Real Madrid To Play In Albania On Wednesday

It's being nicknamed the Oil Cup, but Real Madrid may be about to pick up a trophy even before Barcelona in 2010. In fact, as early as Wednesday night. The Spanish giants are heading off for a bizarre trip to Albania on Wednesday to play in a one-off match for the Taci Oil International Cup.

The match was supposed to have taken place over the winter break, but did not go ahead then. Instead it now comes in midweek at the mid-way point of La Liga after a weekend in which Los Blancos saw Barcelona stretch their lead at the top to five points, following Real's loss to Athletic Bilbao.

And well may some question the wisdom of playing a friendly game at such a time. But the game will net the club an incredible €2 million for just 90 minutes' participation. The match has been organised by Rezart Taci, the multi-millionaire owner of the Taci Oil company, who wanted to see Real Madrid and their superstar players playing in his home country. Real will take on a team from Albania.

Madrid's travel schedule is a hectic one. The club will leave the Spanish capital at 9am on wednesday morning. The match will then take place at 6pm in the evening. Straight after, the team will fly back to Madrid and are not expected to land back in Barajas until early on Thursday morning. There will be a training session on the same day as preparation gets underway for this Sunday's clash at home to Malaga.

Unsurprisingly, eyebrows have been raised about the decision to play such a game at this time. Critics of the club president, Florentino Perez, who is expected to accompany the team, will use this game as an example of Perez making decisons for the sake of marketing and money, rather than for football reasons.

Part of the deal is that the club's top stars and all the big summer signings put in a shift. Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema and Alonso are all expected to feature. Madrid fans, who are unlikely to be glued to their radios or frantically searching television channels to watch the game, will no doubt be hoping that none of their key players picks up an injury. But at least some can see the humourous side of it all, as one fan quipped: "Barca may have won everything else but we're coming home with the Oil Cup!"