A “Spanish” “National” Team?

I find it hilarious when people (clueless and naïve people mostly) claim to be offended whenever someone, anyone, makes a suggestion that “Catalonia is not Spain”.  Whether it’s someone simply speaking Catalan, like Andrés Iniesta is doing now on Facebook (the Spaniards who are upset about this make me laugh more than anything else; he can use as much English as he wants, but  he use Catalan which is a similar language to Spanish and therefore not that hard to decipher if you’re reading it on the internet), with the case I mentioned back in my “Visca Catalunya Lliure!” post in February with the coach who walked answer a question in a press conference because he refused to answer a question he was asked in Catalan in Spanish, or, more recently, with the comments that Gerard Piqué, a player for FC Barcelona, allegedly made after the clàssic two Saturdays ago at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid claiming that on Wednesday (last Wednesday) Barcelona was going to win “your King’s cup!”

I’ll concede that, if the statements were true (Piqué denied them over Twitter, and it was Madrid paper Marca which printed them, and they’re not known for being discerning when it comes to the content of their paper, but Piqué could have easily just made the post to save his own arse), they were certainly not made tactfully.  But at the same time, why are people offended?  Is it because of how he said it…or is it because of what he said (allegedly)?  Are people offended at the fact that he addressed the crowd at the Bernabéu telling them that Barcelona was going to win a title which they didn’t even believe in (Barcelona, as Catalunya as a whole, was on the side of the República during the Spanish Civil War and thus did not believe in instating any kind of monarchy), or is it because he was being an ass about it?  Maybe it was both?

So let’s say it was both.  A lack of tact can always be rectified.  “I apologize for the way I said it, it was probably the wrong moment and the wrong delivery of the message.”  That works.  As for what was said, well…  I’ll be honest, I laughed.  Not only because I support Barcelona and I enjoy seeing Madrid humiliated in some way, even if it is in word only (they may have gotten a draw out of us, but it didn’t change the fact that we’re still eight points ahead of them in the league), but also because I happen to be a supporter of Catalan independence from Spain.  Therefore, I have no problem with anybody saying “We’re going to win your King’s cup!”  What I find hilarious is the fact that people from Madrid are so incredibly offended by this that their reactions I feel are more noteworthy than Piqué’s alleged comments.

Because let’s be real.  Anyone who honestly thinks that just because there is one Spanish national team that includes Basques and Catalans in it is truly united and represents a “united Spain” is completely and utterly delusional.  I’m not a judge of what goes through these players’ minds, especially since the fact that once they commit themselves to one NT they are not legally able to play for any other officially recognized NT (unofficial is another thing).  But what I can say is, is that if you think that the Spanish NT knows nothing about politics you’d be dead wrong.  You have players like David Villa waving the Asturian regional flag around after both the Eurocup and the World Cup.  Granted, Asturias has no desire to become its own country.  But even so, why is an Asturian flag acceptable, but a player like Carles Puyol shows up with his senyera (not even the estelada, which is the nationalist flag!) and people denounce him for nationalism.  And why is it that Andrés Iniesta is allowed to use English, but as soon as he uses Catalan he’s accused of being a nationalist…when he’s not even Catalan?

Here’s the thing.  I’m so tired of people acting like the Spanish NT is the be-all, end-all of politics.  Everyone has to get along, all the time.  There are no fights.  They are all BFFs.  Politics doesn’t exist.  I’ll admit that as a team, Spain does have tremendous unity.  Club rivalries are significantly blurred, as well as regional politics.  However.  It does not mean that the players are never ever allowed to say anything remotely politics or rivalry-related ever again.  People who complain of the attitudes in the clàssic and argue that Ramos shouldn’t be yelling at Puyol like that (and vice-versa) because they play for the same NT need their heads examined.  It doesn’t matter if they’re friends off the pitch, it doesn’t matter if they play for the same NT.  On this pitch, they are bitter rivals.  And as most of the Barça-Madrid rivalry also has a lot to do with politics, sure, there’s some of that too.  The footballing world does not revolve around the Spanish national team.  Spain’s World Cup win did not all of a sudden make the Catalans or the Basques feel like they didn’t need their own country anymore.  In fact, in a lot of cases, the exact opposite happened, especially since the day before the final there was a march in Barcelona in favor of auto-determination for the Catalan nation.  You can bet your ass that Catalans were not happy when news of their march got absorbed into Spain’s World Cup win the next day and was promptly ignored.  Granted, I disagree with the predominant Catalan technique of “Let’s cheer for whoever plays against Spain” because I think that’s juvenile and obnoxious, though I do understand why they do it (I just disagree with it and don’t like it).

It really was more Madrid’s cup to win than ours.  Were we happy when we won it back in 2009?  Sure.  And with that match we had the added bonus of playing against a team from an area that was just as historically unwilling to win a “King’s cup” as we were with Athletic Bilbao and the Basque Country.  It was beautiful.  It was like a huge “Up Yours” to Spain.  This time around, Madrid got their King’s Cup back (and then Sergio Ramos dropped it in the street, but that’s an aside) and Catalans, among other Barcelona fans, could go home yelling “¡VIVA LA REPÚBLICA!” and maybe throw a “VISCA CATALUNYA LLIURE!” in there for good measure.

I do honestly feel sorry for the Barcelona fans who have no particular affiliation with Catalunya other than it’s the autonomous region where their favorite football club has a home base.  But I also think that it’s incredibly naïve of them to demand that politics not play a role in the club.  Ideally it would be wonderful, but one of the reasons why Barcelona is so heavily into the whole Catalan nationalism thing is because FC Barcelona is the perfect vehicle to introduce people to Catalunya as a country and as a culture.  Barça talks.  Its anthem is in the Catalan language, it has the senyera on the shirts the players wear.  And should Catalunya be granted sovereignty, Barça could still defend the country with pride.

Football is probably the only sport where, unfortunately, politics will always play a role.