Liga Fever

Well it’s difficult to talk about football today, but I’ll try my best.  Maybe keep it brief and scattergun, look at the results in general and try not to focus too much on all the stuff that’s been going on in Catalonia. Too much of it in a football-related context can become slightly tedious – I’m aware – but when one of the games this weekend is played behind closed doors because of a referendum/non-referendum (call it which you prefer), then we’ve reached rock-bottom.  So after we get that one analysed, the only way is up. Continue reading “Weird scenes inside the goal-lines”

The dumbest thing that anyone can ever say about Spanish football is that it shouldn’t be mixed up with politics.  Lots of people do say it, of course.  When it’s convenient for them, Spain’s best-selling sport tabloid ‘Marca’ says it (both directly and indirectly), but in sheep-bleating the empty phrase they themselves are being political – of course.   

I became interested in Spanish football precisely because it is so politicised, almost to the extent that Spanish football and Spanish politics are one and the same.  The whole Barça-Real Madrid rivalry reflects the cultural and political history of Spain in a very accurate fashion.  How could anyone deny this?  Sid Lowe has written an excellent book about it (Fear and Loathing in La Liga) and if you look at another book called ‘Morbo’ (not sure who the geek was who wrote it), you’ll find plenty of the same.  And it’s not just Barça-Madrid.  Far from it. There’s enough political bad-will floating around the rest of Spain to keep those particular batteries charged for another millennium. Continue reading “Football and Politics: Spanish Bedfellows”