Editing Mérida, Spain (section)

==Sport==
[[Mérida AD]] is the principal football team of  the city, founded in 2013 as a successor to [[Mérida UD]], which itself was a successor to [[CP Mérida]]. The last of these teams played two seasons in Spain's top division, [[La Liga]], in the late 1990s.

All three clubs played at the city's 14,600-capacity [[Estadio Romano]]. On 9 September 2009, it hosted the [[Spain men's national football team|Spanish national team]] as they defeated Estonia 3–0 to qualify for the [[2010 FIFA World Cup]], which they went on to win. Mayor of Mérida Ángel Calle said, "We want to use the Estonia match to promote Mérida and Extremadura, we will welcome the players as if they were 21st-century gladiators."<ref>{{cite news|last=Rogers|first=Iain|title=Spain's '21st century gladiators' do Merida proud|url=http://blogs.reuters.com/soccer/2009/09/10/spains-21st-century-gladiators-do-merida-proud/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090915195531/http://blogs.reuters.com/soccer/2009/09/10/spains-21st-century-gladiators-do-merida-proud/|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 September 2009|access-date=24 January 2014|newspaper=[[Reuters]]|date=10 September 2009}}</ref>