Rebirth of Oviedo
Rebirth of Oviedo
World Soccer Auagust 12th 2005

DOWN IN THE depths, beyond the First and Second Divisions (Primera and Segunda A), Spanish football is a mess, complicated and almost forgotten. They may not have gone in for England's ludicrous Premiership, Championship and then League One nonsense, but it's not that much clearer. And it's far less successful.

The Second Division B (Segunda is in fact four divisions, 20-team groups organised more or less regionally and made up of the odd fallen giant, the occasional B team from the big clubs, and little sides that many haven't even heard of – between them, the 20 teams in Group II have spent just five seasons in the top flight in their entire history, while apart from Rayo Vallecano and Las Palmas, not one side from Group I has played in the Primera.

The Third Division, meanwhile, is split into 17 groups, again made up of 20 teams – a world where you can forget about media interest, replica shirts and television coverage, where many matches are played on pitches little better than those in parks, sometimes sand ones, where average gates occasionally reach the low thousands but generally number hundreds.

And yet on the last Saturday in June, a month after David Beckham and friends toddled off on holiday, a Third Division match attracted a crowd of over 25,000 blue-shirted, flag-waving fans in a stadium that recently played host to the national team.

At one end, a huge banner depicted a phoenix rising from the ashes, and not without reason. The phoenix was emblazoned with the crest of Real Oviedo – a big club celebrating their rebirth after cheating death; one whose recent history has become both a cautionary tale and a story of hope; one who that afternoon, in a play-off Final against Avila, secured their escape from the Third Division, a place they should never have gone in the first place.

A club crippled financially, perilously close to extinction, whose players turned up at training one day to find the electricity cut off; that had spent over half their 75-year history in the First Division, and a solitary year in Segunda B, only to suddenly find themselves languishing down where most clubs get abandoned and forgotten.

A club, nonetheless, who are emerging from the dark tunnel, whose fans would not resign themselves to their fate. A club on their way up at last – thanks to the supporters.

Oviedo are no AFC Wimbledon, they are not a fans' collective – indeed, a new major shareholder has just appeared. They are, however, a club who would have long since gone under had it not been for the reaction of their supporters, the backing of a community that thought they deserved better.

That Oviedo were in the wrong place has been proven by game after game this season and last. For two years, fans have turned up and squeezed in at pitches all over the province that had no stands and could barely deal with hundreds, let alone Oviedo, while against their historic rivals, Sporting Gijon, this season, 16,000 attended – despite the fact that Oviedo were in fact playing Sporting B rather than Sporting themselves. (Oviedo B versus Sporting B in Segunda B, a division above, used to attract a couple of hundred fans.)

Against Club Astur, the city's other team and one fast becoming the target of real hatred, the scenes were even more bizarre. Astur play on the council-owned astroturf pitch behind Real Oviedo's 25,000-capacity Carlos Tartiere stadium, a ground with a capacity for 200 visiting supporters (around 1,000 in total), plus a few hundred more on the grassy banks above it.

Not nearly enough for the “travelling” support, so Oviedo opened up the Tartiere, allowing over 2,500 fans, paying a voluntary entrance fee, to watch the game from the gangways of their own stadium overlooking the pitch next door. An away match watched from home.

All of which underlines just how big June's play-off Final was, what a relief. Oviedo had by then secured a stay of execution, their immediate economic survival, but they had to escape the Third Division – known as the well because it's easy enough to fall into but extremely difficult to climb out. A year before, they had walked their group only to be beaten in the play-offs by Galician side Arteixo.

President Manuel Lafuente admitted that his economic plan to secure the future of the club could only work if Oviedo won promotion, and this time they did. They defeated Avila 5-1 away in the first leg of the Final and the Tartiere match became a party, a 2-0 victory earning them a place in Segunda B.

As the final whistle went, fans rushed on to the pitch. The team, players whom no one outside the city has even heard of, were driven round on an open-top bus and cheered from the balcony of town hall.

You'd think they had won the World Cup, not just promotion to another forgotten division. But the slide had been halted; there was something to celebrate at last. Survival and promotion were the first steps to a second chance for a club that had achieved the unique feat of dropping three divisions in just two years – and, no, that's not a typographical error. Suffering massive debts and amid constant battles between the mayor of Oviedo, Gabino De Lorenzo, from the Partido Popular, and the then Socialist club president Eugenio Prieto, Oviedo were relegated from a 13-year stint in the First Division at Mallorca on the final day of the 2000-01 season. They then failed in their attempt to go straight back up, finishing seventh in the Second Division in 2001-02.

With Prieto and Celso Gonzalez, who had controlled the club since a stock market flotation in 1999, continuing to squander money, worse was to come. Their on-going political battles were significant, too, in a fragmented country of deep regional identities, where clubs are considered the representatives of their provinces or cities, and where Oviedo's ground, the New Carlos Tartiere, to which they moved in 2000, was owned by the council. Institutional support was vital – and it was about to be taken from them.

So was their footballing lifeline. Oviedo were running up debts of over £13million and desperately needed to get back up to the First Division. Instead, the following season, 2002-03, having been forced to sell a number of players, including goalkeeper Esteban to Atletico Madrid and midfielder Boris to Real Sociedad, they finished 21st out of 22 teams and were relegated – to the Third Division.

Yes, the Third Division; two divisions in one go. On the pitch, Oviedo were relegated to Second Division B; off it they fell a division further, to the Third.

A number of Oviedo players, including captain Oli, had not been paid and took their case to the players' union, the AFE. Despite seeking out guarantors and putting together a 16-man consortium, the club missed their midnight deadline to meet the players' demands at a showdown in a hotel. The failure to pay the squad their wages triggered an automatic relegation to the Third Division, and to add insult to injury, Oviedo's financial situation meant they were forced to start the following season on minus six points.

Many fans, camped outside the hotel, blamed the players, but Oli was adamant they had been justified in demanding their money. “How do we leave this place?” one fretting team-mate asked him. “By the front door with a pair of ********,” he said, attacking the club and Gonzalez, who by now had sold his shares, and the debts attached to them, to current president Lafuente for a solitary euro.

“It felt like we were selling a cow in there,” Oli complained. “We kept on giving way, more and more, and yet we just couldn't reach agreement. The squad did all it could, right to the end. We take full responsibility for the sporting failure of the club but the financial failure is down to other people.

“This is a situation you could see coming. Where are the thousand million pesetas [£4m] that Betis paid for me or the money the club got for Ivan Ania and [Slavisa] Jokanovic? I wouldn't even have a coffee with the people who used to run this club. I can walk round Oviedo with my conscience clear, which is more than can be said for Celso Gonzalez.”

Few fans agreed entirely. Although they despised Gonzalez for his abject failure and his control of the club, for the sense that he was only looking after himself, they felt that it was the players who had hammered the final nail into their coffin.

Some suspected, too, that they had deliberately failed to reach an agreement; by getting relegated to a division no longer part of the LFP (Professional Football League), Oviedo could not keep the players at the club. Roberto Losada was just one of those who had denounced the club to become a free agent, moving to Valladolid. Other clubs bided their time. Sales would have saved Oviedo but by waiting until the two-division drop was confirmed, other clubs could pick off their players for free.

A far greater hate figure was, however, about to emerge, greater than the players or even Gonzalez. One who would underline just how ironic it was for Oviedo's players to end up celebrating their triumph from the town hall balcony this summer.

That figure was Mayor De Lorenzo. Oviedo's relegation to the Third Division, he decreed, signalled “the end of 77 years of history. Oviedo are in the [essentially amateur] Third Division. The level of capital is not the same and the players don't belong to the club any more. There is a debt of 7,000 million pesetas [£28m]. To artificially keep the club alive would be to con the Oviedo fans yet again. This is a bankruptcy the size of a cathedral and the only thing that's left is to sign the death certificate.”

The man who was set to sign it was the mayor himself. If his words infuriated, his actions had fans in rabid fits, but he inadvertently ended up infusing supporters with the crusading spirit they needed to keep their club alive. His may have been a logical, even realistic appraisal but the fans rebelled – football is not just any old business. Some even saw De Lorenzo's stance as a grasp for the one area of public life in the Asturias region that evaded him: football. If so, he miscalculated spectacularly.

“We need to start from scratch,” De Lorenzo announced, and he was as good as his word, removing the city council's support for the club and instead throwing its weight behind its other team, Astur Club de Futbol, providing them with £60,000-a-year backing.

That was just the start. Astur changed their name to Oviedo Astur (Oviedo AFC, in other words), changed their colours from red shirts with blue shorts to Oviedo's traditional blue shirts and socks with white shorts, altered their badge to look suspiciously similar to Oviedo's and even signed a couple of former Oviedo players.

Astur quickly became known to Oviedo fans – Real (and real) Oviedo fans – as el engendro: roughly, the freak foetus or ugly brainchild, a kind of Frankenstein's monster.

Real Oviedo fans took to the streets in mass demonstrations. They boycotted council-run fiestas. T-shirts declaring “I didn't abandon Oviedo in the Third Division” sold in their thousands. Oviedo bring-and-buy sales sprung up at the stadium, fans selling old shirts, scarves and memorabilia, with all the proceeds going to the club. A real civic reaction had been sparked, which many local businesses backed – the sports shop that now sells Oviedo shirts on behalf of the club does so without taking a cut.

And, above all, season-ticket sales rocketed, over 10,000 within a couple of months, soon rising to over 12,000 – more than many First Division clubs and unheard of down in the Third Division.

As Lafuente, who has recovered much of the credibility lost during his handling of the double-relegation, puts it: “Without the fans, Oviedo would be dead. They knew it was in danger and they put themselves at the front of everything and in front of everything to save it.” No wonder Oviedo have repeated the now famous gesture of the 2001 UEFA Cup finalists, Alaves – the club's new shirt comes embroidered with the names of their members.

There are a lot of them, too; no solitary “Juan” across the chest. Which is more than can be said for the freak foetus. While Oviedo boast well over 12,000 members, Astur could barely attract 1,500.

And, having started more or less from scratch, building a squad in little over a week and with a full-time staff of just 10 (coaches included), Oviedo won the Third Division in their first season, finishing ahead of Astur despite the six-point penalty. The play-off defeat was a setback, although off the field the club were working towards solvency, with some success: a sponsorship deal was struck with the Principality of Asturias, of which Oviedo is the capital.

De Lorenzo realised his mistake – politically, at least – and backtracked. Finally appreciating that he could not beat Oviedo, he changed his posture entirely in the autumn of 2004. To the opposition in the city council it appeared little more than an attempt to clean up his image in front of Oviedo fans. Perhaps, but his shift was vital for the club. Survival was at last secured.

Having negotiated the suspension of debts totalling £24m with creditors, Lafuente succeeded in persuading De Lorenzo to once again recognise Real Oviedo as the city's representative club. The £60,000 funding was removed from Astur, and De Lorenzo agreed to foot the bill for the Carlos Tartiere, as well as purchasing £40,000-worth of tickets for each game, which would then be handed out to schoolchildren and agreeing to support a share issue to raise funds. Hopping on to the bandwagon, he even made himself a member of the club. “I neither forgive nor forget,” said Lafuente, “but if needs be, I'll pact with the devil if it's good for Real Oviedo.”

He had a point. A deal with the council was certainly necessary and within the year Oviedo were making their first tentative steps back, De Lorenzo insisting that he, too, was delighted to see them climb halfway out of the well. Few were under any illusions, though: institutional backing confirmed survival but it was rooted in the fans. And nor are Oviedo entirely safe yet.

As they won promotion at the second time of asking, against the backdrop of those 25,000 fans, a Third Division record, one of the club's captains, Aitor Aldeondo, proclaimed: “I've played at lots of clubs, but I have never seen anything like this. Oviedo's fans are the best in the world.”

Lafuente, meanwhile, summed up Oviedo's journey with a matter-of-fact realism:

“Our first joy, the one that came with securing survival, is like the feeling a prisoner gets when they take him off death row. Our second, this promotion, is like that prisoner being released on parole.” Another mistake and it could all go wrong, but Oviedo have renewed hope.

While Oviedo's story has shown that fans can make a difference and has given hope to other struggling clubs (not least rivals Sporting Gijon), it also underlines the dangers faced by Spanish clubs. Especially when politics and ownership meet – and Spanish football is eminently political.

Only now is English football starting to get even remotely near to the Spanish game in terms of the fame and significance of chairmen and presidents. When Liverpool played Barcelona in the Champions League a few years ago the camera kept on focusing on Barca president Joan Gaspart. Everyone in Spain knew him instantly; far fewer in England recognised that the bloke with the moustache sitting next to him was Liverpool chairman David Moores.

Oviedo's recent history has also revealed, yet again, that public companies are by their very nature vulnerable; ownership can be so easily achieved. Yet, bizarrely, plcs were considered the answer to all Spain's problems not long ago, the Holy Grail of economic success. Yes, really. The notion that Spain's clubs are owned by their fans, which appears to be generally held in England, is simply wrong. In 1999 every Spanish club, with four exceptions, were forced to become a sporting plc (a SAD), with a series of restrictions, in a bid to solve football's economic crisis.

The four exceptions were the Big Two, Barcelona and Real Madrid (hence the assumption), Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna, but in fact all other Spanish clubs are SADs, even if in most cases the former owners have managed to maintain a controlling interest after flotation and despite the fact that there are still presidential elections at most clubs – voted in by shareholders rather than members.

Some clubs have succeeded under the SAD model, of course. Villarreal, bought by Paco Roig, are the outstanding example this season, while a consortium headed by former Liverpool striker Michael Robinson has carefully and expertly steered Cadiz back from crisis to the First Division. In the main, though, the SAD law has been an abject failure, with combined club debts reaching £1,080m and having opened up Spanish clubs to the whims that Manchester United fans now fear with Malcolm Glazer. At the most extreme end, an undercover television programme showed one football agent explaining how easy it would be to buy up Sporting Gijon and use it as a front for laundering money.

That is an isolated example, of course, and many clubs are run extremely well and with sensitivity towards the fans. But even among those who have supported their clubs there are serious question marks about major shareholders and presidents (normally one and the same).

Betis's Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, who made his fortune from second-hand televisions with huge rates of interest, has managed to get himself voted in as president in perpetuity – despite an investigation by the Inland Revenue, a number of serious allegations made against him and a lack of transparency in the club accounts. Meanwhile, his opposite number at Sevilla, Jose Maria del Nido, has a sound economic policy but his claim to be “the most important man in Seville after the Pope” says much about the power many believe club presidency can bring.

And there's more. Malaga's president Serafin Roldan is a self-confessed Barcelona fan; an Argentinian named Daniel Grinbank took over Leganes last season, brought in 11 Argentinian players and was gone within six months when it turned out he didn't have any money after all; and bitter shareholder battles were the main reason Valencia lost the most successful manager in their history, Rafael Benitez, who has now won the European Cup with Liverpool.

Then, of course, there is Dimitri Piterman, a bogeyman for much of the Spanish press (rather harshly so). The Ukrainian-American famously bought a 26 per cent share of Racing Santander and decided he wanted to be coach. So, he sacked Manuel Preciados and put himself in charge. But Spanish rules prevent anyone acting as a coach without a coaching qualification so Piterman appointed Cuchi Cos, who had worked with him at Segunda B side Palamos, as his official coach, with Piterman pulling the strings.

However, there was a further problem. Piterman was obsessed with sitting on the bench for matches, but was not allowed to do so without a coaching qualification. “It's crazy,” he complained. “Any old idiot can run a country, and you're telling me I need a piece of paper to sit on a bench?”

So Piterman applied to be Racing's match-day delegate. The federation refused. He applied to be kit-man. The federation refused. He threatened to buy up every single front-row seat and shout orders through a megaphone, before hatching a plan: he named himself the club's official photographer and, complete with orange photographer's bib, grabbed a prime touchline spot next to the dug-out. Without a camera.

Piterman was portrayed as a villain. But he has a lot of charisma and seems to know more or less what he is doing. Now at Alaves, having sold his shares at Racing, he has led them back to the First Division. He is also little more than a product of the SAD law, someone who is brutally honest about the way he works. Many presidents try to dictate sporting policy, but just a few do it so openly.

One of the striking features of the coverage of Glazer's recent takeover of Manchester United has been the way in which British reports have held up Real Madrid and Barcelona as a romantic alternative model, one of true identity and belonging.

In principle, they are, of course, right: Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic and Osasuna are owned by their fans, they are democratic institutions. Supporters need not, as Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and much of the press have constantly insisted, fear the arrival of “some oil magnate”. Should their president do something that goes against the club, they can be voted out.

But in practice, faced with elections every four years, the presidential model isn't perfect. Power is still the key, it is just political rather than economic power. The media gets manipulated and election campaigns can be dirty, very dirty. Fans can be removed from what's really going on at their club, they can be priced out of their seats and can still watch their club run into the ground.

The political pressure can prove too great, prompting presidents to seek immediate, election-winning solutions with a limited shelf-life; former Barca president Gaspart blew over £100m in little more than a season trying to recover from the shock of losing Luis Figo to Real Madrid and win back fans. Not one of the players he bought during the spree is still at the club.

As one former Madrid player (and it could just as easily have been a Barca player) confided: “Because the president thinks he might get only four years he tries to sign superstars and do big things so that people remember him and that he can make an impact.”

That is not always good news for the club. The fact that Real Madrid have won nothing for two seasons is not a coincidence. Perez, like Piterman, is more than happy to have a hand in team selection. He just wouldn't admit it. And nor are debts alien to Barca or Madrid, who do not have the same economic restrictions placed upon them – much to the annoyance of the SADs. Madrid had to sell their training ground to survive; Barcelona are looking into a similar plan.

Barcelona's current president, Joan Laporta, whose board is five men down due to in-fighting at the club, has also spent the entire year insisting that a lucrative shirt sponsorship deal is on the point of being signed in China, probably with the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese say they know nothing, absolutely nothing, about it. Politics and spin doctoring are part of the game even when share issues are not.

Very Interesting article Mancunian Red

Good Job. And Good to see some recognition of Asturias, right now they're probably more interested in F1 (Fernando Alonso is from Asturias) than Football.

The truth is Football has become a business, and it's sad to see a tradicional team like Oviedo almost disapear because of money problems and politics.

The support the fans showed in Oviedo is something special , and to think los socios (club members) at Balaidos and the Bernabeu seem to have a knack of whistling at their players everytime things arent going great.

On Realted topics -

Another Club which I personally support, Hercules C.F. (of Alicante), also had money problems and nearly dissapeared. To think that in 96-97 in first division they beat Barcelona both times in the season, giving Madrid the league that year . Hercules was forced to sell their 30,000 person stadium to the city and then had to share the grounds with the local rival, Alicante C.F.. This season though they beat their local rival and have clawed their way back to second division.

Can someone tell me what shitty team like Cadiz, Alaves and Getafe are doing in Primera while more historic teams such as Oviedo, Sporting Xixon, Valladolid, and Tenerife are in lower divisions. It just bothers me a bit.

Also

He plays for Celta now

Phil Ball is an English journalist living in el Pais Vasco (Spain) that covers the Spanish league for Soccernet.com. He writes a weekly article about whatever is the hot topic in the Spanish football. I think he is a great journalist as he brings a good blend of foreign perspective but with a great and thorough knowledge of the local language, culture and history. He knows the complicated political undertones behind the spanish teams and analyses matters pretty unbiasedly.

I think he is very refreshing as the overall quality of Spanish journalism is piss poor in general. If anyone here knows Spanish just read the incredibly biased and passionate opinion articles on as.com and sport.es. I just wish he would write more articles!

Personally I think the quality of the opinion writers on soccernet is very good. The site isn't too good for pure news, but for editorials it is by far the best.

Yes, I've noticed.

He is top class! I usually agree with him, though not on everything. But I usually learn something or think about something differently after reading his articles.

I also like Bobby McMahon a lot(Fox Soccer Channel). He mostly does English stuff, but has been writing about WCQ lately too. He's about the only redeeming aspect of FSC. Jamie Trecker? Is also good for American soccer but I think he's more freelance, not necessarily FSC "property."

I don't read many english websites other than Sky. No one at sky has really "caught my attention."

I agree, soccernet is good for editorials. I think there news is OK, but it is usually late compared to other sources.

Yeah obviously I dont agree with everything he says but he at least uses common sense and, being a foreigner, he isn't really biased toward any particular team.

I agree Bobby McMahon is pretty good just a little hard to comprehend at times because his accent is so thick!

Also, back to soccernet I think Roberto Gotta covering the crazy world of Serie A is pretty good too.

Yeah, Gotta is good. Not too biased. I don't follow Italian footy as much as I do English & Spanish though.

Ives Galarcep (sp??), I think is FSC? does a great job on MLS and American soccer as well.

Phil is great ~ I always enjoy seeing a new la liga article from him.

Mcmahon? Sometimes I think he's brilliant, and other times I think he's a moron...fortunately for him, McMahon is on a show with Max Bretos, Jeremy St Louis, and Michelle Lissle - LMAO

Yeah Phill Ball rocks, do you think that's his real name or just a pseudonym? What about Derek Rae? I enjoy reading his articles as well.

Yeah I like Derek Rae. The overall quality of the journalism on that site is unmatched. The language they use is second to none. It so nice to see professional journalism after reading the crap we get from the Spanish media.

Yup. I like Darek Rae too.

You know who I can't stand?! Well, there are tons. But the one live commetator that I have the most difficulty "tuning out" is Tommy Smith (ESPN live commentator). Unfortunately, I'm subjected to him for all the CL games.

Man, that guy is batty. Super biased and just outright stupid about some things. I hope he retires soon!

I KNOW! Tommy Smyth is the most biased commentator! I for one cant stand his anti-madridism. It is at the point where it is emarassing. I think Derek Rae gets embarassed commenting alongside Tommy Smyth as he says some truly moronic statements.

Actually, I think Tommy Smyth is biased against ANY team that isn't from England, Scotland or Ireland. Certainly he has more bias agaisnt the "latin" teams (Spain, Italy, & Portugal).

I know Derek Rae gets embarrassed. In fact, I remember one time where Derek Rae was pretty much taking the piss out of Smyth. I forget exactly what Smyth said, but it was something like "I mean, it just doesn't get any more beautiful than that, DOES IT?!" (the comment was way over the top regarding the play).

Rae just said something, like "no, I guess not." But you could clearly hear the sarcasm! That's not what was said, but it was something like that. I was laughing so hard.

Oh well, another season of Tommy Smyth's ludicrous commentary. About the ONLY thing I like about Smyth is when he says "GIVE IT BULGE IN THE OL' ONION BAG."

But he says some incredibly moronic things. Sometimes I wonder if Smyth has some sort of chemical imbalance.

Here is the latest Phil Ball article from Soccernet. In his latest installment he discusses trouble in Real Sociedad and the shameful 'other' president running the show in Spain. He also talks about the Echevarria scandle:

I love the English-sort of humor in this guys suff! !

Yup, I caught that last article. Great stuff!

And just when the Premier League was looking to have got the better of La Liga - as evidenced by Chelsea's 4-0 dismantling of Betis in midweek, Malaga went and disproved the theory by beating them 5-0 on Sunday. Come on Chelsea. You'll just have to improve.

-------------------------------------------------------

Quality stuff. LOL. I laughed so much when he ended the article on the note above.

Yup, me too!! That ending was pure class!!!!!

Good Article although I really dislike Sociedad...

Rising and Shining
Phil Ball
Archive

Do forgive me for writing about the local scene again this week, but there are some good reasons for it. I promise not to mention a single Basque next week. It's just that I was out on my early morning jog this grimy Saturday when I came upon a group of professional-looking footballers, all wearing the tracksuits of the league leaders, Osasuna.


BarryCoombs/Empics
Savo Milosevic: Early riser.

Said group were walking along the wind-blown prom looking vaguely sorry for themselves. One of them looked remarkably like Savo Milosevic, the Serbian chap who once played for Aston Villa, and another bore a definite resemblance to the goalie who was at Manchester United last year.

Now Osasuna were scheduled to play Real Sociedad at 18.00 hours that same evening, but since they'd arrived late on the Friday evening I'd not expected them to be up and out walking at such an unfeasible hour of the morning. Maybe they were naturally shy, and wanted to avoid the eyes of the adoring public.

In fact, so intrigued was I to come across this troupe of bleary-eyed chappies that I pulled up from my jog and bid them good morning, as you do. Some of them muttered back my greeting, 'Bit early to be up isn't it chaps?' I enquired, in as jolly a voice as I could muster. One of the players, who shall remain nameless, pointed back in the direction of the hotel in which they were staying. 'It's their fault' he groaned. 'The woman on the desk got the wake-up call wrong, and she rang round two f******g hours earlier than she was supposed to.' I grinned and asked them if it was messing up their preparation schedule for the day. 'Messing it up?' replied the spokesman. 'Now we have to eat earlier, which means we don't get our siesta, which means we play tired. You a journalist?' I shook my head. Of course not, and bade them good luck.

It seems they didn't need that siesta anyway. They won the local(ish) derby in Anoeta, putting paid to Real Sociedad's unbeaten home record, and in so doing preserved their two-point lead at the top over Barcelona. They played very well too, and are looking as though they might stay up there in the upper reaches.

Most experts had them down for relegation this year, and whilst that is still possible, they look far too solid at the back, with loads of pace up front (Webó and Delporte) and plenty of niggling hard-working midfielders to cover for the loss of Pablo Garcia to Madrid.

And all this after being woken up rudely from their slumbers by an over-enthusiastic hotel employee. Was she a Real Sociedad fan, I wonder? Has she been sacked for her misdemeanour? I doubt it somehow. But it just goes to show what the public never really sees. The potential for things going wrong during any given weekend around Europe when thousands of teams are zooming down the roads and sailing through the skies is enormous. The scale of the organisation is often mind-boggling, and yet rarely does a team turn up late, or a referee fail to show. Even when something does go wrong, as in the Osasuna case, no-one gets to hear about it, and the team wins anyway.

In actual fact, several of the Osasuna players were in the cathedral at San Sebastian later in the morning (the time for which their call should have been scheduled) to attend a memorial service in honour of Alberto Ormaetxea who died last week - the manager of Real Sociedad when they won their only two league titles to date, in 1981 and 1982. There was also a homage to him before the game, but none of the Osasuna players had actually been obliged to go to the morning memorial service. Their presence there was therefore all the more impressive for its voluntary nature, underlining the excellent relations between the two clubs, probably better than the edgier ones that exist between Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao. Then again, Osasuna have never been considered a serious rival, which always makes it easier to be friends, but it was interesting watching the two sets of supporters frolicking around together outside the ground, with not a hint of violence in the air.

I walked behind a mixed set of supporters chanting 'Eslovaquia!' in a semi-serious rejection of all things Spanish. Spain play Slovakia in the World Cup play-offs next Saturday  at the Calderón in Madrid, of course. Pamplona is itself a rather ambiguous city, culturally speaking, and lies somewhere on the politico-cultural border between the Basque Country and Spain. I've had corrective little e-mails before from readers telling me off for calling this game a 'derby', but watching the events on Saturday it was hard to escape the conclusion that the similarities are greater than the differences. Let's leave it at that.


JohnWalton/Empics
Javier Clemente: B*@*!!!&cks.

Over in Bilbao of course, as vaguely predicted in this column this week, José Luis Mendilibar bit the dust the day after the piece was posted up on the web. If that in itself was predictable, no-one had quite expected his successor to be Javier Clemente, the man who has put out more fires than Red Adair, but who has lit more than his fair share of them too.

He last managed his beloved Athletic back in the mid 1980's, and cast out into the Spanish wilderness he managed the national side for what seemed like an age, subsequently passing though Real Sociedad, Espanyol (three times), Tenerife, Betis, Marseille...you name it, he seemed to spend a while there. Usually employed as a stop-gap life-saver, he had usually fallen out with either the president, the local community or both by the time his short-term contract had come up for possible renewal.

Never a friend of the Madrid-based press, who considered him too close to radical Basque nationalism for comfort, he became Mr Soundbite, gobbing off in an amusingly foul-mouthed way about all and sundry when given the chance, an attribute that earned him a recent call-up to do the bit-part commentaries on TVE1 after his sworn enemy Michel hung up his microphone to take over at Rayo Vallecano. And Clemente was actually doing it quite well and appearing to enjoy himself - but the temptation to manage the boyhood team that he led to its last league titles in 1983 and 1984 was too much to bear. And now the Spanish press is rubbing its hands in glee at the thought of the tidal-wave of soundbites that are about to come their way.

They're unlikely to be disappointed. Describing his annoyance at the fact that his new charges came within a whisker of winning at one of his old clubs, Espanyol - the host's equaliser coming in the 87th minute of the game at Monjiuc - he asserted that they had been 'at a bollock's length from winning the game'. Now there's a new one for the Colemanballs series.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the peninsula, the new nation of Catalans were beating the early pace-setters Getafe 1-3 in the suburbs of Madrid and putting the seal on a satisfying week. Madrid won too, beating a rapidly plummeting Zaragoza 1-0 at the Bernabéu and setting up a fairly juicy-looking 'clásico' in a fortnight's time in Madrid. Watch this space.

During the Zaragoza game, against whom Raúl incidentally made his debut in 1994 ,the same player became the active professional footballer with most games played in the Spanish league - 396 games to be precise. The remarkable thing about Raúl is not simply that he is still only a mere stripling at 28 but that he holds an amazing amount of other records.

He's now the first Spaniard to reach 100 games in the Champions League, surpassed only by Maldini (120 games). Against Olympiakos he became the first player to reach fifty goals in that same competition. He's Spain's highest-ever scorer, with 42 goals, and is one short of 300 in all official competitions. He's the top scorer of all those still playing in La Liga with 180 goals to his credit, Bialbao's Urzaiz trailing behind in second place with 120 and apart from Zubizarreta, who was a goalie, he's the outfield player with most Spanish caps to his name - now on ninety. Impressive stuff, from a guy that everyone keeps trying to write off.

Elsewhere, Villarreal beat Valencia 1-0 and continued their climb up the table to fifth, leaving their dreadful start way behind them. To be honest, they seem the only club likely to win the title should both Madrid and Barcelona stumble and fall. You have to have doubts as to Getafe's candidacy, and some as to Osasuna's too. Valencia can't keep it together and Depor don't look to have much strength in depth. It's hard to take Atlético seriously, so the only team that can break the mould is Villarreal, the side from nowhere with a squad assembled from rejects and ne'er do wells. It will be interesting indeed to see them play at Old Trafford soon. Is there a better midfielder in the world than Riquelme? If there is, I haven't seen him. And the beauty of it is that he plays for one of Europe's most obscure but efficient outfits, who even play good football when the Muse visits them.

Watching Villarreal keep Valencia at bay on Saturday night, I just had that sneaking feeling that they could pull off a shock this year. It would be a fairy-tale indeed, but one much more likely than Wigan catching Chelsea. It might be worth a flutter at the bookies. If you win, don't forget to send ten percent to this column.

Hooah! To the title!

Bastards

Well, I won't go too far into it, but there are valid reasons for the way they feel. And if how they express it is via sport and football, that is better than doing it through violence and bomns, no???

Well it is frustrating as this is one of the main reasons the NT hasn't been too successful over the years. The Spanish National Team and the Spanish Government are unrelated. In Argentina or Brazil they have reasons to despise their respective governments but they still suppor their NT all the way.

I don't think that is a fair comparison (argentina and brazil). Spain has a very unique and recent history of oppressive centralized government, and it did express it's power through sport, including football. It will take some time to undo the damage that was caused by this type of government.

I think it is a fair comparison, especially when one compares the two situations. While in el Pais Vasco the people were culturally opresses, in Argentina and Brazil the governments have driven two theoretically rich countries into poverty. I would certainly rather be in the Vascos situation rather than in a favela in Rio. And the government's corruption in those two countries has transcended into sport just as much as in Spain.

Nando and Roga leave politics for the politicians and talk footie, mmkay?

here here.

Conversely, things can always discuss matters over pm of course.

A suggestion to the Mods of this forum:


Please go through the forum and merge the Phil Ball threads (there are two on the front page of the forum already),

Then pinn it, and we will have a place to post his articles in the future and comment on them, as they typically are worthy of this.

Thanks

yeah i was thinking of doing that but it aint in my jurisdiction...

We must sacrifice a pinned thread in the Spanish forum then, if not it will get too crowded.
Pm me with suggestions.

I don't think the Betis and Celta threads need to be pinned. They're active and will stay near the top either way, so I don't see the need to pin them.

EDIT: I've reorganized a bit as the pinned topics were getting far too crowded. I think it looks much neater now.

Thanx.

Well thats an easy excuse to give as to why the NT never does anything, although it probably doesnt make that big of a difference anyway.

However, I have always been of the idea of dumping all Basques and Catalans from the NT, maybe the team will play with more heart. I mean if their own "nations" don't support their own players on the national side, why even have them on the team? Whatever you do though the NT will probably always dissapoint, so why even bother excluding anyone??? IMO they should take Baiano for the Spanish NT before Brazil does, he's probably better than Torres anyway.


Yea Phill Ball, your great weekly articles displaced me from the pinned section you bastard

Not sure if this one ever got posted last week:

Phil Ball:

Only a game?

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story...=europe&cc=5901

No prizes for guessing the topic of this week's column. But let's start with the politics. As the moving fingers tap out this column it is thirty years to the day since General Franco drew his final breath - an event mourned by some, and celebrated by many.

The fact that Madrid were playing Barça the night before this anniversary was a spooky coincidence, so spooky in fact that it led certain journalists to question the alleged neutrality of the computer program that sorts out the Liga fixtures each season.

Whatever the truth, the events in the Bernabéu on Saturday night will have left the old dictator turning in his grave. Barça's 0-3 win will probably rate alongside the famous 'manita' (little hand - five goals) that Barcá proffered their eternal rivals in the 1973-74 season, with the recently imported Johann Cruyff directing operations. Franco was still alive then, of course, but had been too ill to attend the game.

Cruyff had famously declared from the safer lands of Holland the year before that he could never play for Real Madrid (they had originally wooed him) because he couldn't contemplate turning out for a team 'associated with fascism', to use his phrase. Signing for Barça soon afterwards, his famous declaration went down like a lead balloon in Madrid, and he was never forgiven for it.

The fact that he scored in that game, set up another three and generally drove the Madrid defence to distraction has never been forgotten, and the result (0-5) remains a stain on the Bernabéu's history.

But Cruyff was never so bold there as a manager, winning only once, despite his fabrication of the wonderful Dream Team. Frank Rijkaard has now won there twice, and has shown himself, in many ways, to be a bolder manager. But more of that later.

The most startling fact about Saturday's game was not so much the two wonderful goals scored by Ronaldinho but rather the fact that after the Brazilian's second and Barça's third, several sections of the Bernabéu began to applaud him, and by implication, the whole team. Florentino Pérez looked on from the Director's box in stony silence.

Madrid experts have been speculating all Sunday on this one, but the last living memory that any journalist has of the Madrid supporters applauding the eternal enemy was back in 1983 when Maradona ran Real's defence dizzy in the clásico of that year. Was this a sign of Madrid's sporting supporters, or was it just their way of protecting themselves psychologically?

The idea here is that by applauding opponents a supporter temporarily kids himself that the fault lies not in the poor performance of his own team but rather in the brilliance of the opponents.

Madrid's newspaper 'Marca', unable this time to blame the result on referees, injuries or adverse stellar constellations, went down the same path, headlining their Sunday edition with the relatively calm:

'19-N. The night Barça were applauded out of the Bernabéu. A stratospheric Ronaldinho pensions off the galácticos'

It's difficult to understand all this stuff unless you live here for a while, but suffice to say that this win is possibly as significant as that result way back in 1973.

Why? Well back then Franco was still alive, and the possibility still remained that his ultra-right mateys would carry on matters regardless after his death, bolshy Catalan and Basque nationalists notwithstanding. Madrid's 0-5 collapse that night, engineered by a player who had nailed his colours to the anti-fascist mast, spelt out the vision of a future Spain in which both football teams and citizens of previously oppressed regions would finally get a fairer crack of the whip.

It was to prove true as well, when Basque teams won the league titles from 1981 to 1984 consecutively, something unthinkable whilst the General and his cronies were around. Madrid came back, however, and proved their colours in the second half of the 1980's with one of their most mythical teams.

But on Saturday night, there was a definite feeling of history in the air, and it cannot be denied that Barça chose their moment perfectly, particularly owing to the fact that only three weeks ago the Catalan Autonomous Government pushed through their parliament a reform of the Spanish Constitution which has remained untouched since the official ushering in of democracy in 1978.

There has been much predictable wailing and gnashing of teeth with regard to this 'Estatut', with the right-wing opposition PP Party - the one that used to be run by an ex-Real Madrid devotee - denouncing it as a 'federalist fantasy' and claiming that it is illegal because it challenges the Constitution. 'Precisely', say the Catalans, many Basques, and the more liberal wing of the ruling PSOE Socialist Party, whose leader, Zapatero, is a Barcelona fan - just to top it all off nicely.

It's all juicy stuff, squeezed out further by the fact that the LFP, the equivalent of the Football League authorities here, proclaimed Barça's signing of the starlet Lionel Messi illegal last week, overturning the FEF's previous decision and challenging either the club, the Federation, or both to challenge the verdict or stop Messi playing until January.

The result of all this? Rijkaard put out Messi from the beginning, throwing down the glove to the League chiefs and surprising Luxemburgo, who'd been expecting Giuly to be facing Roberto Carlos on the right flank. The papers had speculated on whether Messi would play, those hoping he would claiming that it would be interesting to see the 'New Maradona' play against the 'New Pele' (Robinho).

By the end of the game, hard though Robinho tried, there was only one player who was living up to the hype, and that was Messi. The Lord help any more defences this season that have to come up against Messi, Ronaldinho and Eto'o in full flight. It would be interesting to see if Chelsea could cope, this time around.

Whilst Pablo Garcia did his best to elbow and hack both Deco and Xavi out the game - the game-plan presumably being to stifle Barça in their engine-room - the Muse was simply transferred to three others. Between them they terrorised Madrid in the first half, Eto'o once again scoring past his old team-mates and drawing the ire of the packed crowd.

In the second, Ronaldinho scored two sublime solo efforts, but to soften the blow somewhat, it has to be said that on both occasions, poor Sergio Ramós was sold out entirely by a lack of back-up from his team-mates. You simply cannot allow Ronaldinho space in front and space behind, for that's where he will surely go. If allowed to accelerate into space, he'll leave any solo defender sprawling.

The trick is not to get too dispersed, but with García substituted for the more offensive alternative of Baptista, the middle opened up and with it the game went inevitably to Barça. Ronaldinho, the best player in the world, needed no second invitation. The two goals he scored will play forever in the rewinding nightmares of Real Madrid's fans.

And Etoo's too - especially given the fact that he could easily have been wearing a white shirt had the marketing folks seen fit to include him in the brave new world of the Bernabéu circa 2003. But he wasn't pretty enough, it would seem. Becks was, and last night was rumoured to be somewhere out on the pitch, though the sighting cannot be confirmed for sure. Had he gone to Barça as Laporta had wanted, Ronaldinho would have gone to Old Trafford, presumably. Funny old thing, destiny.

It only remains for us to speculate on whether this result will mark out the rhythm for the rest of the season to come. Are Barcelona really as good as they look? Are Real Madrid the rudderless mess they appear to be? Return next week for the next instalment. You know it makes sense.

Excellent article once again by Phil.

Here's another good one from Sid Lowe, who's also a brilliant writer:

Madrid too ugly for Ronaldinho
Real Madrid aren't a team - they're not even a decent collection of individuals anymore, which is why the Bernabeu got to its feet for Barca, says Sid Lowe.

Monday November 21, 2005

Fiesta! You've gotta love Ronaldinho. The toothy grin, the soul-glow mop glistening in the spotlight, the thumb and little finger waggle, now available as a gigantic glove from the Barça Boutique. The gold-encrusted boots and childish enthusiasm. The pure, unadulterated genius ... how could you not fall for him?

Just ask Sergio Ramos, the ¿27m Real Madrid defender who obligingly fell for him over and over. Better still, ask Real Madrid's fans. One hundred years of hate? Pah! Dinho could charm the birds from the trees (although he prefers nightclubs), and he was at his seductive best on Saturday night, melting the hardest of hearts.

It was the Madrid-Barça clásico, Spain's bi-annual Game of the Century, and the Brazilian produced a moment of genius so inspired that even Madrid's fans couldn't help themselves. On the hour, he dashed from inside his own half, left Ramos on his arse (again), glided past Iván Helguera and beat Iker Casillas. Quarter of an hour later, he repeated the trick to round off a 3-0 demolition of the galácticos.

As Iker Casillas wore his Iker Casillas face (the one that says: "Jesus Christ, you call that a defence?"), Dinho raced to the corner, did a little dance, waggled his fingers, and pointed to the sky. And Madrid's fans, jaws on the floor, did something strange - they began to applaud a Barça player. "I'll never forget it," beamed the Brazilian, "very few players have experienced something like this."

Pretty much none, in fact: the last opponent to get an ovation at the Bernabéu was a certain Diego Armando Maradona, 22 long years ago. Marca's front cover said it all: "19 November 2005: The Day Barcelona Left the Bernabéu to Applause."

But, then, Ronaldinho is worth it. This year's European Footballer of the Year (news of which sneaked out a week early because people tend to notice when a French photographer arrives at Barcelona's poshest hotel with a familiar-looking Golden Ball tucked under his arm and an even more familiar-looking Brazilian in tow), he completely destroyed Real Madrid.

So much so that he even achieved another miracle: getting everyone to agree (well, almost everyone: Realmadrid.com brilliantly managed to outdo lies, damned lies and statistics again). It was no surprise to see Catalan daily Sport shout: "Long live the mother that gave birth to you!", but it's not often AS raves about a Barça player, its headline using Emilio Butragueño's now infamous brown-nosed remark about Florentino Perez, to declare: "Ronaldinho is a superior being."

He certainly is. And yet victory was not just about Ronaldinho. Nor, in fact, was the ovation. It was also about Barça and Madrid. And Barça were far, far, far too good for Madrid. "Barça attack better, defend better and play better," shrugged Salgado, who had his side's first shot 15 minutes from time while Barça had 23 of them.

Madrid were flattered by the 3-0 defeat: but for Casillas, they might have lost by six or seven and as Sport gloated: "Watching Casillas is priceless. He lives on the edge of a nervous breakdown; all he can do is make great saves and remember the mothers of his defenders."

Defenders who couldn't get near Barça. Carlos Puyol played with his heart on his sleeve and his hair in his eyes as usual; Xavi Hernández moved the ball with ludicrous pace and precision; Leo Messi, the latest Argentinian to be The New Maradona, ran Madrid ragged; and deadly headcase Samuel Eto'o was too determined, too driven and too quick for his former club, scoring at the Bernabéu yet again to make it 1-0 just 15 minutes in.

The contrast with Madrid could not be any greater - and that was the point of the applause for Ronaldinho. There is something of the **** Yous about Madrid fans, a desire to see the players suffer if they have to. Giving Ronaldinho an ovation was not just about his brilliance. It was also a lament that he plays for Barcelona after Madrid turned him down for being "too ugly", as well as an additional punishment for the underachieving stars in white. And how they deserved it!

David Beckham, Salgado, and Helguera at least worked hard, Robinho at least attempted to make things happen, but the rest were truly horrific. Despite its bias, Sport was right in describing Roberto Carlos as: "pathetic - the next game he plays should be his testimonial". Ronaldo, back from injury but still unfit, was a waste of a quite considerable space. And as for Zidane: "there was a guy in a white shirt," one columnist wrote, "who looked like a fabulous French player who once played for Real Madrid."

Madrid's problems are deeper than that, though. As one television commentator put it: "Ladies and gentleman, you've been watching a great football team tonight. You've also seen Real Madrid." Madrid are not even a team; they're not even a decent collection of individuals any more. "The blue-and-purples are a football team, the whites are an accident," ABC said.

That's nothing new. Indeed, what made this weekend's derbi so striking was that it was no one-off. And it certainly wasn't a fluke: it was, rather, a perfect portrait of the two clubs. Madrid have become masters at seeking out scapegoats but Saturday night was the truth, as naked as serial streaker Mark Roberts, a bloke who made his now traditional appearance. And it, like he, wasn't pretty.

Real Madrid is a mess. Players resent the club and the dressing room is divided. On Saturday, one player privately complained: "there's no soul here", while Guti added: "some players do not feel the colours". It is no coincidence that Madrid have won nothing for two years and it's only getting worse. "I have never seen things as bad as they are this year," confessed another first teamer, and it shows: you can count impressive Madrid performances on the fingers of one hand. Wearing a mitten. They have been defeated five times in 12 and of their seven victories, not one has come against a side in the top half.

Florentino Pérez prides himself on being the greatest construction magnate in Spain. At Real Madrid, what he has built is a massive elephant. Still, at least it's a white one.

Nice read.

"The blue-and-purples are a football team, the whites are an accident," That's a little extreme, but they've got the right idea.

I'm starting to think that after living in the Basque Region, Phill Ball might have some bias against RM.. but then again, the whole world seems to be against us as of late ..

Not the anouncers that do the Real Madrid games on Gol TV, or mainstream web sites, or ESPN2 Cl coverage. They all have a pro-real madrid slant to them. Then again, that may be my own bias causing that perception.

Now, what I will say is that when a team and their fans spend so much time telling the rest of the world how much better they are then the rest of the world, it is only natural that when they fall, the rest of the world piles it on and points it out with the same fever that said team used in proclaiming it's domination. Not sure if you followed that, but I think you did.

ugh i can't stand the gol tv announcers. I do notice one of the espn2 prsenters for the champions league cheering us on. lol i like the guy.

Anyways, i think phill ball is an excellent writer. I enjoy them all.

I always thought that scottish guy who does the la liga games of GolTV was pretty anti-madridista and pro-barcelona.

As for the uruguayan, chilean or argentine commentators that do the spanish language broadcasts on golTV, I like them much more.

Another article I found regarding last weekend's events. Not as good as the previous two, but makes some valid points:

Barça give marketing kings Real a lesson in soccer
By Simon Baskett Fri Nov 25, 2005

MADRID, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Two sublime goals from Ronaldinho, an electrifying strike from Samuel Eto'o and a near flawless exhibition of total football have been etched on the memory of all those who saw Barcelona humble Real Madrid 3-0 at the Bernabeu last week.

Apart from being "the sort of game you wanted to frame and hang up in your front room" as one commentator put it, the match acted as a showcase for two very different visions of soccer.

Barcelona have spent more than two years constructing an almost seamless squad of players containing some brilliantly talented individuals, but one in which personal interests are secondary to those of the team.

At Real, president Florentino Perez has spent five years assembling a priceless collection of some of the world's most famous stars in an attempt to make it the leading sporting brand on the planet.

Both clubs have enjoyed considerable success in achieving their aims.

Barca are, at present, the most attractive team to watch in Europe while Real enjoy a position of hegemony in terms of global marketing.

The Catalans may, of course, fail to win any trophies this season as they try to keep faith with their aim of playing stylish, crowd-pleasing football, but their reputation as a great side is unlikely to be tarnished.

Real's reputation, however, is very much under threat as their aggressive marketing policy is threatening to undermine the club's hard-earned sporting credentials.


BIG NAMES
When he was swept into power five years ago, Perez made a conscious decision to bring the biggest names in football to the Bernabeu.

But while the addition of the headline names like Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham certainly made Real the most marketable club in the world, the true needs of the team were neglected.

The club's most successful coach in recent memory Vicente del Bosque was sacked because he was not "modern" enough, and Claude Makelele, the most important cog in the Real midfield, was sold because he had dared ask for a pay rise.

Little time was given to looking after the emerging youth team players.

Almost as soon as Real had achieved their status as the most glamorous team in the world, their fortunes were on the wane.

The devastating finishing of Ronaldo and the brilliant goalkeeping of Iker Casillas masked the decline for a while, but the trophies dried up three seasons ago and Perez's continuous affirmations that Real remain the best club in the world are now beginning to wear thin.

Although the accountants and management consultants have lauded the construction magnate's success in turning round the club's economic fortunes, the team's failure to produce the goods on the pitch is a major concern.

For how much longer will leading businesses pay top dollar for the right to be associated with a team that is being out-performed by so many other sides in Europe?

Barca have often looked clumsy when it has come to financial dealings and their management of boardroom power struggles, but when it comes to footballing criteria they are streets ahead of their rivals.

While Real, for example, have seen four coaches occupy the Bernabeu hot seat since July 2003, Barca have had just one, Frank Rijkaard.


PATIENCE
Barca's patience has given the Dutchman the time to instil the footballing values he learned at Ajax and AC Milan into his young squad.

Rijkaard is clearly the boss at Barca. He has been able to "rest" or drop players of the calibre of Ronaldinho and Deco, while his counterparts at Real have had their position questioned whenever they have dared upset the Galactico hierarchy.

He has been able to introduce youngsters like Oleguer, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi to the first team and give them the confidence to succeed.

The pressure cooker atmosphere at Real means that promising young players like Francisco Pavon, Alvaro Mejia and Javier Portillo have never been given the chance to prove themselves fully.

Real eschewed the chance to use their option to buy their former player Eto'o because they felt he would not fit into the side. The Cameroon striker went on to become Barca's leading scorer in their run to the league title.

Real's answer to their failure to win a trophy for the second year in a row was to splash out close to 90 million euros ($105.8 million) on new recruits in the close season.


UNPROVEN PLAYERS
But a large chunk of that money was spent on two unproven players, Robinho and Sergio Ramos.

Robinho already appears to be suffering under the weight of expectation and his best performance to date came when he displayed his fantasy juggling skills during his presentation to the media.

Barca spent nothing in the summer, instead they brought the tried and tested Santi Ezquerro and Mark van Bommel on free transfers in a bid to add further depth to their squad.

Even when Real have happened upon productive players they have mishandled them.

Michael Owen, for example, did everything that was asked of him while at the club last season, but it was clear that no matter how well he performed he would never supplant Raul or Ronaldo in the Galactico pecking order.

Real were rubbing their hands when they made a tidy profit on the sale of the England striker to Newcastle United, but they now find themselves in desperate need of his services.

Real may have been blazing the trail in the financial stakes, but when it comes to football it is the Catalans who are giving the lessons.

Phil Ball, November 28th, 2005 from soccernet:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story...=europe&cc=5901

A very good article, rings true.

I especially agree with the part on Lux and the concept of Madridismo, I think he hit it right on the head, exactly what Nando and Carlos have been saying recently.

DEC 4TH 2005 Phil Bal from Soccernt:

Death of a President?

By Phil Ball


Far Left versus Far Right, Di Canio's fascist salutes, a winner for Inter in extra time - all witnessed over a weekend break in freezing northern Italy, where - journalist strike notwithstanding - they appear to live their football just as intensly as the Spanish do theirs. They also know La Liga well, and one of the questions over dinner on Sunday night - apart from the 'Are Real Madrid seriously thinking of buying Keane?' was the one about poor Betis. 'What's happened to them?' Good question, and one not altogether easy to answer.

Perhaps it's the cult of personality, so constantly fed by President Manuel Luiz de Lopera, that is finally coming home to roost. One has only to look at the stadium's name - formely Benito Villamarín- to see part of the problem. Don Manué, as he likes to be known, has named the smartened-up version after his goodself, normally an event that takes place posthumously - but Don Manué being the control freak that he is couldn't possibly leave it to others for after his death. One has to be immortalised in the here-and-now.

Then again, although Betis lie bottom of La Liga after this weekend's games, after a week in which they achieved the seemingly impossible feat of losing at home to Anderlecht, it has to be said that their famously bad-tempered president has always put his money where his mouth is. Taking over as the majority shareholder in 1992, Lopera has restored Betis to the map, whether it's all been a way of upping his profile or not. Few presidents are in the game for purely altruistic reasons.

During Don Manué's time there the club has qualified three times for the UEFA Cup and once for the old Cup Winners competition (although they were losing finalists in 1996), actually won it last season and then qualified for the Champions League proper this season. In an amusing finish to the race for 4th place last season, Sevilla's president José María del Nido - thinking that his side were about to win the conveted last spot - commented to the press that it was a good thing that Andalucía was about to have its first representative in the Champions League, only for Betis to pip them for the place on the last day of the season. Lopera then chuckled to the press that it was indeed a good thing, especially considering that it was Betis who had made it.

As is now well documented, there is little love lost between the two teams - indeed between the two communities, although Betis' working-class image is a little harder to take these days. Lopera, of course, is a self-made man, making his fortune through the sales of old TV sets and washing-machines in the 1970's, renting them out on less-than-generous terms to the very people that he would later come to represent as boss of Betis. Self-made men tend to think that they are right, and it would appear to be the basis of their problem this season.

Lopera worked hard to keep the star turn, Joaquin, at the club, even though the rumours of a move to Chelsea or Real Madrid were well advanced. He even turned up at the winger's wedding in a typical blaze of self-publicity, completely eclipsing the bridegrooms's big day. With the King's Cup under his arm he rattled on to the press about how Joaquin was staying because Betis were no smaller than the clubs to which he was rumoured to be moving, and that the cup under his arm was proof of that. Next season it was to be the Champions League trophy. Why not?

Why not indeed? Well - one problem was the depth of the squad, a fact pointed out to him in the summer by manager Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, himself a feisty (but lower-profile) chap who has accumulated years of experience working as a manager and a right-hand man at various clubs - Barcelona and Mallorca included. He was at Betis in a former life too, and took them to their best-ever league position (3rd) since they won the title way