Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images
Barcelona’s home match against Las Palmas falls
on the day when the region’s secessionist leaders have vowed to defy
authorities and hold a disputed referendum on independence from Spain.
The Spanish government calls the vote illegal
and has ordered a crackdown to stop any ballots from being cast,
sparking protests in the streets and universities.
The dispute has increased tensions in the proud
and prosperous region to fever pitch – and Barcelona’s Camp Nou Stadium
will be no exception.
“It won’t be a normal day, it will be a
historic day for the country, but we have to treat the football match
like any other,” Barcelona vice president Jordi Cardoner said. “We will
carry the Catalan flag’s (red and yellow) colors on the collars of our
shirts and in our hearts.”
Europe’s largest stadium at nearly 100,000
seats, Camp Nou has become a rallying point for Catalan nationalists in
recent years with the boom in support for a break from Spain that polls
show has reached roughly half of the region’s 7.5 million residents.
Spain’s King Felipe VI met with deafening jeers
at Camp Nou at the final of the Copa del Rey in 2015, and the chants of
“Independence!” that are a fixed feature of every home match are set to
be at maximum volume come Sunday.
Given the super-charged atmosphere, the club has called for calm and for the spirit of sport to prevail.
“We are not uncomfortable with the date of the
match. It’s an important day for Catalonia and the interests of Barca
have to be compatible with the majority of Catalans,” Cardoner said. “I
believe that each one of our members and fans can express whatever they
want, but we ask them to do it respectfully. We are focusing on the
competition. We all want to win the match.”
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique is also giving advice.
“From today until Sunday we will express
ourselves pacifically,” Pique tweeted on Thursday. “Don’t give them any
excuse (for a crackdown). That’s what they want. And sing loud and
clear.”
Pique and the rest of Barcelona’s players have
good reason not to get distracted by the whirlwind of politics and
police activity. The team is on an eight-game winning run, leads the
league, and holds a seven-point advantage over fierce rival Real Madrid
in sixth place.
Barcelona’s football club became identified as
a bastion of Catalan culture during the repressive years of Gen.
Francisco Franco’s dictatorship from 1939-1975, when the Catalan
language, which is spoken alongside Spanish, was banned from schools and
public use. Its slogan “More than a club” has come to mean for many its
commitment to Catalonia.
In the past four decades Catalonia has gained a
large degree of self-governance and boasts one of the strongest
economies of the southern European country. Still, many Catalans feel
disrespected by the central government in Madrid and complain that they
pay more in taxes than they receive back in public spending.
Barcelona’s rivalry with Real Madrid carries
political overtones for many, with “Barca” representing Catalonia and
Real Madrid standing in for the rest of Spain.
Most of Barcelona’s players avoid talking about politics but former player and coach Pep Guardiola has led pro-independence rallies and is an outspoken proponent of Sunday’s vote.
“This isn’t about independence, it’s about
democracy,” Guardiola, the Manchester City manager, said in a video
posted on social media by a separatist grassroots group this week.
Barcelona has openly backed a referendum and
criticized the robust steps taken by authorities to impede the vote that
Spain’s government considers unconstitutional since questions of state
should involve all Spaniards, not just those in one region.
Many Catalans are lukewarm supporters at best
of Spain’s national team, which would lose several key players,
including Pique, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, if Catalonia separated.
Catalonia already has a regional selection
that plays the occasional friendly. It got a huge boost when it was
coached by Dutch great Johan Cruyff, and it has played top-level
national sides including Argentina and Brazil.
Police have decreased the chances of
separatists being able to hold a wide-scale vote, which pro-union
parties have boycotted on grounds that it is outside the law and lacking
in guarantees of transparency.
But Barcelona’s alignment with the separatist
cause is in direct conflict with its desire to remain one of the world’s
most successful soccer teams.
Not only would Barcelona run the risk of
alienating supporters across Spain, the big fear is the potential flight
of its top stars, led by Lionel Messi.
Spanish league president Javier Tebas and
Spain’s Higher Council of Sport have repeatedly warned that Barcelona
and the other football clubs in Catalonia would be out of La Liga if the
region seceded.
Tebas recently said that Barcelona would be in a Catalan division that “wouldn’t be much better than the Dutch league.”
No comments:
Post a Comment