 |
|
Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume Three
Spring 2004
The Last Genuine Local Team: Athletic Bilbao Surviving in the Spanish League - Page 6
by Jonathan Shulman
A vast majority of Athletic’s supporters think the club’s values are more important than its material success on the soccer pitch. When Spanish newspaper El Mundo carried out a survey among a thousand of the club’s members, the results were clear: “76 percent of them said that they would rather see Athletic relegated to the Second Division than allow the club to give up the tradition of la cantera ” (MacClancy 195). The club’s official stance as presented by its board of directors is no different: “we must and we want to maintain our philosophy [of la cantera], and this obligation won’t be conditioned by the sportive results” (www.athletic-club.net). For this team, then, “winning is not the most important thing,” and certainly not the “only thing,” as legendary football coach Vince Lombardi put it. In this exceptional case, maybe the real winning is not done on the pitch, but in the terraces, where pride, respect, and identity are the most important things—the only things. The Basque nationalist struggle has so far failed to attract the world’s attention; supporting Athletic is probably the best way to raise awareness to this issue, which is far more crucial than sports. What will one remember from the match against Real on February 2002? That Bilbao won 2-1, or that dozens of Basque activists charged into the playing field in protest?
Clearly, it is hard to envision a professional sports team more preoccupied with political ideas than with winning percentages and profits. Discussing sports in the Basque context requires a complete change in thinking, an understanding la cantera as a bold statement of sovereign identity. This notion is perhaps best exemplified in former Athletic president Jose Maria Arrate’s speech, delivered on the club’s 100 th year anniversary:
Athletic Bilbao is more than a football club, it is a feeling—and as such its ways of operating often escape rational analysis. We see ourselves as unique in world football and this defines our identity. We do not say that we are either better or worse than others, merely different. We only wish for the sons of our soil to represent our club, and in so wishing we stand out as a sporting entity, not a business concept. We wish to mould our players into men, not footballers, and each time that a player from the cantera makes his debut we feel we have realized an objective which is in harmony with the ideologies of our founders and forefathers. (Qtd. in Ball 72)
Afterword
As the 2002-2003 season of the Spanish Soccer League drew to a close, Real Sociedad de San Sebastian was on the verge of winning the league title: Had they won their last match and Madrid lost theirs, they would have been crowned as the Spanish champions, the first Basque squad to do so in more than two decades. Meanwhile, Athletic Bilbao also could not afford to lose; it needed a win to secure its qualification to the European UEFA cup. Sociedad did its part by winning its last game 3-0, yet the title remained in Madrid as Real encountered no particular problems in winning its game 3-1. It is only ironic that Real’s opponent was Athletic Bilbao. Hence, the season ended in dismay for all Basques, as both teams failed to achieve their goals. This ongoing 2003-2004 season is not much different for Bilbao. With their all-Euskadi squad, they assume a safe position in the middle of the table, avoiding the risk of relegation. Unfortunately, the situation is much gloomier for Sociedad. The pride of San Sebastian, currently ranked in the bottom of the Spanish league, is likely to be relegated to the second division when this season ends. It seems success was just too sudden and quick for this foreign-strengthened cantera.
Works Cited
Athletic Club, Website Oficial . March 2003. Athletic Club Bilbao. 1 Mar. 2003.
http://www.athletic-club.net.
Athletic Munduan Zehar . 2001. A.M.Z. 20 March 2003.
http://www.amz.org/amz/faq.html#puntoii4.
Ball, Phil. “Basque ups and downs.” ESPN.com soccernet, Oct 22, 2002.
http://www.soccernet.com/columns/2002/1022/20021022featball.html
Ball, Phil. Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football. London: WSC Books, 2001.
Barnes, Jimmy. Barça ¾ A People’s Passion . London: Bloomsbury, 1999.
“Bayern Munich: Bodyguards for Lizarazu”. RP-Online. 15 December 2000.
http://www.rp-online.de/news/german/2000-1215/lizarazu.html.
Buford, Bill. Among the Thugs. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992.
Burgen, Stephen. “ Bilbao stick to separatist policy on Basques.” The London Times 8 Oct. 2002. Sports 57.
Championship Manager 4 (PC CD-ROM ) . Sports Interactive, London: 2004.
Croci, Osvaldo and Julian Ammirante. “Soccer in the Age of Globalization.” Peace Review. 11:4 (1999). 499-505.
Crolley, Liz and David Hand. Football, Europe and the Press. London: 2002.
Duke, Vic and Liz Crolley. “Storming the Castle: footballing nations in Spain.” Football, Nationality and the State. Essex: Addison Wesley Longman, 1996.
Fever Pitch . Dir. David Evans. Written by Nick Hornby. Channel Four Films, 1997.
Garland , John, and Michael Rowe. Racism and Anti-Racism in Football. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Hornby, Nick. Fever Pitch. London: Indigo-Cassell, 1996.
Jones, Gary. ”Manchester United’s Average Wage £2 Million.” The Daily Mirror,
Feb. 1, 2002.
Jones, Rob. Barcelona Business: Spanish and Catalan news for business types and laymen alike. October 2000. <http://bcn.qwe.as/stories/storyReader$13>
Kaplan, Robert D. “The Coming Anarchy.” The Atlantic Monthly. Feb. 1994
Kuper, Simon. Football against the enemy. London: Orion 1994.
Lee, Simon. “Grey Shirts to Grey Suits: The Political Economy of English Football in the 1990s.” Fanatics! Power, Identity and Fandom in Football. Ed. Adam Brown. London: Routledge, 1998.
MacClancy, Jeremy. “Nationalism at Play: The Basque of Vizcaya and Athletic Bilbao.” Sport, Identity and Ethnicity. Ed. McClancy. Oxford: Berg 1996.
Rhoden, William C. “College system helps coaches, but not players. ” The New York Times, 6 Apr 2003. Sports 10.
“ Sociedad break ranks with non-Basque Boris.” Agence France Presse, Aug 13 2002.
Sugden, John , Tomlinson, Alan and Paul Darby. “FIFA versus UEFA in the struggle for the control of world football.” Fanatics! Power, identity and fandom in football. Ed. Adam Brown. New York: Routledge 1998.
Wilkinson, Jon. “Athletic Club Bilbao: The spirit of the people.” Footballculture.ne t, March 2003. www.footballculture.net/teams/feat_bilbao.html
“World Soccer 101.” About.com. 15 March 2003. http://worldsoccer.about.com/bl_worldsoccer101.htm
Page One - Page Two - Page Three - Page Four - Page Five - Page Six