On a weekend when Millwall fans trashed each other, Di Canio invoked his mother, and Newcastle fans battled with police , there were more pleasant scenes to be witnessed at Zaragoza’s La Romareda stadium. During the La Liga match between second from the bottom Real Zaragoza and top of the table FC Barcelona, aggression took the form of some taunting Viva Españas and occasional collective protest of contested referee decisions, thought to have been biased in favour of the visitors. In fact Barca showed how good a team it …
Di Canio and the UK: A Response to Simon Kuper
It is a pity that my former colleague Simon Kuper wastes most of his commentary – Football’s little problem on the right-wing’ on the Di Canio saga in today’s FT coverage on the football manager’s political sympathies and the national culture which nourished them. That Di Canio is Italian, a one-time player of one of Italy’s most fascist clubs, and a self-confessed admirer of Mussolini is well tread ground. Far more interesting in my view are the inclinations of certain representatives of English football within their national culture, …
Pope Francis can do without Mrs Fernandez
Trust Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez to use her first audience with Pope Francis to press her country’s claim over the Falklands Islands. With the demagoguery that has has marked her time in office,Fernandez has seized the opportunity to try and restore her own dwindling popularity by raising a cause that Argentines have historically rallied around. This is the same President that has viewed Jorge Bergoglio as an opponent when he served as Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires and has allowed her allies in the Argentine media to try and wreck …
Barca shows that football can be more than just a game
I knew I hadn’t been dreaming when early this morning my local Battersea street flower vendor Steve told me: “You must pleased, mate”, before congratulating Barca on a “master class in football.” You see, Steve is not only football mad, he is a fanatical Chelsea supporter and, as followers of my blogs and specifically of one of my assiduous stalkers Captain Terry will know, I don’t normally get such genial comments from across the river. Steve is of course not alone. Last night’s game at the Nou Camp delivered …
Barca: The challenge of being more than a football club
Next to feeling that things are not going right, there is nothing worse for a football club, as it is for one’s own life, than not knowing quite why, or not being able to find a way of expressing it. For all the club’s historically self-conscious sense of cultural and political identity, this Sunday it’s difficult to find a Barca fan without a deep sense of foreboding. The defeat in Milan, and the two Clasico defeats have left cules struggling to keep faith in a project they had come to …
The lessons Spain could learn from the UK
As an Anglo-Spaniard by birth, upbringing, and professional experience I spend much of my life seeking out the best Britain and Spain can offer each other and warning against potential no-go areas that should be common to both. Following the news of late across Europe, I am not sure I would recommend the introduction of an outspoken and unpredictable British comedian into Spain’s turbulent political life -can you imagine what havoc Russell Brand might cause-but there are other examples of British public life I would commend to Spaniards, regardless of …
The pain of being a Barca fan
Watching Barca’s performance last night against AC Milan not only threw me into a bad depressive mode. It made my flu that much worse so all I could think of was going to bed and hoping sleep would come as quickly as possible. This morning the memory of last night was the first thought that came to me so I felt it difficult to get up. A hang-over despite not touching a drop of alcohol since Lent began! Such moods are familiar to football fans the world over but I …
Farm Street & The Gays
Today’s Guardian, under the headline ‘Church that turned away Wilde opens door to gay flock” may exaggerate a little by suggesting that something akin to a theological revolution is under way at the Jesuit London HQ, Farm Street Church. We are told that the church that 116 years ago refused the disgraced Oscar Wilde –post-trial on charges of sodomy and indecent assault-a request for a six-month retreat, will on an evening two Sundays from now welcome members of London’s Catholic gay community who will no longer be allowed to gather …
Celtic’s self-delusion
Blame it on the fact that I’ve been doing some research recently into the 1978 World Cup in Argentina but Celtic’s defeat by Juventus in last night’s Champion’s League tie had an element of déjà vue – In Scottish terms. Let me elaborate. Earlier this season, I was among a group of Barca supporters that travelled to Glasgow for that Champion’s League group stage tie which has earned a special place in the history of Celtic. Cold and wet and blasted by the sound of the home supports, it was …
Letter to the Holy Spirit
The next Pope I am praying for…: Would be from the developing world, preferably a Jesuit, and not tied in an way to Opus Dei. Start by making a full public act of contrition for where Church has failed to act with sufficient sincerity and justice, and a true sense of God in all things. Carry out a detailed audit of the Vatican’s assets before deciding which can be channelled to mitigating world poverty and supporting major ‘green’ campaigns. Convene immediately a new Vatican Council ,with full representation of …
