AS.com

Real Madrid will ask the Spanish Football Federation to hold the Copa del Rey final at the Camp Nou.

The club will put forward the same arguments that the Federation used in favour of holding last year's final between Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabéu: a neutral setting and a stadium with maximum capacity.

If their petition is not accepted, Madrid will suggest that the final be played at the Mestalla in Valencia or the Olympic stadium in Seville (also known as La Cartuja).

Madrid were pressured by the Federation to host last year's final at the Bernabéu but the club were not in favour of seeing their biggest rivals lift the trophy in their own stadium and resisted, claiming that refurbishments to the stadium's bathrooms and stands at the end of the season meant the game could not go ahead. In the end, it was played at the Vicente Calderón, the home of Atlético Madrid, and Barça beat Athletic 3-0 to lift the trophy.

Now Madrid believes the Federation should use the same criteria as last year when choosing where the final should be played, and the Camp Nou is neutral territory and is the biggest stadium in Spain, with a capacity of 99,000 spectators, compared to the Mestalla, which holds 52,000, and the Olypic stadium, which holds 57,000.

Atlético president Enrique Cerezo has already declared that, if Atleti make the final, it should be played at the Vicente Calderón, because the last final between the two Madrid sides, in 1992, was held at the Bernabéu (Atlético won the match 2-0).

In the end it will be the Federation that has the final word. And Barcelona.