La Liga Side Eibar In Legal Conflict With Local Monastery

Eibar turns to Pope Francis as conflict with nearby monastery drags on.GETTY IMAGES

La Liga side Eibar "has a problem related to a monastery next to Ipurua stadium," according to Albert Aubach of SPORT. To "unblock the legal process, the club needs the signature of Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic church." He "could give the green light for the monastery to cede meters of its property" so that the club can proceed with renovations to its west stand. The Eibar City Council reached an agreement for the compulsory purchase of the land for €4.5M ($5M), "but a lack of understanding with the head of the monastery has blocked the work," making approval from the Pope necessary. Eibar said in a statement, "For all this time, we have been using the five meters close to the monastery and at no point did we use anything that was not already being used" (SPORT, 10/30).