LALIGA is set to bring the excitement of the Madrid Derby to Soshanguve this weekend as the second edition of the Madrid Derby Fan Festival combines community football, entertainment and a live viewing experience.
The festival, taking place at Shaka Stadium, will culminate on Sunday with the live screening of Atlético de Madrid’s clash with Real Madrid at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano. The Madrid Derby is scheduled for 20 September at 16:15 local Spanish time.
Speaking ahead of the festival, LALIGA Marketing and Communications Manager Swazi Bisset said the initiative is designed to take the league beyond television and digital platforms and bring it directly into the communities of its supporters.
The Madrid Derby Fan Festival is a concept of LALIGA where we use it as a tool to engage with our fans over and above the live games that they get to watch on TV,” said Bisset.
LALIGA has partnered with Shaka Sports to bring together eight local teams for an expanded community football tournament, with the fixtures serving as an exhibition ahead of the derby watch party.
The tournament has grown from four teams in its inaugural edition, with Bisset saying the strong community response last year encouraged LALIGA to return.
What we thoroughly enjoyed of the experience and what inspired us to come back was the community support, the willingness of these teams just wanting to be part of a social game,” she said.
Bisset said the festival is also intended to give community clubs greater exposure and an opportunity to tell their own stories.
Basically, the clubs that are now part of this season’s tournament get to tell their own stories. You know, it’s about building their own reputation and being the only team that gets to be successful within a LaLiga-organized event,” she said.
She added that the initiative reflects LALIGA’s desire to engage directly with the communities that make up its South African fan base.
Our audience is actually very much from within these communities. We wanted to be close to the people, the demographics that are actually watching our product,” Bisset said.
The tournament will feature participating teams representing some of LALIGA’s biggest clubs, with the local sides adopting the identities and kits of clubs including FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Real Betis.
According to Bisset, this will form part of the build-up to Sunday’s derby, allowing supporters to experience a localised version of the LALIGA matchday atmosphere.
We’ll be living our own Metropolitano experience, but only in Soshanguve,” she said. “That’s what’s so unique and what we love about these initiatives, just to have our community coming together with the brand itself.”
The festival will also provide exposure for the participating community clubs, with Sunday’s matches set to be livestreamed.
Bisset highlighted Shaka United’s longstanding connection with Soshanguve and said the tournament could help provide greater recognition for clubs competing in local football structures.
It would be amazing to also see them propel and exceed into bigger leagues. And that’s what we want to do. It’s also more recognition for them,” she said.
Beyond the football, LALIGA says the festival will include entertainment, fan engagement and other activities designed to create a broader matchday experience.
For Bisset, however, the biggest measure of success will be the connection created between the global LALIGA brand and the local football community.
When the final whistle is blown on Sunday night, when everybody’s leaving Shaka Stadium, what would you like them to remember about the experience?” she reflected.
Her answer was ultimately centred on bringing people together around football and creating an experience that extends beyond watching a match on television.
The festival’s community tournament will lead into the live viewing of the Madrid Derby, with Atlético Madrid hosting Real Madrid in what LALIGA describes as one of the defining rivalries in Spanish football.
For Soshanguve’s football community, the weekend offers an opportunity to see local football share the stage with one of the biggest fixtures on the global football calendar.