Fuengirola town hall allows bullfighting academy to use public school's covered sports court

One local group has reacted saying, "A town which claims to be animal-friendly should not allow or tolerate animal abuse, and much less cede educational facilities to train future bullfighters"

Lorena Cádiz

Fuengirola

Friday, 13 September 2024, 10:45

Fuengirola town hall has signed an agreement with the La Torería bullfighting association that will allow it to use for a period of four years and completely free of charge the covered sports courts of the El Tejar public school.

The council said the initiative will help with the "physical preparation necessary to carry out the training and thus facilitate the creation and implementation of the new Costa del Sol bullfighting school".

As a result, the members of the association and students of the bullfighting school will have the right to use these facilities on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, always outside school hours. Specifically between 6pm and 7.30pm, according to the agreement signed, to which SUR has had access.

The document clarifies that the access is completely free of charge and that the town hall will not assume any costs for the realisation of the transfer. Even so, this decision does not convince everyone in the school's educational community.

Inmaculada Gómez is the president of the El Tejar parents of students association (Ampa) and although she makes it clear that for now she is speaking in a personal capacity (and prior to a meeting of the Ampa board next week to address this issue), she feels that "a school is not the right place for bullfighting practices". "If non-violence, respect for nature, the environment and animals are taught to children in schools, it makes no sense that such a violent activity should take place in that same public space", she said.

Gómez also pointed out that if a public space is ceded for an activity that could be generating economic income, through the students or participants, "the minimum would be that part of that income should be passed on to the school, which needs a lot of repairs".

Even so, she insisted that the activity "is not the most appropriate for a school" and points out that there are many sports facilities in Fuengirola that are not in schools. "It's clear that anyone who doesn't want to sign their children up for an activity like this is not going to do it, but I think that other things could be done that are more appropriate for the sports space of a school."

Fuengirola town hall said that the covered sports courts of the schools "were created so that, outside school hours, they can be used by groups, clubs and associations of Fuengirola to develop physical and sporting activities".

In this sense, it pointed out that the bullfighting association with which the agreement has been signed "is one more group in Fuengirola and these facilities are ceded to them as to the rest of the entities in the municipality that have requested them for the sole and exclusive development of conditioning and physical preparation activities". "It is the groups themselves who programme and manage the participants of each one of them."

The Hacemos Fuengirola group also spoke out on this issue and its spokesperson, José Miguel López, said, "A town of this prestige, which claims to be animal-friendly, should not allow or tolerate animal abuse, and much less cede educational facilities to train future bullfighters."

Bullring

It should be remembered that the bullring of Fuengirola is currently closed after its previous owner, Taurina Victoria, sold it last year for 4.5 million euros to a Swedish investment fund. These facilities, which are located in the centre of the municipality, have compatible uses with commercial, hotel and cultural activities.

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