Football
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Real Madrid chief reveals naming rights deal for Santiago Bernabeu

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has let slip that the club's stadium will soon be renamed as either the IPIC Bernabeu or Cepsa Bernabeu.

In late-October, Perez announced a new strategic alliance with Abu Dhabi-based IPIC (International Petroleum Investment Company) to help facilitate the 400 million-euro project to redevelop the current Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, although nobody at the event was prepared to talk about the details of the arrangement.

However, during an event to announce another sponsorship deal with Microsoft at the stadium on Tuesday, cameras for TV panel show El Chiringuito caught the Blancos chief revealing the plan to Community of Madrid minister of education and sports Lucia Figar.

"We will put IPIC Bernabeu or whatever they want...or Cepsa Bernabeu," Perez is seen as saying.

Renaming the Bernabeu is a sensitive issue for Blancos fans and pundits, however, Perez has said in the past that the stadium could get a "surname" as the club need to raise funds in some way to pay the construction costs.

IPIC is owned by the Abu Dhabi government and controls Spain's biggest oil company Cepsa, which has filling stations all over the country.

While nobody has confirmed the deal, AS reports that Madrid will receive three million euros a year until the new Bernabeu project gets the green light to proceed, and 20 million euros a year from that point on.

The unusual structure is required as the construction plan is currently held up by different legal issues, including a European Commission investigation into a land-swap deal with the local government, and an objection by local environmentalists.

These issues have complicated Perez's plans to have the new stadium, which is to feature a futuristic skin design and expanded VIP and retail space, fully completed by 2017 as originally announced.

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