El Clasico, what’s beyond kicking the ball

First Of all, Pep informed me that “Guardiola Favorite, not the fans’” was my most read article so far on this blog: “there were also several links from other sites to the post, probably people liking the article and then putting the link on a forum saying "hey, check this out, interesting article". ”.

I want to thank you all for your contribution, together we’ll keep going forward sharing the excitement of following the best game in sports, the best league in football, and definitely the best Club and more than a club!

As usual it is a very challenging attempt to try being objective while analyzing a game, but when you analyze a game against Real Madrid, being a Barcelona fan, its more than just a challenge, it’s a mission. I can’t promise achieving that, but I can do my best, because I believe in the fair case of the club I support, so being objective will not affect the true image or interpolate the facts.

The word “objective” for me means writing a well balanced article where we don’t only get obsessed in hitting Real Madrid on the face, but create the most realistic environment that match the environment that will take place in the Camp nuo this weekend.

To achieve that, I picked the historical facts from some reliable sites and I also attached parts of articles written by people who are neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid fans, and of course beside what’s written by the fans of two camps.

I split the preview on two parts:

Part one:"El Clasico, whats beyond kicking the ball" : Where we try to live the emotions the chanting fans of the camp nou live, specially local fans. What make them so passionate, aside of the attractive style of football we reserve its copy rights.

Part two: "El Clasico, the essence of spanish football": and there we talk pure football, discussing the tactics, selections and every other aspect related to this game from an absolute sport angle.



And here we go!

RIVALS FOR EVER!

To warm up before a game like el clasico, its not enough to discuss squads and tactics, not even the media coverage following the event on everyday, and may be every second, bases. That will be good enough for a champions league final may be, but not for a game injected by that amount of passions, emotions and memories, el clasico that represents not only a battle of rivals but also a clash of wells that was documented in history and “immorted” in poetry.

That’s why, and in order to live the event to the extreme, we need to tour back and live the birth of this eternal mêlée.


Socio-cultural and political factors fueling Rivalry culture (Here on Wikipedia)

From the early days of football in Spain the two clubs were seen as representatives of the two rival regions, Castile and Catalonia, as well as the two cities themselves which have moved in different directions culturally speaking. This interesting phenomenon, in sporting terms also has implications that stray deeply into the country's sociology and politics.

Madrid is the seat of the government and of the royal family. Especially during the Francoist era, it came to represent the conservative centripetal forces. On the other hand, almost all the ideas that have shaped Spain's modern history - republicanism, federalism, anarchism, syndicalism and communism - have been introduced in Spain -and become stronger- in Catalonia, namely in Barcelona. Fashions, whether in clothing, philosophy or art, used to enter via Barcelona before they gained greater acceptance in the rest of Spain. . The Real Madrid is the club preferable in Spain ,save in Catalonian.

During the dictatorships of Primo de Rivera and, especially, the one of Francisco Franco, all regional identities were frowned upon and restrained. FC Barcelona became more than a club (més que un club) for Catalonia because of its alleged connection to democratic ideas. On the contrary, for most of the Catalans, and many other Spaniards as well, Real Madrid was regarded as the establishment club. However, during the Spanish Civil War itself, members of both clubs like Josep Sunyol and Rafael Sánchez Guerra, suffered at the hands of Franco supporters.

Soccerlens:

The first clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid might not have taken place until February 1929 but when it did occur, it was already observed as the embodiment of the tensions felt between the two most prominent and culturally contrasting regions of Spain. Barcelona were the representatives of Catalonia, the free-thinking region in the north east of Spain striving hard to gain autonomy and the distinction of a country; Castilian side Real were the manifestation of the Spanish State’s sovereign oppressive centralism.

Immediate to the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War, the rivalries between the two clubs gathered momentum and intensity. The fixture wasn’t perceived so much as a football match as a demonstration of freedom and control. Barcelona became més que un club (”more than a club”, as the Blaugrana’s Catalan motto suggests), a symbol of democracy, republicanism, federalism, anarchism and communism while Real were observed as the Royal club, the club that was always preferred by the Spanish political hierarchy.

William Wilkes in his article “Soccer and The Spanish Civil War.” Wrote:

The Spanish Civil War lasted from 1936 to 1939, ending with the founding of a fascist dictatorship led by the Nationalist General Francisco Franco. The war claimed 500,000 lives...
Barcelona was the epicenter of the republican resistance against the Fascist Nationalists.

Consequently, as a focal point for the population of Barcelona, the city's football club, FC Barcelona, was soon drawn into the conflict .A month after the Civil War began, FC Barcelona's left-wing president Josep Suñol i Garriga was murdered by Francisco Franco's soldiers in Guadalajara.

On 16 March 1938, the fascists dropped a bomb on the club's social club. A few months later, Barcelona was under fascist occupation and as a symbol of the 'undisciplined' Catalanism, the club, now down to just 3,486 members, was threatened with extinction.

After the War, Franco banned the Catalan language and flag. Football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures led to the club having its name changed to Club de Fútbol Barcelona (from FC Barcelona to CF Barcelona) The Catalan flag was removed from the club's shield.

During Franco's reign one of the few places that Catalan could be spoken freely was within the club's stadium.

CF Barcelona spent many of the post war years trailing the Nationalist club Real Madrid. Franco's Government frequently intervened to give Real Madrid an advantage over Barcelona. Most notably in making sure that the great Alfredo di Stefano signed for Madrid and not Barcelona.

In World Football: The Greatest Rivalries: Barcelona Versus Real Madrid, Jon Marum Wrote:

The game described by Sir Bobby Robson as the biggest club game in world football is an obvious place to start when examining the fiercest rivalries around the globe.

FC Barcelona were founded in 1899 by Swiss businessman Joan Gamper just a year after a humiliating defeat for the Spanish army in the Spanish-American war of 1888. With a sense of disillusionment in the declining Spanish Empire, local pride grew provoking a stronger sense of Catalan nationalism. In FC Barcelona, the Catalan people had the perfect vehicle to express their local identity.

These sentiments of nationalism within Catalonia have not only survived to the present day, indeed time has only served to increase them. The oppressive nature of the Francoist regime toward Catalonia and her people forged a siege mentality within the club and region towards the controlling centrist powers in Madrid. The fact that Franco’s team was Real Madrid only served to intensify the rivalry between the two clubs.

The theory is, therefore, that Barça are the club of democracy and freedom fighting against the fascism and oppression of Real Madrid. As always, the reality is not as clear cut.

Barça fans animosity towards Real Madrid properly started in 1936 when club President Josep Sunyol was murdered by Francoist troops. Every year his death is remembered by FC Barcelona delegates with a not-so-subtle subtext of anti-Francosim and anti Real Madrid. The fact that his assassination had more to do with his affiliation to the Catalan Independence Party than to Barça is overlooked by fans who see him as an embodiment of their cause.

The success that FC Barcelona enjoyed during the years of the Franco regime is also often overlooked, with fans preferring to concentrate on the injustices their club suffered at the hands of referees they believed to have been threatened by members of the Franco regime. In all fairness, there is a long list of blatant cases which prove Barça suffered at the hands of refereeing “malpractice.”

For example in the final of the 1943 Copa del Generalissimo, after winning the first leg 3-1, Madrid defeated Barça 11-1 in the second leg. It is claimed that the referee, in the company of a state official, paid a visit to the Barça dressing room with a gun. Another example of this came on June 6th 1970 in the shape of “The Guruceta Case.” Guruceta, a young Basque referee, produced a string of biased decisions in Real Madrid’s favour in a match at the Camp Nou against Barça. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and provoked a mass riot and pitch invasion. This was an outpouring of frustration and anger at years of injustices Barça had suffered at the hands of the Madrid authorities, the fans taking it as an attack upon their very culture, country and identity.

The Alfredo Di Stefano transfer saga is also a subject which can touch nerve with nearly all Barça fans. They believe that it was the Francoist regime who intervened to bring Di Stefano to Real Madrid, when it had been Barça who had been pursuing the Argentine longer, and who seemed favourites to land him. Again, however, the reality is somewhat different (although that is an article in itself for another time!).

On the Times, Lisa Abend in her article “Barcelona vs. Real Madrid: More Than a Game” Explained:

Under the Franco dictatorship, which suppressed the Catalan language as part of its campaign to create an authoritarian centralized state, the team provided an outlet for the expression of local identity, a place where Catalan flags could be waved and Catalan cheers shouted. And now, at a time when Catalonia has achieved an unprecedented degree of autonomy, thanks to new statues negotiated with the Zapatero government, the Barça continues to symbolize the region's aspirations. "All societies need spaces where they can express their identity," says anthropologist Jordi Josep Salvador, who specializes in the political meanings of soccer in Spain. "That's what Barça is. Its symbols have merged with the symbols of Catalan identity."

The Driving Force Behind Spanish Football

Barcelona and Catalonia have always been Madrid's arch-rivals, both in football and politics, so it's ironic that the club was founded by two Catalans, Juan and Carlos Padrós, in 1902. But even in the early days, Real Madrid was the major club in Spain's capital city and so almost immediately became the motor behind the establishment of football as a major sport in Spain.

In 1903 the club organised the very first Campeonato de España, the forerunner of the modern-day Copa del Rey - the first edition was won by Athletic de Bilbao, by the way, - and at an international level, they also were one of the founding members of FIFA a year later in 1904.

The Long Road to Success:

Throughout the first half century of its existence, Real Madrid weren't as successful on the pitch as either Barcelona or Bilbao - only 9 Copas del Rey compared with Barça's 11 and Athletic Club's 17 and just 1 Liga.

Everything changed in the early fifties, though, after they signed Alfredo di Stéfano - the star of the team that went on to win five consecutive European Cups between 1956 and 1960. Admittedly the club received support from General Franco but it was a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Did Real Madrid become successful because of Franco's support or did the Dictator support them because they were successful?

I tend to favour the latter option, myself. The Regime, which had originally backed Atlético de Madrid, was trying to open up to the rest of Europe and Real's successes came at a perfect time. One of Franco's ministers even described the club as 'the best ambassadors Spain's got'. That's not to say that Franco's support wasn't to the benefit of Real Madrid and the detriment of Barça, but the truth is that the politicians weren't out on the pitch, playing the games and winning the titles.

Spain-football

Why is FC Barcelona 'More Than A Club'? In a nutshell, because the institution represents the hopes and fears of a stateless nation - the Catalans - in a way that no other club in the world does. Because of the feelings of national identity that it arouses, a Barça-Madrid match is much more similar to an England versus Scotland than to a Manchester United against Chelsea
What's more the Catalans' democratic republican view of Spain contrasts sharply with the authoritarian centralism that has typified Madrid throughout Spanish history. So Barça attract the sympathies of people who are 'anti-system' from all over Spain and the world.

So Barça team must not only win but also do it in a style befitting of the nation it represents and woe betide any elected president that is seen to behave in an a way that contradicts the principles of its fan base. Remember Futbol Club Barcelona is one of the few clubs in the world that is owned and controlled by its members.

Under the First Dictatorship:

By the 1920s, Barça had moved to its first decent ground, Les Corts, and was firmly established as one of the top clubs in Spain and Catalonia's representative in sport. This became clear during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-29) when the Catalan language was made illegal for the first time in the twentieth century.

In June 1925 an English ship docked at the Port of Barcelona, and the ship's brass band was invited to play at Les Corts. Ignorant of where they were and the current atmosphere of cultural oppression, the band launched straight into the Spanish National Anthem. The assembled crowd began booing and jeering and arrests were made. The dictator closed Les Corts and banned FC Barcelona from playing competitive football for six months. Almost at the point of bankruptcy, Barça was saved by donations from the fans.

The other side of the Coin

Real Mad in his article 40 Reasons say:

Lie number 2: Real Madrid is Franco’s team:

It has been repeated many times in this forum that Real Madrid is Franco's team. That is as absurd as saying that the Beatles are Queen Elizabeth’s band or that the Roman Forum was Mussolini’s great civic accomplishment. It is one of those rumors that probably started in a Barcelona bar after a loss to Madrid, and was carried home by Dutch people who were drinking too much beer to question the truth of what they were hearing. They probably couldn’t think of anything to ask except which way to the bathroom.

Real Madrid came into being in 1902. It was granted the title of “Real” by King Alfonso XIII in 1920. La Liga was founded in 1928, and in the inaugural year, Barcelona came in first, and Real Madrid came in second. The antipathy goes way back, way before Franco. Real won two Ligas in the 11 years before Franco came to power, in 1932 and 1933. You can’t give Franco credit for that. The Franco years were 1939 to 1975. Madrid hated Franco, and held out against his forces much longer than Barcelona, falling one day before Valencia surrendered, ending the Civil War. It was the capital before Franco, it remained the capital, and as capital, it suffers the antipathy of the provincials to this day.

The tyrant had managed to suppress all of Spain into another dark period in its history, and yet Barcelona routinely won the La Liga title, and the Copa del Generalissimo. During the Civil war, Real Madrid’s president was captured and tortured by Franco’s forces. The fascists’ made repeated attempts to crush Real Madrid and the joy it represented. They were largely in favor of Atletico Aviacion (soon to be renamed Atletico Madrid), the official team of Franco’s air force. The fascist air force bombed Real’s Stadium, and their troops stormed the offices and stole our trophies.

I grew up with the Guardia Civil and their truncated tricorner hats standing for days on my corner if they knew Franco was going to come down my street in the future. People from other towns didn’t have half a clue what it was like to live with his most powerful goons in their neighborhood. They just liked to tell the rest of us that is was them who suffered, even though they were far away from the epicenter of that scrutiny.

The great turning point in the history of Real Madrid was the building of the original Santiago Bernabeu stadium and the signing of Alfredo DiStefano. Real started having incredible success, not because Franco was president, but because they had taken the right steps to build and sell a product that Spain and the world was hungry for. All of us were under their spell, including Franco. But it is just wrong to say that Real was Franco’s team. It was damn near everybody’s team, like the Beatles were everybody’s band, and the Roman Forum was everybody’s ruins.

Here are all the reasons why Real Madrid is the world’s team, and not Franco’s team:
17 Liga titles when he wasn’t in power
9 Copas by Barcelona when he was in power, compared to only 6 for Madrid
2 UEFA championships, over which Franco could not have exerted any control
3 Intercontinental Cups, for the same reason
9 huge honking CL trophies and you all know about those
40 good reasons to never tell that lie again, because someone might call you out on it.



While Trevor move to the extent of wondering:

El Barça, Franco’s favourite team?

The claim that Franco sought to benefit Real Madrid at the expense of FC Barcelona is, along with with half-truths like the banning of the language and blatant lies like the banning of the sardana, a key element in Catalanista victimist mythology, and has been readily embraced by innocents from abroad….

Etcetera. Here, from the notably even-handed Anti-Barcelona.com, is part of the case for the defense:

During the Civil War Real Madrid tried to get away from the front and provide a solution for its professionals by requesting inclusion in the Catalan championship inaugurated on October 4 1936. Given the increase in income this would have meant, all the Catalan clubs participating were enthusiastic, with the exception of Barcelona… [This] earned them the condemnation of all Catalan society, including their own players.

Protectionism. The Barcelona public …, incited by an aggressive press campaign which counted on the collaboration of Juan Antonio Samaranch, resulted in the first displays of sporting terrorism, intimidating Real in their 1943 Cup semi-final away match. Madrid won the subsequent game 11-1.
[...]
The Regime’s team. From the end of the Civil War until the arrival at Real Madrid of Alfredo Di Stéfano, Barcelona was the most successful team… At the beginning of the 60s, Barcelona had a large deficit which it decided to pay off with the sale to developers of the old Les Corts ground. Since it was green belt, the council rejected the scheme but, after losing various appeals, the Council of Ministers, presided over by Franco, gave the project the go-ahead… In 1974 the dictator received the club’s 75th Anniversary Gold Medal.

Mini-charts of the absolute and relative (Real position - Barça position) league positions of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona during the Second Republic and the Franco dictatorship tend to support this interpretation. There’s a fairly clear correlation between periods of repression (40s, early 50s, early 70s) and Barcelona successes, while Real did better during periods of comparative openness (early 30s, late 50s, 60s).

I doubt, however, that evidence will ever emerge of any clear causal connection explaining football results in terms of government policy or Franco’s personal preferences. The closest we will probably get is in the Atlético’s string of post-war successes, when, as Atlético Aviación, it was sponsored by the armed forces. Allegedly. The same Santiago Bernabéu hagiography contains an anecdote from the period. Bernabéu escaped murder by the left and fought with the rebels during the war, but this was not, apparently, always enough:

An ardent Spanish patriot, but politically independent, he always kept Real Madrid safe from meddling by the winning side in the Civil War which was prevented from laying hands on our Team thanks to the truly heroic resolution of Don Santiago. Resolution that could have cost him his life when he stood up to no-one less than General Millán Astray, founder of the Legión Española and comrade in arms of General Franco, whose more prominent “deeds” include having been on the point of shooting dead [the philosopher] Don Miguel de Unamuno at the start of the University of Salamanca’s year and having attacked [tango star] Carlos Gardel. Millán Astray was in the VIP box during a match at the [old] Chamartín stadium when he took liberties with the wife of one of the other guests. When Don Santiago heard of the incident, he went up to the VIP box and threw out Millán Astray, forbidding him from entering the stadium. Millán Astray threatened to have Don Santiago killed and only the intervention of the mythical general Muñoz Grandes, under whom Don Santiago served in the Civil War, prevented our having lost our chairman. This act of Don Santiago, completely inconceivable in post-war Spain, raised him to the status of a true hero. The interference of the winners of the Civil War in Spanish sport caused Don Santiago to have various furious confrontations with the hierarchy of the Franco regime during which he always received the full support of Madrid fans, inhibiting the regime from taking reprisals against him such as forcing him to resign. To Don Santiago politics and football were like water and oil and he never allowed them to be mixed artificially. Another example of the personality of Don Santiago was seen in the sports pavilion (today the Pabellón Raimundo Saporta) during a basketball game between Real Madrid and Macabi from Tel-Aviv. During the presentation Don Santiago took off his golden Real Madrid insignia and pinned it on the Israeli general Moshe Dayan who was proud of being a faithful Madrid fan. This unprecedented act caused the wrath of the government, since General Franco’s regime didn’t recognize the state of Israel and it caused the “eternal hatred” of many in the Franquista hierarchy for Don Santiago.

Federico García Lorca

One of the most inspirational figures in and camp nou Clasico, is by no doubt the Federico García Lorca tragedy, who is Federico García Lorca?

Federico García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theater director. An emblematic member of the Generation of '27, he was murdered[1] by members of the fascist group Falange at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.[2] (here complete life story ).

The story of Lorca's brief life (1898-1936) seems forever fated to begin with his death: ''Federico Garcia Lorca was thirty-eight when anti-Republican rebels in Granada assassinated him at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.'' So begins, almost ineluctably, the introduction to Ian Gibson's rich biography of the great Spanish poet.

Even in the most death-conscious country in Western tradition - where, as Lorca once pointed out, death is the national spectacle - his obsession with the subject was remarkable. In a poem written in New York in 1929, he predicted that he would be assassinated and that his body would never be found. On Aug. 19, 1931, he finished and dated an insistently death-centered, autobiographical play called ''When Five Years Pass.'' Five years later to the day a fascist death squad executed him and dumped his body into a common, unmarked grave.

In 1934 his friend Ignacio Sanchez Mejias returned to the bullring after seven years in retirement, and Lorca knew intuitively the matador would be killed. When it proved true he told a friend: ''Ignacio's death is like mine, the trial run for mine.'' The matador, he commented, ''did everything he could to escape from his death, but everything he did only helped to tighten the strings of the net.'' (More)

My one cent

Being a Barcelona fan its not hard to guess the version of stories I believe, but knowing how many topics I will discuss in this article, I am aware I don’t have enough space for starting the debate here, may be later in comments section if needed. So without diving in history, and the two methodologies contribution in civil movement and the promotion of diversity and democracy, I find myself between two options, an option still insist to promote the mentioned values, and another who never “officially” denied being under the wings of the dragon that opposed it, it wasn’t that hard for me to choose, though I respect those who consider football as “just a game” but for me its as J.B. Priestley said – in The Good Companions, 1928 “ To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink.”

I am not Catalan, nor a Spanish. I don't even understand it when someone claim feeling like a Catalan just for supporting Barcelona FC, keep in mind that Espanyol fans are also Catalan. May be the Phoenician (More here and here) touch in my DNA added to thousands of years of culture inherited to carry on my shoulders make me too rooted to where I belong to seek another identity even if just symbolic, But what I support in Barcelona FC are the values promoted through out this temple, those kind of values that cross all borders because it is the bless that promote us as human being to another level, and for that I believe the only club that its reasonable to support outside your surrounding is the club that carry such values, this is how I became a Barcelona fan!

I am not so interested about the Franco vs Catalonia debate as an isolated issue,, I am not even sure if in this era of global world if there is any place for "A state for every nation" Idea, and sometimes national discrimination go to the extreme that it turns to be more like a "Racism with nice attractive makeups", but what I am dedicated to is to support the freedom of having a choice, as an individual or as a group, what I am against is domination by force and whiping diversities, I believe franco was a devil who caused pain all over Spain - not only in catalonia, but through supporting and encouraging clubs to promote the values of Civilization, and to stand in the face of time regecting the claim that we have to forget - even if we forgive- thats how we send the right message to the nowadays francos and for any one who is planning to be a new Franco one day: "Time will never erase your shame, and you will always be immorted in disgrace". That's why Barcelona FC is more than a club for me.

I will wait you in el clasico part two, where absolute football take place!