The Origin of El Clasico: General Franco 11 – Catalan Province 1

Rivalry is an eternal concept in football. In fact, rivalry is what gives a football team its identity. Be it East Bengal – Mohun Bagan, Brazil – Argentina or Manchester United – Liverpool … rivalry in football infuses life into the fans. And it does not get much bigger than El Clasico, the clash of Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona. Hype, glorification, victimisation, controversy – El Clasico has seen it all. But one match remains the most infamous of all the Clasicos. Debojyoti Chakraborty at Goalden Times walks us through that chapter in Spanish history which played a big part in shaping the future of football.

Football started paving its way into the lives of the masses during the late nineteenth century. People loved to have a few kicks of the ball with friends; they loved the intrinsic theme of team bonding; and they found joy when their team won bragging rights by winning a match. But things started to change as football’s popularity increased. As with any other sport, football fell prey to the hands of politics. Political leaders and power thirsty bureaucrats saw football as a means to showcase their supremacy to the world. This is where the beautiful game started to get muddled.

Spain in the 1930s saw the rise of neo-fascist nationalist group led by El Generalissimo Francisco Franco.  They steamrolled over the constitutionally elected leftist Spanish government and defeated their partisan, the Republicans, in the Spanish Civil War which culminated in early 1939. General Franco emerged as the face of this neo-fascist group which was openly supported by other right-wing autocrats like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Franco declared himself as the ruler of Spain and famously proclaimed, “Our regime is based on bayonets and blood, not on hypocritical elections.” [1]

Franco was blinded by his lust for autonomy. He even deliberately ignored his own Galician origin. He demanded supreme authority. Politics, arts, culture, economy – Franco dictated every arena of social life wherever he set his sight. He advocated the idea of one nation, one culture. So wherever he smelled regionalism, a ban was imposed. Franco demanded and went gung ho in establishing the supremacy of Castile and the Castilian Spanish dialect over the entirety of Spanish Iberia, concentrating the nation’s power in the capital city. Things got so bad that practising any specific regional, cultural or religious practice–or even using regional tongue in public–became illegal and offenders were subjected to captive punishment. Football, in such an oppressing scenario, remained the only avenue for portraying local pride for the common man. Or alas, so they thought!

During this turbulent time, some provinces like the Basque country and Catalonia – the nation’s two most important and diverse regions – were granted partial sovereignty by the erstwhile Republican party. This idea of self-control was in direct contradiction of Franco’s vision of the Spanish national identity. In particular, two football clubs from the Basque and Catalan regions, Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona, respectively, had become synonymous with their people. They symbolized their people’s identity, like a fresh air of revolution against their vicious oppressor. These clubs had depicted colours of their regions’ forbidden flags in their clubs jerseys – Catalonia’s yellow and blue in Barcelona’s red and blue; Basques’ red, white and green in Athletic’s red and white. Barcelona and Bilbao supporters had converted their stadia to their holy grail – these were the only places where they could freely embrace their mother tongues without fear. Not surprisingly, these two clubs came under the wrath of Franco’s government. They had to change their names following a Castilan-Spanish-only ruling – Athletic Bilbao were turned into Atlético Bilbao and Barcelona’s famous initials Futbol Club got changed to Club de Football. But even then, the Catalans held  firm and continued to echo the famous  motto, Mes que un club (More than a club).

El Clasico
The Spanish division [Source: Economist]

It was 1943. Europe was in the midst of World War II. The tides were turning but Franco was not yet ready to give in. In this backdrop came the semi-final of the Copa del Generalissimo, now known as the Copa del Rey, the country’s top tier cup competition. In a shameless act of self-promotion, Franco named the competition after himself!

Facing off in the semi-final were Real Madrid–Franco’s team that echoed the sentiments of the Spanish elite–and the Catalan darling Barcelona, which meant sparks were sure to fly.

The first leg of the clash was held at Les Corts, the then-home of the Catalan giants. The home team won the match convincingly in a 3-0 rout, although there were claims of injustice from the Madrid players. Los Blancos claimed the first goal was scored following a foul, the second, a penalty, was unfairly awarded and the third was scored from an offside position. Regardless of the controversy, match official Jose Fombona Fernández had no qualms awarding each of the goals. [2]

The larger impact was made off the pitch, though. The Cules, Catalan supporters, used the match as an excuse to raise their voice against the tormenting regime Real Madrid represented. The fans–quite unnecessarily–harassed, whistled and booed Los Blancos players whenever they touched the ball. Barcelona was even heavily fined by the Spanish Football Federation for their fan’s over-the-top behaviour. But the Catalans didn’t care Football was their only outlet to protest their disenfranchisement.

Real Madrid’s shambolic performance became the talk of the town in Spanish capital. Ernesto Teus, a prominent columnist for right-winged newspaper Marca and a true Madrid supporter,, blasted the team for its lack of conviction and docile capitulation to their fierce regional rivals. The piece soon went viral  and touched a raw nerve in the Castilian psyche, aggravating Madridistas up to their boiling points. By the time the much awaited second leg arrived, the ambiance inside the stadium was a storm of agitated fury.

“Madrid are not giving up the tie for lost,” Teus wrote. “Ah, if (only) Chamartin would help Madrid on Sunday like the ‘boiling cauldron’ of Les Corts helped (Barcelona) in the first half! We do not demand that the team from the region are greeted with anything other than the same passionate, forceful and influential support that Barcelona had… When will that be possible at Madrid?”[2]

When Barcelona arrived at the Estadio Chamartin, home of Real Madrid in those days,  it was as if they were walking into a bull ring. Some 20,000 odd Madrid fans were screaming for Catalan blood. It is said that just before the start of the match, the Director of State Security, the Conde de Mayalade, Jose Finat y Escriva – the second in command after General Franco and arguably no less daunting – visited the Barcelona dressing room. It was a chilling atmosphere. No threats, no weapons. But a calm reminder that it was a testimony of the regime’s kindness in letting Catalonia remain a part of the Republic. Simply put, they were at the Lion’s den and were at Franco’s mercy.

There are different versions of the story; some claim the visitor was the match official, some say it was a civil guard officer and others believe the threat was accompanied with a gun in hand. Whoever it was, whatever it was, a chilling and shuddering message was delivered.

The players went numb. It was an era where people would go missing. No news, no investigations and a lot of unanswered questions. Life was cheap and imprisonment cheaper. Fearing the worst for their own and their kin, the players took to the pitch as mute witnesses. For a large part of the match, they stood motionless while a hostile crowd taunted them at hand-shaking distance from the pitch of play.

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The atmosphere was so chaotic that Barcelona coach Angel Mur thought his eardrums would burst. During throw-ins, fans wrestled with players and bottles were heaved. In particular, Barcelona’s goalkeeper Luis Miró was so petrified of the Real Madrid fans behind his goal – their constant threats, stones, coins and other objects thrown at him, that he did not dare come anywhere near his penalty box!

The drama did not end there. Mur was constantly threatened and abused with words like “red separatists” and “dog” by policeman and security personnel in charge of the match. Mur recalled the atmosphere as “…like the Roman Colosseum and we were the Christians.”[2] Mur was not even allowed to treat injured Barcelona players.

The first half ended with the score line reading Real Madrid 8: Barcelona 0 with Barcelona one man down. The second half continued in the same fashion, and despite the visitors grabbing a last minute consolation, the match finished 11-1. The reaction to the result was widespread. [insert newspaper’s name] newspaper called it “as absurd as it was abnormal” [2]. The match report in La Prensa pointed out Barcelona’s impotence and demoralisation.

Despite the fact that Franco was controlling the boards of football at almost every club,  people protested the farce that was the second leg. Enrique Piñeyro Queralt, then-Barcelona president and a passionate Franco supporter, promptly resigned after the game. Juan Antonio Samaranch, an uncompromising Nationalist and active member of Franco’s Fascist party, upheld the notion of fairness in sport. He castigated the crowd’s behaviour and the mockery the match became.

El clasico
Goals Galore – One of those eleven goals
[Source: Mirror]

“If the azulgranas had played badly, really badly, the scoreboard would still not have reached the astronomical figure,” Samaranch wrote. “The point is that they did not play at all. There is no need to look for guilty men, because there were none on this pitch. Barcelona simply were not seen all afternoon. That was the best thing they could do in the circumstances. That’s the way it ended and that’s the (only) way it could end.” [2]

Samaranch was subsequently banned for a decade from publishing anything in print

This became the match which painted Real Madrid in the light of dictatorship and handed over the victim card to Barcelona. It was the match that paved the way for an even fiercer rivalry, not only among the fan bases, but also causing a split among the players who more often than not were found to be playing for the same national side. It is no wonder why Spain suffered on the biggest stages until the country’s most recent Golden Generation came along with the likes of Iker Casillas, Xavi and Andres Iniesta..

Eleven to one, quite unsurprisingly, remains the biggest margin of victory for Real Madrid. The club’s official history portrays it as a “heroic” result and even labels the players as “heroes”. But the result has not found much mention in Madrid’s sporting accolades elsewhere and generally there is a strong feeling among fans and followers not to celebrate “heroic” result. The reason is clear and well understood. No recorded document or graphic content is available to vindicate what had actually happened on that day. But common sense will tell you that a team winning 3-0 cannot succumb 11-1 against the same opponent just a week later.

Origin of el clasico
Marca boasting off the result the next day [Source: Playbuzz]

Even after that notorious  victory in the semi-final, Real Madrid lost in the final to the true superpowers of the time, the Telmo Zarra inspired Basques of Athletic Bilbao, with the talisman scoring the only goal of the match on the brink of half time. As fate would have it, Los Blancos would fail to reign in Spain for the next decade. Maybe it was poetic justice.

But the story did not end there. It was just the beginning. As many in Spain would confirm, 11-1 was when El Clasico became El Clasico.

References:

[1] Phantom Democracy: Corporate Interests and Political Power in America, by C. Boggs, p. 53, Springer

[2] Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid, by Sid Lowe, p. 65-75, Random house

Debojyoti Chakraborty

About Debojyoti Chakraborty

Debojyoti Chakraborty is a follower of English Premier League and European football. You can reach him at debojyoti.chakraborty@gmail.com