Neighbours discovered that the stadium was operating under a 2001 licence, long before the renovations that transformed the Bernabéu began

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Neighbours of the Santiago Bernabéu complain that the stadium is operating without a current operating licence

The brand new Santiago Bernabéu, recently refurbished and witness to major sporting and musical events, is now facing a legal controversy involving its operating licence. According to recent revelations, concerts and matches held at the Real Madrid stadium this year may have taken place without the necessary permits. The complaint, driven by the Asociación Vecinal de Perjudicados por el Bernabéu, points out that the facility lacks the updated licence for its use following works that have been taking place since 2019.

The conflict began when the neighbours, tired of the noise and inconvenience caused by the events, decided to investigate whether everything was in order. What they discovered was surprising: the stadium would be operating under a licence from 2001, long before the ambitious renovations that transformed the Bernabéu began. This permit, expired and limited to a part of the stadium (the third level of stands in the south end), would have been used to authorise concerts held between April and September 2024, and not only sporting events.

The issue was not just a matter of complaints. On 9 October, the neighbours, represented by a lawyer, filed an appeal in the Madrid courts claiming that the stadium does not have the necessary operating licence for events of any kind, neither musical nor sporting. 

 The court, while admitting part of the complaint, only for an alleged environmental crime, has ruled out for now the crimes of prevarication that the complainants attributed to the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and the Delegate of Urbanism, Borja Carabante.

The residents are not giving up and have requested that the court reconsider its decision and reopen the case against the municipal authorities, arguing that they have new information that could implicate Almeida and Carabante in a possible crime of prevarication.

The underlying problem is that the works at the Bernabéu, which began in 2019, are still not completely finished. Fences, machinery and construction material are still present in the streets near the stadium, which, according to neighbours, shows that the refurbishment has not been completed and therefore no new operating licence should have been granted.

In fact, Madrid City Council has not yet issued the necessary permit to ensure that the renovations meet all safety, environmental and health standards. Without this licence, the complainants argue, the stadium should not be allowed to be used for either football matches or concerts, a situation that has been ignored for months.

One of the most controversial developments in this complaint is the suspicion that the Community of Madrid, the administration responsible for authorising the events in the city, may have been misled. The neighbours claim that, after requesting access to the documentation submitted by the organisers of the concerts, they discovered that the document used to obtain the permits was the old licence from 2001, without mentioning that the stadium had undergone a major renovation since then.

The complainants argue that, with this obsolete licence, the organisers allegedly misled the Community of Madrid, which granted the permits under the belief that everything was in order. Now, the neighbours are calling for an investigation into whether there really was an error on the part of the Community or whether they acted in the knowledge that the licence was invalid, something that could also lead to legal liabilities for the officials involved in the process.

For the moment, the case is in the hands of the courts, and the outcome is uncertain. What is clear is that the situation at the Santiago Bernabéu has generated a new front of controversy, adding to the usual complaints from neighbours about the noise and the impact that the events have on daily life in the neighbourhood.

Real Madrid, for its part, has not made any public statements on the matter, nor has Madrid City Council officially responded to the Neighbourhood Association's accusations. Meanwhile, both neighbours and authorities are waiting for the courts to determine whether irregularities have been committed in the use of the stadium and whether, indeed, the Bernabéu has been operating without the necessary licences since work began in 2019.