Author Archives: Jimmy Burns

Less than a week to go before the Champions League  final at Wembley, and my nerves are already on edge, tension rising. I am assured of a ticket, but I am also seriously contemplating asking for help from a neighbour who is a hypnotherapist. This  is a match I’m reluctant to predict the outcome of. My heart sees a Barca victory, but my head throbs with the fear that Ferguson might just clinch it. The more I think of it though, the less does the last encounter in Rome strike …

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It was the poet Antonio Machado who many years ago, meditating on the events surrounding the Spanish Civil War, talked of the propensity of Spaniards to fight each other in word and deed. It was his country’s tragedy-this lack of a common narrative, of mutual respect- what he called the ‘two Spains’. I’ve been between Barcelona and Madrid in recent days, following the rivalry between the country’s two biggest clubs descend to one of its most aggressive and abusive periods in its history. In part both sides share some of …

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A technical hitch so this updated blog I wrote from Madrid has arrived somewhat  belatedly.  I watched the second leg of the Champions Leaguue semi-final tie in a bar in Mostoles, a sprawling satellite town south west of Madrid.I was not the only journalist here. A crew from Spanish TV had beaten me to it- and I could see why they had chosen this godForsaken neighbourhood, of all places, to find ‘atmosphere’. The bar has a reputation as a rather convivial lion´s den. It is shared by a local FC …

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This was a drama of violence and beauty, played on and off the pitch. The machine-gunned post-match allegations that scattered from the Mourinho’s mouth were not just the latest in an enduring campaign of assault on FC Barcelona’s integrity; it was a rallying call for hooligans. This is a man that from his days at Chelsea has dismissed every victory against him by Barca as the result of play acting and weak refereeing. But last night Mourinho’s surpassed himself by questioning Barca’s achievements under Pep Guardiola and implying that it’s …

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Five months is evidently a long-time in La Liga. Those of us who watched FC Barcelona’s 5-0 victory over Real Madrid last November could be forgiven for wondering last night at the Mestalla whether it had really just been an illusion. Let’s be blunt. The Barca that played the first half of the King’s Cup put on probably one of the worst exhibitions under Pep Guardiola’s governance since his infamous first league match as boss when they lost against Hercules. This was a team that seemed to have lost the …

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I went to bed with two competing chants ringing in my ear – one “Asi Asi gana el Madrid”,the other “Madrid, Madrid, Madrid.” From a radical Barca perspective, FC Barcelona was robbed of victory at the Bernabeu by two failed referee decisions: a refusal to give a penalty when Villa was taken down early on in the match, and his willingness to give one when Marcelo dived. From a radical Madridista  perspective,  the penalty scored by Ronaldo was not only justified (if unfairly lacking a red  card) but just recompense …

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As FC Barcelona and Real Madrid limber up for the  first of their serial four epic encounters, the usual abuse has began to fly across the netwaves between some fans. Does this hysteria really benefit anyone other than the pent-up hormonal levels of the main abusers? I think I am not alone among thousands of universal football lovers who, regardless of their particular loyalties, would like to see some mutual respect being shown  by supporters of the  two greatest clubs in the world. Ok there is a historical rivalry here but …

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