Madrid - The Spanish football federation on Friday confirmed that the King's Cup final will be played in Valencia's Estadio Mestalla and not moved to a bigger ground.

The federation said in a statement that that Mestalla was chosen for the May 13 fina at the request of Valencia, as part of the celebration of the club's 90th anniversary.

Both finalists, Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona, had been considering asking the federation to change the venue to a bigger stadium - such as Real Madrid's Estadio Bernabeu - in order to satisfy the demand for tickets from their fans.

Bilbao reached the final, their first since 1985, on Wednesday by beating Sevilla on a 4-2 aggregate. Barca came through 3-1 against Mallorca.

Most of the Basque and Catalan media were in favour of changing the venue, in addition to Madrid sports daily AS.

According to the media, around 30,000 fans from each club would like to buy tickets for the final.

The capacity of Valencia's Estadio Mestalla, which was inauguarated in 1923, has been reduced from 65,000 to 53,000 in the past few years.

It was due to be demolished in 2010. Valencia planned to move to a new 75,000-seat stadium, but construction of the new ground was suspended last week due to the club's serious financial problems. (dpa)