together with the mayors form the rest of the area of Conca d’Òdena.”  

Francesc Jorba, president of CF Igualada, gave more details of how the initiative came about. “A few days ago the sporting committee at Igualada came up with the idea and they asked me: why don’t we contact Barça to see if they would like to play in a benefit match to help the health services in Igualada and la Conca? We sent an e-mail and we quickly got a positive respones and yesterday president Josep Maria Bartomeu phoned me. Duing the conversation he put the Club at our disposition and he was very worried about the situation in Igualada and la Conca. He said that the game between CF Igualada and FC Barcelona would be possible to raise money for the CSSI. We want to thank them for this ray of light in a moment of darkness and rain. Now we can see the sun coming out as it always does.”