Heavy brunch for Real Madrid ahead of noon kick-off on Sunday

By Duncan Shaw Nov 5, 2011, 9:32 GMT

Madrid - The players of Spanish league leaders Real Madrid were obliged to eat an unusual heavy brunch on Friday and Saturday in order to prepare for Sunday's noon kick-off against Osasuna.

Spain introduced Sunday noon matches this season in a bid to increase international television audiences for La Liga, especially in Asia, with China the main target.

The Spanish league is competing with the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga and the Italian Serie A for Asian interest and television revenue.

The Premier League introduced early games several years ago, the Serie A has a Sunday noon game since last year.

Until now, the Spanish Sunday noon matches have been relatively unimportant games between midtable or lowly teams. But two weeks ago it was decided that, in order to boost interest in Asia, the Real-Osasuna clash should be played at noon on November 6.

Since that announcement, Real coach Jose Mourinho has been prparing for the game with his habitual thorougness.

On Saturday sports daily Marca revealed that Mourinho obliged his players to eat a heavy brunch - halfway between breakfast and lunch - at 9 am on Friday and Saturday, at the club's Valdebebas training ground in north-eastern Madrid.

According to Marca, the brunch consisted of pasta, rice, chicken and fish. They will have to endure the same unusual routine on Sunday, the day of the game.

The aim of the Portuguese coach is 'the biorythyms of the players (to) be the same at 1200 on Sunday as at 2000 (the team's normal match-time).'

After Friday's brunch, Mourinho gave the players a light training session instead of the usual practice match. No other Liga coach has so completely changed the routine of his squad to prepare for a noon games.

Players in Spain normally have a very light breakfast then a heavy morning training session before going home for lunch.

The Sunday noon matches have been very unpopular with players and fans. Attendances for these games have been low, the performances of the teams have been lethargic and sluggish.

However, all tickets for the Real-Osasuna game have been sold, and the Estadio Bernabeu will be packed to 85,000 capacity, as usual.

Practically never in their glorious history have Real been obliged to play at noon.

Mourinho's team - the mosty expensive ever assembled in football history - have won their last nine games in all competitions and are one point ahead of historic rivals Barcelona atop La Liga.

Osasuna, for their part, are in respectable eighth place but will go to Madrid with an injury-weakened side, with only 16 players fit.

Interestingly, Jose Antonio Camacho, the current coach of China, and formerly in charge at Real and Osasuna, threw a wet blanket over La Liga's bid to increase television revenue in China on Friday.

'Nobody here is talking about the kick-off time of the Real-Osasuna game. It will only be televized if it does not coincide with table-tennis or badminton, which are the principal sports out here,' said Camacho.

Read more about Real Madrid