The football club Dragones de Lavapiés, known for its inclusion and community engagement work in the multicultural neighborhood of Madrid, is experiencing a "sports emergency" due to a lack of facilities. The main field, located at Embajadores, 18, has been closed for months due to works by the Madrid City Council, and now one of its alternative venues, the pitches at the nearby Parque Casino de la Reina, is also undergoing renovation by the council.
Juan, a resident and father of an 8-year-old player, laments the situation: "The works on the field were supposed to finish in February, but now they are abandoned and deteriorated." The park alternative, already "not ideal due to its lack of maintenance and insufficient facilities," is now compromised by new renovations. "They are pushing us onto the street. We don't know what will happen in September," he warns.
The works at the municipal sports facility in Embajadores began in September and were halted in November upon the discovery of underground structures from pre-existing buildings. Sources from the Municipal Board of the Centro district report that they will resume after the summer, with an estimated duration of five months, likely concluding in 2027. The renovation includes ground consolidation and enclosure improvements, as well as a storage area for users.
Dolores Galindo, the club's president, emphasizes the importance of the Embajadores space as "the most emblematic space, our symbol," where teams such as mothers', homeless individuals', or amputees' teams have emerged. The club provides access to sports for approximately 600 players, many of them minors, through work recognized by the Superior Sports Council, LaLiga, and FIFA.
Galindo expresses the "feeling that they want to change or erase the footprint of football for equality and progress," recalling the support from the Ministry of Equality for their project. "It's a footprint they don't want to remain," she states, concerned about the situation of 400 minors and the "degraded" state of the space, "without bathrooms, with rats, and with excrement."
Regarding the works at Casino de la Reina, the Municipal Board indicates they will take place during the summer. The club is requesting the City Council to lend them school facilities in the afternoons due to the "alarming scarcity of sports facilities in the center."
The president questions the lack of institutional support for a "community management" project, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). "In September, we will only be able to guarantee children's access to sports if the neighborhood schools help us," she concludes, appealing for assistance in this "sports emergency."
Families from the neighborhood have launched a campaign to request a schedule for the site's works and to ensure its continued public-neighborhood management, defending the club's "organic growth" and its "integration into the neighborhood."
