If you fancy a real sense of Spanish football passion on a grander scale, a perfect sporty holiday treat is taking the evening off to attend one of the Valencia Cf home games.

Amunt Valencia!
…..so goes the cry of the fans at the huge Stadium in Central Valencia and basically is the local Valencia/Catalan word for “Up Valencia” or even “Valencia To the top”, such is my poor command of the Catalan dialect here, but nevertheless if you are here on the Costa Blanca, and fancy watching a great game of footy, only about an hour and half up the fast AP7 motorway you will find the vibrant city of Valencia.

Valencia football Club, or “F.C. Valencia” in the local lingo, is the 3^rd best team in Spain, so they say, after Barcelona and Madrid, and has featured such famous international players as Antonio Puchades, Faas Wilkes, Kurt Jara, Mario Kempes and more recently players like Juan Mata, Gaizka Mendieta and David Villa.

So if you love watching a good football game then spend a day in the exiting city of Valencia and watch the team play, in fact if you time it right, they do sometimes play English premier league teams too.

Tickets For Valencia Home Games
Valencia plays their home games at La Mestella. A 55.000 capacity all seater stadium with a normally terrifying atmosphere for visiting teams. The average attendance is around 40-43.000 for league games with the big games versus Real Madrid, Barcelona etc obviously pulling the biggest crowds.

In reality the Valencias home games are never sold out and you can simply turn up and buy a ticket at the door. Do not fall for online ticket sellers claiming they have the very last tickets for this or that game at triple the normal price. Check the Valencia Cf website if you want to make sure. You might still want to buy your tickets in advance to be able to comfortably choose your seats and sections in the stadium, again just go to Ticketmaster or Valencia Cfs website.

Tickets for Valencia home games vary in price from game to game according to the opposition. Further, as is customary different parts of stadium have different prices. The lowest category seats start at around 50euros, but you may want to buy slightly better ones to get closer to the action on the pitch.

2012/2013 Valencia CF Home Games in the league
Aug 26 Valencia v Deportivo La Coruña
Sep 16 Valencia v Celta Vigo
Sep 30 Valencia v Real Zaragoza
Oct 21 Valencia v Athletic Bilbao
Nov 04 Valencia v Atlético Madrid
Nov 18 Valencia v Espanyol
Dec 02 Valencia v Real Sociedad
Dec 16 Valencia v Rayo Vallecano
Dec 22 Valencia v Getafe
Jan 13 Valencia v Sevilla FC
Jan 20 Valencia v Real Madrid
Feb 03 Valencia v Barcelona
Feb 17 Valencia v Mallorca
Mar 03 Valencia v Levante
Mar 17 Valencia v Real Betis
Apr 07 Valencia v Valladolid
Apr 21 Valencia v Málaga
May 05 Valencia v Osasuna
May 29 Valencia v Granada

On top of these games there will be plenty (hopefully) of cup games and European matches, but theyre yet to be announced. Take note that the dates announced & kick off times wont be finally confirmed till as late as 10days before the actual games.

How To Find Valencias Mestella Stadium ?
Once you arrive in Valencia, from the main train station in the centre of the city, called Estacio del norte (north station, basically) you can flag a taxi (always white cars with taxi plates), and ask to go to the Mestalla stadium, which will cost you around 20 euros.

Remember the double “l” is Spain is a “Y” sound , so you have to say “Mestaya”.

Also if you find the main city hall, called the “Ayuntimiento” or “Ajuntament”, there are buses that go directly outside the stadium, but check with the bus company before leaving.

And if you plan to make use of Valencia excellent underground (Tube trains), then you take the line 5 (green on the map) from Xativa metro, next to the main train station.

Driving in central Valencia, is NOT for the faint hearted and you would be advised to park up and get on the metro, as above.

Spanish Holidays with a spice of football
There’s nothing worse than being married to a football fan if you are not a fan of the “beautiful game” yourself! Standing on the terraces in freezing cold rain back in the UK, supporting your partner, who supports his or her favourite team is of course always a labour of love.

So when you are on holiday on the Costa Blanca, soaking up the sun, sipping cool Mojito by the pool and reading that novel you brought, which has been sat on the shelf back in the UK, the LAST thing you want to do is to hear about football!

However, if you traveling to Spain with some equally football mad mates, and just couldn’t possible go without watching a game for a couple of weeks, don’t bother about missing home, and checking the internet to try and see the latest scores, because Premier league level action is actually right here on your doorstep in Spain!

Co-writing by local Valencia Author Guy Alexander Bell

You wont find football quite on that level in Javea. The best team in Javea is CD Javea, a sometimes amateur, sometimes semi-pro outfit playing in the league Preferente, which is the 5th best league or somewhat similar to the english conference league. CD Javea has in the past had short spells in the third division above and a few periods with ambitious moneymen and sugardaddys in the presidents office, but always seems to settle around the middle of the preferente league in the end.

These days CD Javea are hard hit by the crisis, similar to many other clubs in Spain.

The consequence has been a pure amateur lineup featuring almost exclusively local players from Javea. In terms of results the difference doesnt seem to be noticable, losing the semi-pro journeymen of spanish football has made room for local youngsters from the Javea Football Academy and what they may still lack in skills and experience is made up for by an eager passion to perform for their local team in front of friends and family.

Below CD Javea in the 6th best league is a newcomer on the Javea football scene. The club Mediterraneo was formed by south american expats living in Javea and has rapidly advanced up through the lower leagues with a squad entirely consisting of local spaniards and expats. One more promotion for Mediterraneo and we will have a proper local football derby in Javea. Just wait, it wont be long.

Both Javea teams play their homegames in the tiny Municipal stadium located on the outskirts of town. It features no roofing and concrete stands – so bring a hat or umbrella if the sunshine is blistering (or in the unlikely event of rain). On the upside the enthusiastic home supporters tend to make for a funny couple of hours of yelling insults in spanish, screaming at the referee and drinking cheap beer in the small café inside the stadium. The crowd is usually a healthy mix of spanish and expats, lead on in the cheering by the fanclub Javeamigos that tends to bring drums, singing and happiness to the stands.

Ok. Football isnt on a high level in Javea, but if you fancy seeing real and unpolished sports with proud locals cheering them on, CD Javea and Mediterraneos games are worth a visit. Both play their home games on sundays – check the local news for specific times.

If you insist you wanna watch some of that famous toplevel spanish football, a trip to Valencia during your holiday in Javea is the obvious choice. The Valencia team tend to be right below Barcelona and Real Madrid in the league and always features some international class players in the squad. The stadium in Valencia is easily found from the motorway signs after a drive of about 1hour from Javea – and you can just turn up and buy a relatively cheap ticket, the giant stadium in Valencia never sells out.