A friendly match between the Santiago de la Ribera club and Real Murcia Veteranos served to inaugurate and publicly present the stands and changing rooms of the Santiago de la Ribera football pitch, which has been built by the San Javier Town Hall with a total investment of 392,000 euros, of which 59,957 have been financed with European Funds. The work has 230m2 built, with a grandstand for 400 people, 2 changing rooms for sportsmen, 2 changing rooms for referees, 1 technical office, 2 warehouses for maintenance, 8 cages for storing material, toilets for the public and all with LED lighting and solar panels that will optimize energy consumption.
The facilities that complete the football field, located on the plot of the Faculty of Sports Sciences of the UMU, in Santiago de la Ribera, were inaugurated by the Mayor of San Javier, José Miguel Luengo, the Director General of Sports, Francisco Sánchez and the Vice-Rector of Infrastructures of the UMU, María Belén López Morales, in a ceremony which was also attended by the Councillor for Sports, Sergio Martínez, the Mayor, Mauricio Ruiz and the Dean of the Faculty, Jesús Pallarés, along with athletes and guests. The representatives of the three institutions highlighted the good harmony and the degree of collaboration that exists to improve the facilities of the Faculty, which are open to the use of the local population. The football pitch is used by the students of the Faculty as well as by the Santiago de la Ribera F.C. first team and youth team.
The mayor of San Javier, José Miguel Luengo recalled the recent construction of the football pitch inaugurated in 2021, which is now completed with the stands, changing rooms and other services that bring functionality to the facilities. The mayor, the vice-rector for Infrastructure and the general director of Sports, took the opportunity to announce new joint facilities whose works will begin in 2024 as a triple pavilion with training rooms and laboratories among other equipment that will continue with the expansion that the Faculty is experiencing. «These are infrastructures that will contribute to fulfilling the plans of the University of Murcia, which are that in just three academic years it will be possible to increase the number of students from 500 to almost 1,000,» added Luengo.
The UMU Vice-Rector for Infrastructures pointed out that «with everyone’s collaboration we are consolidating the infrastructures» and highlighted the construction of the new pavilion, «which will contribute to increasing the number of students and services, strengthening the university facilities and sport itself». The Director General of Sports, Francisco Sánchez, expressed his confidence that the Faculty of Sports Sciences of the UMU in San Javier «can be the driving force of sport in the Region of Murcia» and assured that «this campus cannot lose a single second in continuing to attract students and future sports professionals», in relation to the new infrastructures that the campus is progressively incorporating with the participation of the three institutions involved.