Posted by Stephen Kuzner

By Stephen Kuzner - WFD Fan Correspondent

This week's El Clasico between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona will be played on a Monday because of Catalan elections. The world's most anticipated and watched game each year, outside of a Champions League or Word Cup final, was moved because of politics. Madrid and Barcelona are the two largest cities in Spain and the two clubs are Spain's most successful with Real Madrid amassing 73 trophies and FC Barcelona collecting 68. This game has deep political roots. WFD regular Phil Ball has described the El Clásico as "a re-enactment of the Spanish Civil War". Each year, the whole table in La Liga sort of resembles a re-enactment as well with each club representing a region that held-out longest to Franco. And sure, Real Madrid and Barcelona symbolize opposing nationalisms between Spain and Catalonia, but in this day and age, how does a sporting match thee entire world watches be moved because of politics? To answer this question is to understand El Clasico's story.

This story starts about ninety years ago in Spain. In 1923, General Miguel Primo de Rivera seized power in Spain with support of the king and set-up a dictatorship where regional languages and identities were frowned upon. In Catalonia, the flag and language were banned. Also, FC Barcelona met similar repression for its symbolic role for a Catalan cosmopolitan-style nationalism.

Ever since Joan Gamper, a Swiss Protestant Businessman, launched FC Barcelona in 1899, the club represented not only Catalonia, but also an openness to foreign influence. Sitting in the middle of the Mediteranean, Catalonia became an industrial giant by the late nineteen century. Opening its doors to foreign influence was a natural result. Gamper and soccer were just another import. A cosmopolitan nationalism was born. This was a form of nationalism in contrast to the nationalism from Castillian landowners and de Rivera's dictatorship.

In 1925, FC Barcelona supporters booed the Spanish national anthem before an exhibition game ensuing in de Rivera shuttering Barca's stadium for 6 months and fining the club's directors. Eventually, Gamper fled and in 1929 committed suicide. However by 1930, the practice of squashing all dissent had backfired and Primo de Rivera was replaced by a Democratic Republic. Up to this point, FC Barcelona had been persecuted for its emblematic role for Catalonia, not its rivalry with Spain's other huge football giant Real Madrid. However, a number of themes that had already begun that would spill into the rivalry: Catalan Cosmopolitan Nationalism vs. Castillian Centralistic Nationalism, Industry vs. Agriculture, Fragmentation vs. Consolidation, and Nation vs. State.

During the dictatorships of Primo de Rivera and eventually of Francisco Franco, FC Barcelona gained their motto "més que un club" (more than a club) to symbolize, at least in its own eyes, a connection to progressive beliefs and a figurative role for Catalonia. To the establishment and others, the adage rang of self-importance and anti-Spain. Then and now, "més que un club" clashes with clubs that have to fight for mere survival. This struggle for survival would be seen in the Spanish Civil War where Madrid had war at its doorstep from day one, while for much of the war, the city of Barcelona was behind the lines.

The Spanish Civil War began in 1936 with a coup d'état lead by General Francisco Franco and ended with Franco's victory for the landowning Nationalists over the Republicans in 1939. In their mind, the Nationalists brought security and direction to an ungoverned and lawless society left by a fragmented Republic that consisted of Marxists, Liberals, and Anarchists.

During the early days of the War, fascist gendarmes arrested and executed FC Barcelona's left-leaning president Josep Sunyol as he drove through the Sierra de Guadarrama to visit Catalan troops guarding Madrid from a right-wing siege. Sunyol had been a member of the left-wing group Acció Catalana and founded the left-wing newspaper La Rambla, which opposed the Primo de Rivera regime. Often overlooked by history is the fact that the president of Real Madrid, Rafael Sánchez Guerra, also suffered from the Spanish Civil War. As a prominent Republican, he refused to flee Madrid, was captured and imprisoned by Franco supporters, and then escaped to Paris with the government-in-exile.

After Franco forces prevailed, he set-out to purge Catalonia of Communists, Anarchists, Separatists, and finally FC Barcelona. FC Barcelona came near the top of the list because Catalonia held-out until 1939, parts of the city both welcomed Franco and engaged in urban warfare, and Franco obsessively followed Real Madrid. Fortunately, a purge of FC Barcelona by Real Madrid's greatest supporter did not mean destruction, but rather meant establishing a Spanish name, the removal of the Catalan flag from the Crest, and the installation of pro-Franco management to run the club. In 1943, to make the message clear in the semifinals of the Generalissimo's Cup (named after Franco himself) between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, the Director of State Security told FC Barcelona players in their locker room that they should remember the only reason that could part-take in the game was from the generosity of the regime to forgive their lack of patriotism. Real Madrid won 11-1.

The purging of FC Barcelona instead of its destruction by Franco illustrated a lesson learned from Primo de Rivera's mistakes of trying to completely crush any dissent. Home games for FC Barcelona became viewed as a heroic center of resistance to Franco's military dictatorship. Cules could scream against the regime in their own banned Catalan from safety in numbers. But for Franco, this served as a safety valve for Catalan nationalism to be channeled into a harmless pastime. And, for many years, the FC Barcelona Boardroom still had Franco apologists in it.

This brings us the most pivotal point in our El Clasico story, the 1953 signing of who WFD regular Tim Vickery believes is perhaps the greatest footballer of all time, Alfredo Di Stefano. Both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona claimed to own his registration, a consequence of di Stéfano moving to Millonarios from River Plate following a strike. FIFA intervened and decided that both clubs would have to share the player in alternate seasons. However, FC Barcelona's Franco-imposed management in due course backed-down and di Stefano ultimately moved to Real Madrid. The transfer exacerbated the already strong enmity between the clubs.

Madrid would go on to win the European Cup in five successive years from 1955-56 to 1959-60 and again in 1965-66. They also were runners-up in 1961-62 and 1963-64. However conspiracy theories of grand manipulation by Franco can't explain how in the early years of his reign FC Barcelona did well. In the 1950s, FC Barcelona finished near the top of the league, won five Generalissmo's Cups, and the European Fairs Cup in 1958. Further, the Real Madrid of the 1950s won because the talent of di Stéfano, Puskas, Santamaria, Marquitos, and Gento.

Franco saw triumphs of Real Madrid and Spanish national team as his own. Madrid represented Spain. Foreign Minister Fernando Maria Castiella, said that Real Madrid were "the best embassy we ever had". A 1964 Real Madrid club bulletin read, "people laud the stunning play of Real Madrid. Madrid have unfurled Spain's flag before the world." Real Madrid won when Spain needed the press for acceptance in the western world.
In 1975 Franco died and in 1978 a Spanish Constitution was created with the transition of Spain to democracy. In many ways Spain became and is now a nation of nations. Spain has a central government with devolved power for 17 autonomous communities. The constitution recognizes the rights of these autonomous communities for self-government in such things as schools, health, social services, culture, urban and rural development. With gained freedom, FC Barcelona would still not see European glory until 1990s with Johan Cruyff's 1992 Dream Team. But the rivalry and Barcelona's "Real Madrid Complex" continued to grow.

As each El Clasico moved further and further away in time from the end of the Spanish Civil War, the more each game became about a re-enactment of the war. The Dream Team's Hristo Stoichkov, said "Every time Barcelona and Madrid meet, it's an act of rebellion against the established power, against centralism". Barcelona's homegrown Oleguer Presas states that when Barcelona beat Madrid for the 2004 League title, "We imagined ourselves halting that pack of tanks, responding to their bullets with anthems and song, and laughing in the face of the fascist ire of those military men". Sir Bobby Robson said, "I felt like I was a general leading the Catalan Army."

In an El Clasico league match during 2002, among many things a pig's head was thrown on the field in a gesture of disapproval to Luis Figo's return to the Camp Nou after transferring from FC Barcelona to Real Madrid. Bernd Schuster and Michael Laudrup are also players that played for FC Barcelona before later playing for Real Madrid. Luis Enrique has made the move in the opposite direction and now coaches Barcelona B.

The biggest switch however might be former FC Barcelona assistant coach Jose Mourniho now leading Real Madrid. In the 1990s and early 2000s Mourniho served under Robson and Louis van Gaal at Barcelona. After winning the Champions League at FC Porto and Internazionale and the Barclay's Premier League with Chelsea, he gets to do battle with the club where he coached Barcelona B and where Van Gaal entrusted him to run the first team for lesser trophies, like the Copa Catalunya, which Mourinho won in 2000. Last year when Mourniho's Internazionale knocked-out FC Barcelona from the Champions League the ground grew turned-on the sprinklers to soak a Mourinho that ran around the field obnoxiously celebrating.

This is the backdrop to which this El Clasico will be played. Real Madrid's ship has been righted by a coach who spent time at FC Barcelona to leave and win-big with three clubs as stepping stones to the world's largest club in Real Madrid to restore it to glory. FC Barcelona's greatest fear is that Mourinho will be the coaching version of Di Stefano. Yet, if this El Clásico is a re-enactment of the Spanish Civil War, the result has already been determined. FC Barcelona has won because the war has been moved-back for Catalan elections. Elections are more than a game.


If you have feedback, email me at skuzner@gmail.com or Facebook me. During the club season, I write pieces related to La Liga on Tuesdays and articles about FC Barcelona on Fridays. During El Clásico, I only live, breath, and sleep El Clásico.