F.C. Barcelona vs Real Madrid: a long standing rivalry

The Spanish sporting news this week has been all about the country’s two biggest football clubs, F.C. Barcelona  and Real Madrid. The two teams have been arch enemies for a long time and every year are fighting for the most important titles in Spanish and European football. 

 

At the moment it seems like Barcelona have the upper hand, as they are now 10 points clear of their rivals in La Liga, the Spanish league. Whilst Barcelona won their last match against Valencia 1-0 and their previous match against Mallorca 3-0, despite missing a few key players, Madrid only managed a 0-0 draw against La Coruña, increasing the points difference between the two teams. Obviously the season is not over yet, but if Real Madrid want to have a chance of winning the league, they’ll have to win every remaining match, leading many sports critics to say that they should already be accepting defeat in this competition. Their confidence isn’t helped by the fact that they were beaten 5-0 by Barcelona at the Nou Camp, Barcelona’s home stadium, just last November.

 

But why is there such an outstanding rivalry between these two teams? The truth is it goes beyond football and is based on politics. In the times of the Spanish Civil War, Madrid symbolised the national government and the centralisation and unification of Spain as Franco wanted. As the capital of the region of Catalonia, who at the time wanted independence from Spain, Barcelona represented exactly the opposite, the Republican point of view, and therefore conflict emerged between the two major cities in Spain.

 

During the Franco era, the Barcelona team were heavily disadvantaged in many ways due to the oppressive government. For example, there were many complaints of biased referees in favour of Real Madrid and Franco created a law to prevent foreign players coming to play for Barcelona, unless they also played for Real Madrid later on. On one occasion the Barcelona team were threatened and told to lose on purpose. They did so, losing 11-1, making a mockery of the whole situation.

 

Nowadays the matches are obviously completely fair and the political disruption has calmed down, however the rivalry between the two cities and their football clubs remains.

 

This week Madrid will play Malaga, when perhaps their luck will take a turn for the better. Let’s hope the rest of the season has some exciting football in store, whoever the winners may be!