When it comes to football rivalries, and indeed any rivalry in the entire world of sports, it doesn’t get any bigger than El Clasico – Barcelona vs Real Madrid. The match between the two Spanish giants is consistently the world’s most watched football game with an average of 500 million tuning in globally. The two teams are ranked as the world’s most valuable sports clubs. Both sides enjoy an immense, global fanbase. But if you told the kids of today that the rivalry between Madrid and Barca goes much, much deeper than Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi, they’d hardly believe you. This is the story of the birth of El Clasico.

 

To truly comprehend just how profound the rivalry is between the two clubs, it’s necessary to gain an understanding of the political history of Spain. Based in the Spanish capital, Real Madrid are viewed by Barcelona fans as a right-wing club assosicated with Spanish nationalism and the authoritive regime of General Franco, who ruled over Spain from 1936 to 1975. On the flip side of the coin, Barcelona are seen as representative of Catalonian nationalism and liberal separatist entities, that have stood up against the wealth and might of Madrid for decades. The two clubs first played each other in 1902. Back then, like many European leagues, the Spanish championship was split into regional divisions with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona representing the Campeonato Regional Centro and the Campionat de Catalunya respectively. It wasn’t long before FC Barcelona became a symbol of Catalonian pride, which opposed the centralism of governments based in Madrid.

 

This occurred because under the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera from 1923 to 1930, the entire Catalan language was banned and the freedoms of Catalonia’s people were severely restricted to the point where supporting FC Barcelona was their only outlet to express their national and cultural identity. FC Barcelona had committed itself to social, political and cultural reform and openly supported the idea of Catalan independence, which was strongly opposed by Rivera and the ruling Spanish government. In 1936, Spain decended into all out civil war. General Franco launched a Coup d’etat and on one side were The Republicans, loyal to the left-leaning Second Spanish Republic (FC Barcelona) and on the other side were the Nationalists, a right-leaning conservative group led by General Franco (Real Madrid). Many FC Barcelona players enlisted in the ranks to fight against the military uprising.

 

When this occurred, the national league was suspended and teams in the Republican areas of Spain formed their own league called the Medditerreanean League.  Real Madrid were not invited to participate. At the time, Madrid was a republican city and they were made to play simply as Madrid CF. They were stripped of their “royal” status and made to remove the royal crests from their shirts. Subsequently, the club aligned themselves with General Franco, who then adopted them as his own. It all came to loggerheads when Josep Sunyol, the president of FC Barcelona and member of a pro-independance political party, was assassinated by Francoist soldiers. As the war turned in favour of the Nationalists, FC Barcelona found themselves on the top of a list of organisations to be purged by the faction.

 

In 1937, FC Barcelona went on tour to Mexico and the US. While this cemented financial security for the club, it also resulted in half the team seeking asylum abroad. The following year, the city of Barcelona came under bombardment by the Italian Air Force, and 3,000 deaths were caused. The Nationalists subsequently occupied Catalunya, and all symbols of regional nationalism were banned. The Catalan flag was forbidden and the club had to remove it from its crest. Non-Spanish names were also banned, so FC Barcelona had to become Club de Futbol Barcelona. The people of Catalunya were banned from speaking their own language again, and club found itself subjected to relentless oppression and reprisals from the authorities. Many of their players were in exile and an Italian bomb blew up the clubs headquarters.

 

Even worse was to come. In 1943, the two clubs played each other in a two-legged fixture of the Copa Generalissimo (former Copa del Rey). FC Barcelona won the first leg 3-0 at home. For the return leg, Barcelona fans were banned from travelling to Madrid. The Barcelona bus was pelted with stones the moment it left their hotel. Barcelona’s goalie was assaulted with coins every time he approached his line and the players were targeted with abuse. The police threatened to arrest Barcelonas new president for trying to help an injured player. The players became so demoralised, they decided to let Real Madrid score as many goals as they wanted. The decision probably saved their lives. At half time, Madrid led 8-0. Barcelona’s players decided that they were not going out for the second half, at which point a colonel appeared in the dressing room and said, “Go back out onto the pitch or you’re all going to jail.” When Barcelona’s Calvet asked why more police weren’t looking out for their safety, he was told, “Shut up, obey, go out there and play...and lose!” Barcelona’s eventual 11-0 loss is, more than any, the game that formed the identification of Real Madrid as the team of the dictatorship and Barcelona as the victims. It gave birth to the intense rivalry we witness today. Barcelonas reserve goal keeper summed it up – “There was no rivalry. Not, at least, until that game.”

Achievements: Copa del Rey x1