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Spanish Inquisition: Athletic Bilbao – Where Blood Runs Thicker Than Football
With Athletic Bilbao having beaten Real Madrid last weekend and drawn against Barcelona earlier this season, Goal.com's Cyrus C. Malek explores the Basque club's deeply-rooted tradition of football - one that exemplifies the rich cultural underpinnings in La Liga...
| Bet: | Returns: | Bilbao £18.50 | Draw £34.00 | Malaga £37.50 |
|
| Bet: | Returns: | Bilbao £19.00 | Draw £34.00 | Malaga £41.00 |
|
| Bet: | Returns: | Bilbao £19.09 | Draw £34.00 | Malaga £37.50 |
|
| Bet: | Returns: | Bilbao £18.30 | Draw £36.00 | Malaga £42.00 |
|
| Bet: | Returns: | Bilbao £18.40 | Draw £33.00 | Malaga £39.50 |
|
Jan 19, 2010 1:11:00 PM
By Cyrus C. Malek
To those who favour football in England’s Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, or elsewhere in the world, La Liga is just a place where a vague sense of “Spanish flair” is introduced to the familiar sport of football we all know and love. But to those avid fans who, without much trouble, can identify each club’s crest and can hardly wait for the next Liga fixture, each weekend marks the culmination of an exciting struggle for political, cultural, and regional bragging rights.
Yes, following Spanish football differs greatly from following another country’s league. For example, a fixture between two sides from the English Premiership is disputed between teams who share a common identity. That is to say, while both teams may be from different cities, or even different districts within the same city, and each has its own sense of municipal partiality, they both are proud to fly Her Majesty’s flag.
Not so in La Liga. While formally, each city or regional team belong to Spain’s constitutional monarchy, there are many more underlying issues at play in La Primera. In a country where each of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions are distinctly separated (Catalunya, Galicia, Basque country, Castille and Leon, Asturias, Andalusia, Madrid, and Valencia to name a few popular regions) by differing languages, cultures, political ideologies, and even food, matches in La Liga take on a different dynamic altogether – one more akin to the feverish atmosphere of high-stakes international matches.
In Spain, supporting a particular team actually means something. And nowhere is this quality more clearly exemplified than in the Basque country where Athletic Bilbao spearhead what makes La Liga so different from what can be safely regarded as “just a sport” in other countries.
For an outsider, a club like Athletic Bilbao may be difficult to understand. What’s the big deal? A region that loves its football much like any other. But it, in fact, goes much deeper than that and to understand it, we must first read the history.
Ironically (the reason why will be made clear later), football was introduced to Bilbao by foreigners via British steel and shipyard workers and Basque students returning from schools in Britain. In the late 1800's, Bilbao was, and for that matter still is, an important industrial city with iron mines and shipyards and this productivity served as the driving force of the Spanish economy, attracting a plethora of migrant workers.
Among these workers were miners from the north-east of England and shipyard workers from Sunderland, Southampton and Portsmouth and in the early 1890's, these workers came together and formed Bilbao Football Club.
As the boys of the Basque region’s educated class returned from their schooling in Britain, they also brought with them an interest in football and together, the migrant workers and the students founded Athletic Club, which explains why Athletic Bilbao have an English name, while in the Spanish capital, Los Colchoneros go by Atletico de Madrid — although formed by Basque students originally under an English name, Atletico’s name was never changed back from the Spanish after Franco’s dictatorship.
But Athletic Bilbao’s modern identity as a quintessentially Basque team was formed shortly after the Spanish Civil War, during the reign of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. In 1941, following a decree from the brutal dictator banning the use of non-Spanish language names, the club was forced into changing their name to Atletico Bilbao. In a territory very proud of its unique culture, markedly different from the rest of Spain, the Basque region began to brew an ever-growing but covert sense of nationalism.
Many are surprised when they learn that in the Basque region of Spain, Spanish is not the primary spoken language. Instead, the prevailing tongue is Euskara, the last remaining pre-Indo-European language in Western Europe. Unlike Gallego (the Galician language that can be callously classified as a hybrid of Portuguese and Spanish) and Catalan (the Catalunyan language that can just as callously be called a cross between French and Spanish), Euskara is a language with no etymological relation to the Romance languages and little is known of its true origins. A prevailing theory is that an early form of the Basque language was present in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages to the area.
Littered with a combination of vowels, k’s, x’s, r’s, and t’s, the outlawing of the Basque language by Franco’s regime nearly led to a demise of one of Europe’s oldest cultures. The language in its written form all but disappeared under the dictator’s rule, only spoken within the privacy of the home and passed down from mother to child. It followed that after Franco’s death, the years of repression resulted in a Basque backlash, as the region celebrated its identity via its football club.
In December 1976, a year after Franco’s death, Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper José Ángel Iribar marched onto the field ahead of a match against San Sebastián carrying the red, white, and green Basque flag and ceremonially placed it on the centre-circle. It was the first public display of the flag, which had been outlawed for over 40 years and Athletic Bilbao was immortalised as the symbol of the Basque people.
Using the grandparent rule, Athletic Bilbao practices a strong devotion to ethno-political separatism by only employing players native to the Basque region (which includes Basque regions in south-western France). While the all-Basque roster has seen a few liberalisations to the rule — now players of any origin can play for Athletic, so long as they are of Basque descent and acquired their footballing skills in the Basque Country (an exception very much enjoyed by Athletic’s 16-year-old phenom Jonas Ramalho, Los Leones’ first black player whose father is Angolan but mother is Basque) — it is remarkable that Athletic have been able to maintain such a high level of play given their self-imposed limit on the talent pool from which they can fish. They have not even once been relegated to the Segunda Division, have won La Liga eight times, and the Copa del Rey an astonishing 23 times.
Keeping true to their culture, Athletic were one of the last major clubs who did not have the logo of an official sponsor emblazoned on their kit. In the UEFA Cup and the Copa del Rey of 2004-2005, in a particularly political move, the shirt sported the word "Euskadi" in green in exchange for hundreds of thousands of euros from the Basque Government (red, white and green are the Basque colours). This policy was changed for the three seasons starting from 2008, as Athletic currently play with the logo of the Biscay-based Petronor oil company on their shirts in exchange for over €2 million.
However, the nationalistic separatism does have its drawbacks, principally during the 1990's at the height of the Basque political militant group, ETA [Euskadi Ta Askatasuna; Basque Homeland and Freedom], a terrorist organization engaged in a violent campaign for the establishment of an independent Basque homeland straddling the border between France and Spain.
Aside from the tenuous atmosphere and heightened security in matches featuring Basque teams, including Athletic Bilbao, during ETA’s zenith, the group also meddled in footballing affairs to raise funds, famously extorting money from the French international defender Bixente Lizarazu and other Basque football players, claiming the players rejected their ethnic identity by playing for the French and Spanish national teams.
Since 1968, ETA has killed over 800 individuals, injured thousands and undertaken dozens of kidnappings and more than 700 members of the group are currently incarcerated in prisons in Spain, France, and other countries. But it was not until the late 1990s' and early 2000s' that ¡Basta Ya! [Enough Already!] was formed, a Spanish grassroots organization uniting individuals of various political positions in protest against ETA’s terrorism and against the proposal for a new Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country released by the government of President Juan José Ibarretxe, a leading member of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and a strong Athletic Bilbao supporter.
The ¡Basta Ya! movement’s anti-terror demonstrations gave the organization a strong foothold among Spaniards across the country and in October 2003, when Ibarretxe released the highly controversial Ibarretxe Plan, which proposed a future Basque country 'freely associated' with Spain, with its own separate legal system and European Union (EU) representation, the EU (incidentally headed by a Spaniard at the time, Javier Solana) announced that the plan had no place within the proposed EU constitution.
To this day, in matches at the San Mames, the separatist tensions remain high as a few hundred hard-core fans called the “Herri Norte” [Euskara for “People of the North”] hold up ETA banners and sing, “Let’s kill a Spaniard” to the tune of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’. The song is sung in Spanish so to drive the message home. But for the most part, the Athletic stands remain a non-violent forum of nationalistic expression as thousands of Basque brothers and sisters roar the pride they have for their culture and the identity they hold with their team. This pride is so great in fact, that some members of the team hold it higher than their incomes, as Athletic captain Joseba Etxeberria, whose contract ended last June, is playing this season for free.
It is also because of this unwavering regional pride that it remains such a controversial issue for the Spanish national team to play in the Basque region (and for that matter, Galicia or Catalunya), which is why matches featuring the Spanish national team are mostly held in Madrid, Andalusia (principally, Seville), or Valencia.
For those who watched Athletic Bilbao take on Real Madrid this past weekend, one could not help but take note of the juxtaposition: the giants of world football featuring a cosmopolitan roster of the most expensive players in the world against the team made up of nothing but home-grown talent from what is, relatively speaking, a very small region in an already-small country. Even Barcelona cannot attest to such bountiful fishing from the cantera pool as Dani Alves, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry, and others are multi-million euro signings.
What’s more is just how good that home-grown talent is. Fernando Llorente is one of Spain’s most efficient strikers, earning himself regular call-ups to the Spanish national team; Javi Martinez, heavily courted by Rafa Benitez at Liverpool last summer with the imminent departure of Xabi Alonso (another Basque), will surely become the subject of more transfer rumours next summer; Fernando Amorebieta is a world-class defender who has been sought by a number of top Premiership sides; Iker Muniain, the 17-year-old phenom who has not escaped Real Madrid’s ever-watchful eye, has become the youngest player to ever score a goal in an official UEFA-sanctioned match; and the aforementioned Jonas Ramalho, the club’s first ever black player, is the youngest player to ever be called up to an official UEFA match and is full of promise. Whether these players insist on remaining true to their club/culture’s tradition and staying at Athletic for life remains to be seen. The lure of the modern game’s earnings is very tempting.
Now, having progressed into the next stage of the Europa League and currently sitting in 7th place in the Liga table, three points off a Champions League spot, not to mention coming off yet another Copa del Rey final last season, Athletic Bilbao’s roar is beginning to be heard on a much larger stage than in recent memory.
As more Basque ballyhoo begins to surround the electric San Mames (Mammes was an early Christian thrown to the lions by the Romans; the lions refused to eat him and he was later made a saint), Los Leones have a chance to have chants of ¡Aupa Athletic! heard throughout Europe. Can you imagine how raucous the stadium would be if Liverpool came to Bilbao in a Europa League tie? Such a loyal adherence to culture that has prevailed not only through the oppressive rule of a dictator but also in terms of remaining competitive athletically, despite the growth of the modern game, is something that every football fan should be able to appreciate.
Yes, following Spanish football differs greatly from following another country’s league. For example, a fixture between two sides from the English Premiership is disputed between teams who share a common identity. That is to say, while both teams may be from different cities, or even different districts within the same city, and each has its own sense of municipal partiality, they both are proud to fly Her Majesty’s flag.
Not so in La Liga. While formally, each city or regional team belong to Spain’s constitutional monarchy, there are many more underlying issues at play in La Primera. In a country where each of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions are distinctly separated (Catalunya, Galicia, Basque country, Castille and Leon, Asturias, Andalusia, Madrid, and Valencia to name a few popular regions) by differing languages, cultures, political ideologies, and even food, matches in La Liga take on a different dynamic altogether – one more akin to the feverish atmosphere of high-stakes international matches.
In Spain, supporting a particular team actually means something. And nowhere is this quality more clearly exemplified than in the Basque country where Athletic Bilbao spearhead what makes La Liga so different from what can be safely regarded as “just a sport” in other countries.
For an outsider, a club like Athletic Bilbao may be difficult to understand. What’s the big deal? A region that loves its football much like any other. But it, in fact, goes much deeper than that and to understand it, we must first read the history.
Ironically (the reason why will be made clear later), football was introduced to Bilbao by foreigners via British steel and shipyard workers and Basque students returning from schools in Britain. In the late 1800's, Bilbao was, and for that matter still is, an important industrial city with iron mines and shipyards and this productivity served as the driving force of the Spanish economy, attracting a plethora of migrant workers.
Among these workers were miners from the north-east of England and shipyard workers from Sunderland, Southampton and Portsmouth and in the early 1890's, these workers came together and formed Bilbao Football Club.
As the boys of the Basque region’s educated class returned from their schooling in Britain, they also brought with them an interest in football and together, the migrant workers and the students founded Athletic Club, which explains why Athletic Bilbao have an English name, while in the Spanish capital, Los Colchoneros go by Atletico de Madrid — although formed by Basque students originally under an English name, Atletico’s name was never changed back from the Spanish after Franco’s dictatorship.
But Athletic Bilbao’s modern identity as a quintessentially Basque team was formed shortly after the Spanish Civil War, during the reign of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. In 1941, following a decree from the brutal dictator banning the use of non-Spanish language names, the club was forced into changing their name to Atletico Bilbao. In a territory very proud of its unique culture, markedly different from the rest of Spain, the Basque region began to brew an ever-growing but covert sense of nationalism.
Many are surprised when they learn that in the Basque region of Spain, Spanish is not the primary spoken language. Instead, the prevailing tongue is Euskara, the last remaining pre-Indo-European language in Western Europe. Unlike Gallego (the Galician language that can be callously classified as a hybrid of Portuguese and Spanish) and Catalan (the Catalunyan language that can just as callously be called a cross between French and Spanish), Euskara is a language with no etymological relation to the Romance languages and little is known of its true origins. A prevailing theory is that an early form of the Basque language was present in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages to the area.
Littered with a combination of vowels, k’s, x’s, r’s, and t’s, the outlawing of the Basque language by Franco’s regime nearly led to a demise of one of Europe’s oldest cultures. The language in its written form all but disappeared under the dictator’s rule, only spoken within the privacy of the home and passed down from mother to child. It followed that after Franco’s death, the years of repression resulted in a Basque backlash, as the region celebrated its identity via its football club.
In December 1976, a year after Franco’s death, Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper José Ángel Iribar marched onto the field ahead of a match against San Sebastián carrying the red, white, and green Basque flag and ceremonially placed it on the centre-circle. It was the first public display of the flag, which had been outlawed for over 40 years and Athletic Bilbao was immortalised as the symbol of the Basque people.
Using the grandparent rule, Athletic Bilbao practices a strong devotion to ethno-political separatism by only employing players native to the Basque region (which includes Basque regions in south-western France). While the all-Basque roster has seen a few liberalisations to the rule — now players of any origin can play for Athletic, so long as they are of Basque descent and acquired their footballing skills in the Basque Country (an exception very much enjoyed by Athletic’s 16-year-old phenom Jonas Ramalho, Los Leones’ first black player whose father is Angolan but mother is Basque) — it is remarkable that Athletic have been able to maintain such a high level of play given their self-imposed limit on the talent pool from which they can fish. They have not even once been relegated to the Segunda Division, have won La Liga eight times, and the Copa del Rey an astonishing 23 times.
The band of brothers from Bilbao
Keeping true to their culture, Athletic were one of the last major clubs who did not have the logo of an official sponsor emblazoned on their kit. In the UEFA Cup and the Copa del Rey of 2004-2005, in a particularly political move, the shirt sported the word "Euskadi" in green in exchange for hundreds of thousands of euros from the Basque Government (red, white and green are the Basque colours). This policy was changed for the three seasons starting from 2008, as Athletic currently play with the logo of the Biscay-based Petronor oil company on their shirts in exchange for over €2 million.
However, the nationalistic separatism does have its drawbacks, principally during the 1990's at the height of the Basque political militant group, ETA [Euskadi Ta Askatasuna; Basque Homeland and Freedom], a terrorist organization engaged in a violent campaign for the establishment of an independent Basque homeland straddling the border between France and Spain.
Aside from the tenuous atmosphere and heightened security in matches featuring Basque teams, including Athletic Bilbao, during ETA’s zenith, the group also meddled in footballing affairs to raise funds, famously extorting money from the French international defender Bixente Lizarazu and other Basque football players, claiming the players rejected their ethnic identity by playing for the French and Spanish national teams.
Since 1968, ETA has killed over 800 individuals, injured thousands and undertaken dozens of kidnappings and more than 700 members of the group are currently incarcerated in prisons in Spain, France, and other countries. But it was not until the late 1990s' and early 2000s' that ¡Basta Ya! [Enough Already!] was formed, a Spanish grassroots organization uniting individuals of various political positions in protest against ETA’s terrorism and against the proposal for a new Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country released by the government of President Juan José Ibarretxe, a leading member of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and a strong Athletic Bilbao supporter.
The ¡Basta Ya! movement’s anti-terror demonstrations gave the organization a strong foothold among Spaniards across the country and in October 2003, when Ibarretxe released the highly controversial Ibarretxe Plan, which proposed a future Basque country 'freely associated' with Spain, with its own separate legal system and European Union (EU) representation, the EU (incidentally headed by a Spaniard at the time, Javier Solana) announced that the plan had no place within the proposed EU constitution.
To this day, in matches at the San Mames, the separatist tensions remain high as a few hundred hard-core fans called the “Herri Norte” [Euskara for “People of the North”] hold up ETA banners and sing, “Let’s kill a Spaniard” to the tune of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’. The song is sung in Spanish so to drive the message home. But for the most part, the Athletic stands remain a non-violent forum of nationalistic expression as thousands of Basque brothers and sisters roar the pride they have for their culture and the identity they hold with their team. This pride is so great in fact, that some members of the team hold it higher than their incomes, as Athletic captain Joseba Etxeberria, whose contract ended last June, is playing this season for free.
It is also because of this unwavering regional pride that it remains such a controversial issue for the Spanish national team to play in the Basque region (and for that matter, Galicia or Catalunya), which is why matches featuring the Spanish national team are mostly held in Madrid, Andalusia (principally, Seville), or Valencia.
For those who watched Athletic Bilbao take on Real Madrid this past weekend, one could not help but take note of the juxtaposition: the giants of world football featuring a cosmopolitan roster of the most expensive players in the world against the team made up of nothing but home-grown talent from what is, relatively speaking, a very small region in an already-small country. Even Barcelona cannot attest to such bountiful fishing from the cantera pool as Dani Alves, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry, and others are multi-million euro signings.
'Bart Simpson' ready to wreak havoc in La Liga
What’s more is just how good that home-grown talent is. Fernando Llorente is one of Spain’s most efficient strikers, earning himself regular call-ups to the Spanish national team; Javi Martinez, heavily courted by Rafa Benitez at Liverpool last summer with the imminent departure of Xabi Alonso (another Basque), will surely become the subject of more transfer rumours next summer; Fernando Amorebieta is a world-class defender who has been sought by a number of top Premiership sides; Iker Muniain, the 17-year-old phenom who has not escaped Real Madrid’s ever-watchful eye, has become the youngest player to ever score a goal in an official UEFA-sanctioned match; and the aforementioned Jonas Ramalho, the club’s first ever black player, is the youngest player to ever be called up to an official UEFA match and is full of promise. Whether these players insist on remaining true to their club/culture’s tradition and staying at Athletic for life remains to be seen. The lure of the modern game’s earnings is very tempting.
Now, having progressed into the next stage of the Europa League and currently sitting in 7th place in the Liga table, three points off a Champions League spot, not to mention coming off yet another Copa del Rey final last season, Athletic Bilbao’s roar is beginning to be heard on a much larger stage than in recent memory.
As more Basque ballyhoo begins to surround the electric San Mames (Mammes was an early Christian thrown to the lions by the Romans; the lions refused to eat him and he was later made a saint), Los Leones have a chance to have chants of ¡Aupa Athletic! heard throughout Europe. Can you imagine how raucous the stadium would be if Liverpool came to Bilbao in a Europa League tie? Such a loyal adherence to culture that has prevailed not only through the oppressive rule of a dictator but also in terms of remaining competitive athletically, despite the growth of the modern game, is something that every football fan should be able to appreciate.
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Join Goal.com for all the Champions League action as we bring you the latest team news, press conferences and analysis. Contact us on Twitter @goal_intl with any questions...
Hosted by Stephen Crawford & Adam Scime
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2/15/12
And with that, we're going to call it a night, folks.
We've had two tremendous matches today, so lets hope the intensity keeps up in the next clashes!
Until next time, this is LIVE commentator Stephen Crawford signing off.
From everyone here at Goal.com, thanks for joining us!
We've had two tremendous matches today, so lets hope the intensity keeps up in the next clashes!
Until next time, this is LIVE commentator Stephen Crawford signing off.
From everyone here at Goal.com, thanks for joining us!
2/15/12
All this focus on the Arsenal and Milan game should not take away from another cracker earlier tonight between Zenit and Benfica. The Russians came from a goal down to lead 2-1 in the closing minutes before Oscar Cardozo levelled things for Benfica, but it wasn't over there as Roman Shirokov won the game for Zenit in the 88th minute.
Here's the thoughts of Benfica coach Jorge Jesus, who felt his side deserved a point from the game.
Here's the thoughts of Benfica coach Jorge Jesus, who felt his side deserved a point from the game.
2/15/12
Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny bemoaned his side's luck tonight but refused to give up. Here's some of his quotes:
"They were the better team on the night and that's the story of the day.
"We have to keep fighting, pick ourselves up, get the confidence back and challenge in the other competitions and in the second leg of this tie too.
"They punished us on every occasion; they scored some quality goals and they deserved to win."
Full story HERE
"They were the better team on the night and that's the story of the day.
"We have to keep fighting, pick ourselves up, get the confidence back and challenge in the other competitions and in the second leg of this tie too.
"They punished us on every occasion; they scored some quality goals and they deserved to win."
Full story HERE
2/15/12
Another Milan player who was willing to share his thoughts after the match was Mark van Bommel, who has urged caution ahead of the second leg in London.
“The score made it look like it was an easy game, but it certainly wasn't.
(Strange... it looked pretty easy from where I was sitting, but hey.)
“I do not think it's over yet. I remember a clash between Milan and Deportivo la Coruna when Milan was also ahead by four goals, and in the end Deportivo eliminated Milan.
“I went into the Arsenal dressing room after the match to speak to Robin van Persie. I had agreed with him to swap shirts – my sons are big fans of his and he brought two for them. They will be delighted.
Van Bommel went on to talk about a possible move to PSV in the future, but was quick to point out his terms for the move.
“I've spoken with PSV, but we don't have an agreement yet. The club has to decide what they want.
“If Louis van Gaal turns out to be the new coach, I won't go.”
“The score made it look like it was an easy game, but it certainly wasn't.
(Strange... it looked pretty easy from where I was sitting, but hey.)
“I do not think it's over yet. I remember a clash between Milan and Deportivo la Coruna when Milan was also ahead by four goals, and in the end Deportivo eliminated Milan.
“I went into the Arsenal dressing room after the match to speak to Robin van Persie. I had agreed with him to swap shirts – my sons are big fans of his and he brought two for them. They will be delighted.
Van Bommel went on to talk about a possible move to PSV in the future, but was quick to point out his terms for the move.
“I've spoken with PSV, but we don't have an agreement yet. The club has to decide what they want.
“If Louis van Gaal turns out to be the new coach, I won't go.”
2/15/12
Next up is the Milan maestro Clarence Seedorf. He only managed 12 minutes on the pitch, but watching from the sidelines he was delighted at how his team mates had dominated the game.
"Tonight everything went in the right direction and we did a very good match. You don't start a match thinking to win 4-0, but at the end i think we deserved it coz we played very well."
"Tonight everything went in the right direction and we did a very good match. You don't start a match thinking to win 4-0, but at the end i think we deserved it coz we played very well."
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