This story also appears at WorldSoccer.com
With the Segunda División reaching
its climax in Spain, Girona have a good chance of promotion to La Liga that
would provide Catalonia with three clubs at the top level of Spanish football
for the first time in six seasons.
Ambitious Girona would surely hope to last longer than Gimnàstic
de Taragona, whose stay in La Liga in 2006/2007 lasted a year but there could be a
bigger threat to the ambitions of Catalonia’s biggest football clubs and that
is independence.
Unlike Scotland, no date has been set for any referendum and the
Spanish government has banned a declaration of sovereignty approved by more
than two thirds of the Catalan assembly. Although Catalans securing
independence after nearly 300 years as part of Spain seems unlikely to many in Spain,
the increasingly frustrated parties governing Catalonia could declare unilateral
independence and stage their own referendum.
Any such declaration would make Catalonia more comparable to
Kosovo than Scotland and create problems at international and club level for football,
Catalonia's most popular sport.
Catalonia already has a national team that plays once a year as
part of what Phil Ball in Morbo, his
excellent history of Spanish football, describes as the Café Con Leche (white
coffee for all) deal struck after the death of General Franco.
Under the sporting terms of this agreement, Spain’s 17 regions can
field a representative side during La Liga’s Christmas break. Outside the
Basque Country, Galicia and Catalonia, few regions take up this offer with any
great enthusiasm.
Catalonia’s last game was a 1-1 draw with Nigeria on January 2. Some
Catalans want more regular games for the ‘national’ side but the cost of
persuading the likes of Brazil – 5-2 winners over Catalonia at Camp Nou in 2004
- to play, hiring a ground and other associated costs could easily cost €2
million.
If the Federació Catalana de Futbol (FCF), which is responsible
for organising around 1,500 amateur, junior and women’s’ matches every weekend,
makes a loss that could have major implications for the thousands of amateur
players playing in the region.
So Catalonia’s opponents are usually sides cheap to fly in, like Nigeria, who in January were at a training camp in nearby Lisbon ahead of the 2013 African Cup of Nations. Although Nigeria would go on to win the Cup of Nations in South Africa, Catalonia’s last opponents were seen by many fans as a let-down; certainly from the national teams that Jordi Casals anticipated attracting on taking over as FCF president in 2009.
Casals had grand plans, including persuading big teams before World Cups
and European Championships to use Barcelona as a base for a pre-tournament
training camp. The Catalan capital has impressive sporting facilities – a
legacy from the 1992 Olympic Games – and Catalonia would have provided decent opposition
on the pitch.
As a statement of intent, Casals recruited Johan Cruyff – a former
player and manager at Barca and revered in Catalonia – as national manager
but those plans never materialised. Casals fell out with many people at the FCF
before standing down and being replaced by Andreu Subies.
On January 2, just 27,234 turned up to Espanyol’s stadium say
‘Comiat’ to Johan Cruyff. That attendance was partly due to the opposition and the
game being at Espanyol’s Estadi Cornellà-El Prat rather than Camp Nou – the
spiritual home of Catalan football – but also a reflection on Cruyff’s
selection policy.
Previously, the Catalan selection featured players from Girona,
Gimnàstic and CE Sabadell, a dormitory town outside Barcelona. Cruyff, however,
choose players solely from two clubs. Nine came from Barcelona, including
Gerard Pique, Carlos Puyol and Sergio González, who scored Catalonia’s goal
after three minutes. The rest of the team were drawn from Espanyol. That was
hardly an inclusive selection for a game that was, after all, one aimed at
proving representative of Catalonia.
Barca and Espanyol are the best known Catalan clubs but could face
a particularly testing time if Catalonia wins independence and sets up a stand-alone
Catalonia league.
What that league might look like was established last year when
Plataforma ProSeleccions Esportives Catalanes – a Catalan lobby group that aims
to secure international sporting recognition for Catalonia – asked the
presidents of a dozen leading Catalan clubs to sign an agreement supporting the
idea of an independent Catalonia.
HOW A CATALAN PREMIER LEAGUE MIGHT LOOK?
Club | Founded | Capacity | |
FC Barcelona | 1899 | 98,787 | |
RCD Espanyol | 1900 | 40,500 | |
Girona FC | 1930 | 9,282 | |
Gimnàstic | 1914 | 17,500 | |
CE Sabadell | 1903 | 12,000 | |
CF Badalona | 1903 | 10,000 | |
UE Llagostera | 1947 | 1,500 | |
Lleida Esportiu CF* | 1939 | 13,500 | |
AE Prat | 1945 | 300 | |
CF Reus Deportiu | 1909 | 4,500 | |
UE Sant Andreu | 1925 | 6,557 | |
L'Hospitalet | 1957 | 6,294 | |
*Lérida Balompié-AEM founded 1939 |
At a ceremony led by Artur Mas, president of the Catalan
parliament, Subies and the presidents of the 11 Catalan clubs, including
Sandro Rosell of Barca, Ramon Condal of Espanyol and Girona’s Joaquim Boadas,
signed the agreement. Cruyff and Pep Guardiola also sent messages of support but
Miguel García, president of CE L'Hospitalet and a Spanish nationalist
politician, refused to sign. A putative Catalan league was already down to 11
sides.
Francesc Serra, co-ordinator at Plataforma, which has secured international recognition for Catalonia in minority sports such as darts and Korfball, says: “There is some fear that things might change too much and we might lose the Barca-Real Madrid rivalry. We are telling people of course in the beginning this might be controversial, but after some years of independence it is clear that Catalonia will have what other countries have like Holland.
“Barca have stated they would keep joining the Spanish league, that is a bit clear, but it is not certain what will happen. Of course we will have a Catalan league that is for sure, but in the first years Barca and Espanyol might join this league and the Spanish one, or just the Spanish league. But it does not just depend on that, the Spanish league would have to invite them too.”
An angry split with Spain could prompt the Spanish association,
the RFEF, to take a spiteful line and force Barca to play in an independent
Catalan league. That would cause uproar amongst the other clubs in La Liga
whose crowds are swelled by a visit from Barca’s line-up of superstars. Not
only are crowds bigger for a visit by Lionel Messi and company, but ticket prices
often go up substantially too, providing a windfall for cash-strapped La Liga
clubs.
Espanyol also seem unlikely to give up their place in La Liga,
while Boadas reckons that promotion to La Liga could be worth around €23
million to Girona – a sum that no club in the increasingly impoverished Spanish
system could pass up. Gimnàstic were relegated from the Segunda División in 2011/12 down to
Segunda B and missed out on the play-offs this season. That leaves Centre
d'Esports Sabadell as the fourth biggest Catalan club, at least in terms of
league placing.
The Estadi de la Nova Creu Alta has a capacity of just 12,000,
which was rarely tested in the 2012/13 season with average crowds of 5,000.
Under new Japanese owners Sabadell’s focus is on promotion in 2013/14.
Japanese youth players are being brought over, senior ones could follow and
there are even Manga cartoons in the boardroom.
Álvaro Montoliu Tarragona, Sabadell’s external communications
director, says: “I think we are more interested in playing in La Liga, where we
could have better players and maybe the opportunity to play in Europe. For the
club and people coming to the stadium on a Sunday, they want to see the best
players.
“The question is which players are going to play in a Catalan
league? Are they going to be professional? Will Messi play in the Catalan
league, or prefer to play in the Spanish league? That is the point. Sabadell
have played just two games in Europe in our history, against Bruges in the
sixties. This is history, but for us to be there again the best way is La
Liga.”
Another problem would be a massive discrepancy in size of the
clubs. Barca is one of the world’s biggest clubs with a stadium that holds
nearly 100,000 people. Segunda B side AE Prat can seat around 300 fans.
Independence for Catalonia looks certain to be a messy business in every sense. With so many Catalan clubs counting themselves out already, an independent top flight in a place so often defined in sporting terms by football could resemble the League of Wales more than a League of Catalonia.
Independence for Catalonia looks certain to be a messy business in every sense. With so many Catalan clubs counting themselves out already, an independent top flight in a place so often defined in sporting terms by football could resemble the League of Wales more than a League of Catalonia.
3 comments:
I think that a Catalonia League would struggle for sure and be greatly more one sided then the current two sided Spanish League but perhaps the money a team like Prat could receive in just one friendly against Barcelona or Espanyol could make an instant financial gain to help them grow quickly, even if its just a larger ground. But Barcelona would struggle the most and would properly require money from European football to keep itself in good shape then any early Catalan League could offer.
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