Fc barcelona is considered the first of the greatest professional football teams - anyone don't call it football abroad usa - teams for the history of this kind of match. Led by the incomparable lionel messi, arguably the best player here, fc barcelona inspires a loyalty to its fans that is almost inseparable from spanish politics. The club is based in the capital of catalonia, barcelona and the local population is extremely attentive to the motto of the club "més que un club" ("more than a club"). Fc barcelona (barça) is indeed more than a club - it is an image and a symbol of catalan nationalism. How she managed to fulfill this role is very exciting, especially at this stage of her history.
On october 1, catalonia voted for autonomy from spain. After more than 2 million citizens of catalonia gathered at the polls in the past sunday, antony transparent png renders they were met by the riot police on the orders of the head of state of spain to stop the vote. More than 900 people were injured in violent clashes, which only exacerbated long-standing political tensions between the catalan region and the key government. Opted for independence, testimonials from catalan officials say, but only 40 percent of registered voters signed up. Thousands of barcelona residents took to the streets for many days of protests and strikes. Even fc barcelona, which stopped all sports on october 3, 2 days later, as soon as it was forced to play a novelty behind closed doors” - in short - in the absence of the presence of fans - through police clashes with separatist protesters outside.
For the people of catalonia, dissatisfied with spanish rule for centuries, this team is a living symbol of catalan pride, and inter-league competition with these teams, like real madrid, can feel like micro-civil wars played out on the portal. Football field.
The crowd of residents of your metropolis at the camp nou sports ground in this city often bursts into cries of "independencia!" At 17 minutes 14 seconds, as the landing page did with the possibility of a 2012 game against real madrid, as shown below. In 1714, catalonia lost its last great war of independence against the kingdom of castile.
Ironically, the team so closely associated with the catalan identity was actually founded by a foreigner, swiss-born hans gamper in 1899 with the help of swiss, german and british émigrés, and with other local football players. In the early years of your existence, barcelona were usually known for saying that they signed foreign players, while all rivals in moscow, espanyol, were fielded almost exclusively by catalan players.
But barça's role as catalonia's "national" team was solidified during the political turmoil that led to the spanish civil war in 1936. In 1935, josep sunyol, a wealthy catalan lawyer and politician, was elected president of barcelona football club. As a prominent public figure on the left in catalonia, sunyol was a strong advocate of using football to advance the cause. A few years earlier, he founded the barcelona newspaper la rambla under the banner "esport i ciutadania" or "the world of sports and citizenship" and wrote scathing editorials attacking the right-wing government in madrid.
When the civil war broke out in spain between the pro-republican left and fascist forces led by general francisco franco, sunyeol stood in his beloved political position as president of fc barcelona. Several players joined the ranks of the left. By september 1936, sunyeol and a number of compatriots went to the front on the snowy slopes of the sierra de guadarrama to illustrate support for the republican fighters, but accidentally advanced into enemy territory. When they greeted the checkpoint of the fascist troops with the cry "long live the republic!" They were pulled from vehicles and killed at a construction site.
"Sunyeol's death can now be seen as a truly defining moment for the club, a desecration of an early stage ideology, cultural separatism, independence, allowing for autonomy," writes phil ball in morbo: a history of spanish football.
The fascists won the civil war and franco became a military dictator who ruled from madrid.Ruthlessly determined to purify spain as a castilian nation.The catalan language was banned, like the euskéra, the basque tongue to the west, and those public celebrations of catalan culture, food, dance, craftsmanship and history.With fresh memories of sunol's martyrdom, the people of catalonia have abandoned their own national pride in fc barcelona.
After the civil war, ramon spaay writes, favor the model presented by understanding football hooliganism, fc barcelona became a sign of an oppressed nation." His supporters have even lashed out at barcelona's local rivals espanyol for starting spelling your name espanyol in the castilian style, which accumulated as "extremely provocative," writes spaay.
Did you deserve espanyol or not, its players and fans have been accused by barça supporters of becoming functionaries of the fascist centralist government in madrid. Barcelona" have become a symbol of two diametrically opposed social, entertainment and political concepts, - writes ball, - catalanism against anti-catalanism, anti-spanishness against hispanism and integration against non-integration. Is undeniable, but it is unclear whether catalonia will succeed in separating from spain and what place it occupies as the youngest nation in europe.It is also unclear what impact the independence of catalonia will have on fc barcelona, playing in la liga, the highly competitive (and highly lucrative) spanish professional football league. If barcelona are no longer considered part of spain, when can they still play properly in the spanish league?
At a press conference on wednesday, barcelona president josep maria bartomeu said, in independence situations, the board of directors will consider the task of moving the team to one of europe's other major leagues, for example the british premier league, adding: "the country does not yet have ... This would be something worth calmly analyzing."
The club can also become one of 11 "non-political companies" that can enter the components of the commission to resolve differences between the catalan leaders and the spanish government. But today it is difficult to say exactly how the political confrontation will end.
This is coolfc barcelona is really more than a football club. Among so on, there are also basketball, handball and hockey teams in the video. It is the next largest football team in the world, and apart from the many professional football clubs, it belongs to its fans.