There were bulls this weekend, and there will be again next weekend. Canal Sur seems to have turned these autumn months into a kind of appendix to the bullfighting season. A gift to the fans, when it was needed most. Opportunities arise from every crisis, and the Andalusian public broadcaster seems to have grasped this when, in a demonstration of their presumption of commitment to the world of bullfighting, they have thrown their hats in the ring and begun to offer more bullfighting celebrations than ever. Without statements or excuses. A gesture as grateful as the project of the National League of Novilladas, which yesterday celebrated its first grand final and which started five years ago thanks to the determination and commitment of the Andalusian Government. Councilor Antonio Sanz, who was behind those first sketches that were drawn together with the Toro de Lidia Foundation in 2019, had insisted that this national competition should have a culmination with an Andalusian accent. And he organized it yesterday in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where he also publicly requested that Andalusia be the permanent venue for the final of this competition. Something like what the remembered Javier Imbroda devised and achieved with the Copa del Rey. A legacy. That was born in our land and that was the breeding ground for what so many other communities replicated later. After five seasons of existence, the data of the National League of Novilladas that was born in Andalusia are irrefutable: 125 novilladas in which 103 novilleros have participated. An example of public-private collaboration between the Toro de Lidia Foundation and the different regional governments. Some data that should make bullfighting employers blush. This project, which was born as a response to the structural crisis of the bullfights with picadors, quickly expanded as an antidote to the abyss of some incipient bullfighters who, after their successful careers as bullfighters, found themselves face to face with the reality of the bullfighting world: the unviable. of their organization to the lack of commitment of the business community. Despite the fateful pandemic, even more virulent in the bullfighting ranks, the Junta de Andalucía maintained its commitment and experimentally promoted a first circuit of bullfights that was born in 2020 in a reduced format. Like any experimental project, it was born with many nuances to perfect, although with hopes that led to redoubling the bet until the consolidation of that prototype. After that first edition, in 2021 the Junta de Castilla y León and the Community of Madrid also decided to promote their own competitions together with the FTL, joining the Junta de Extremadura in 2023 and the Generalitat Valenciana in 2024. The great progress of this course in Andalusia has been the broadcast of all the festivities by Canal Sur, which has served to project and promote the career of bullfighters such as Mariscal Ruiz, whose campaign took off thanks to his victory in this edition of the Circuito de Novilladas de Andalucía and It was sublimated yesterday in what we could classify as the best performance of the entire course. Despite so much good achieved by this project, aspects such as the lack of transparency and criteria of the respective juries continue to be the Achilles heel of the different regional competitions. If the Toro de Lidia Foundation does not correct it, it will end up ruining the commendable efforts of the autonomous communities. Because after a brooch as splendid as yesterday’s, injustices as manifest as not rewarding the bullfighter from Mairena del Aljarafe, the clear artistic and numerical winner of the celebration, should not be committed. Without detracting from the rest, his was the best of the afternoon. It’s time to be self-critical, gentlemen of the Toro de Lidia Foundation.
#removal #bullfighters
