ANSAN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012
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SOCCER
FC Barcelona has long standing tradition
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BARCELONA, Spain — Nearly 20 minutes into the latest clash between Spain's most popular football teams, Barcelona's 98,000-seat Camp Nou stadium erupted into a deafening roar. Tens of thousands of Catalans in the city at the heart of their separatist movement chanted in unison "independence!"
More than ever, FC Barcelona, known affectionately as Barca, is living up to its motto of being "more than a club" for this wealthy northeastern region where Spain's economic crisis is fueling separatist sentiment.
Lifelong Barca club member Enric Pujol was at Camp Nou for this month's game against Real Madrid, the team of Spain's capital. Wearing his burgundy-and-blue Barca
jersey, Puiol also held one of the hundreds of pro-independence "estelada" flags, featuring a white star in a blue triangle, which bristled throughout the stands.
"It was a beautiful emotion to see Camp Nou like that," Pujol said. "Barca is more than a club because of the values it transmits. It is linked to Catalan culture. In this sense it is a club and a social institution that acts like our flag."
Barca has been seen as a bastion of Catalan identity dating back to the three decades of dictatorship when Catalans could not openly speak, teach or publish in their native Catalan language. Barcelona writer Manuel Vazquez Montalban famously called the football team "Catalonia's unarmed symbolic army."
Barca-Real Madrid matches have a nickname "el clasico" — the classic — and they are one of the world's most-watched sporting events seen by 400 million people.
in 30 countries.
But local passions run high. In Spain, where football has deep political and cultural connotations, many see the clashes of Spain's most successful
Civil War of the late 1930s and resulting right-wing dictatorship that ended after Franco's death in 1975.
teams as a proxy battle between wealthy Catalonia and the central government in Madrid. If Barca is a symbol of Catalan nationalism, Real Madrid is an emblem of a unified Spain.
Franco's soldiers killed Barca's club president in 1936, and the club
"Barca is an anomaly. There is no other club with its particular history."
Barca, like every institution in Spain, was marked by the Spanish
ERNEST FOLCH columnist
was forced to change its name from a Catalan to a Spanish version. And while Real Madrid was identified with the regime, Barca,
"Under Franco, people could not shout 'Long Live Catalonia!', but they could shout 'Long Live Barca'!(Visca Barcal!)" in Catalan, said Ernest Folch, a newspaper columnist who writes about Barca for El Peri-
for many, came to represent Catalan anti-fascist resistance.
odico. The chant became a kind of code for expressing Catalan pride
"Barca is an anomaly. There is no other club with its particular history," said Folch. "It survived the Franco dictatorship, and has always been a focal point for protest and ferment where sport has mixed with politics."
And politics is a very hot topic these days in Catalonia.
The upswing in separatist sentiment in Catalonia has forced both the club and its players—many of whom form the backbone of Spain's world champion national team—to try a difficult balancing act between supporting their most fervent pro-independence fans without alienating the millions of others who are not.
Two weeks after the politically
charged "clasico," Barca president Sandro Rosell made his first official visit to southern Spain to cool tensions at a meeting of Barca fan clubs.
"I don't know what information you are receiving here, but I preferred to come here and say on behalf of the club that Barca will never get mixed up in political issues," Rosell told the 1,000 Spanish fans, promising that Barca would never display a mosaic of the separatist "estelada" flag at Camp Nou.
"This doesn't mean that this isn't a Catalan club and that of course we will defend our roots and origins, but one thing shouldn't be mixed with the other. One thing is politics and the other is identity. Barca unites us all."
POLITICS
NFL players share thoughts on elections
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — In a rare show of unity, President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney took turns praising Washington Redskins rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III a couple of weeks ago for a video that aired on the Fox network's NFL pregame show. They uttered polished, rote lines such as Romney's "RG3 hasn't been in Washington very long, but he's already created change" and Obama's "You're welcome at my house for a pickup game anytime."
Politics injecting itself into sports, a ploy as old as the forward pass. Whether the sportsmen are actually paying attention is another matter.
Four years ago, it was hard to avoid political talk in some NFL locker rooms during the buildup to the Obama-McCain election. Players were leading voter registration drives. Teammates with adjacent lockers debated taxes. It got to the point that Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crennel declared any discussion about the election at the team facility off-limits because he feared it would interfere with game preparations.
In 2012, it's just not the same.
This year is in Denver Broncos linebacker Wesley Woodyard. "Not to say that we weren't more focused on football back then, but we are really focused on football. But politics, it's kind of quite
are hooked by this election, players said, not the casual player-voter.
"Everybody's tuned in to see what points Barack and Romney are making on different topics." STEPHEN BOWEN
"Last time it seemed to be a little bit more popular in the mainstream," said Miami Dolphins tight end Anthony Fasano, who supported McCain in 2008 and plans to vote for Romney on Tuesday. "And people with public images were speaking out a little more than I think they have this election. Our profession — and throughout the sports world and the entertainment world — I think everyone came together and put more effort into their support for whoever in 2008."
That doesn't stop the candidates from trying to win their support, although it helps to do some homework ahead of time. Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, visited a Browns practice earlier this month and mistakenly confused backup quarterback Colt McCoy for starter Brandon Weeden while speaking to a team huddle, hardly the kind of mistake one wants to make in a competitive state like Ohio.
Nobody's said anything about it. You pretty much can tell how guys feel about the election, but nobody's really talking about it."
And, of course, it doesn't take a political science major to figure out why 2008 was a hot topic.
"That was the first time an African-American had made it that far—and then a female vice-presidential candidate," Redskins defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. "There were a lot more bullet points to talk about."
That's not to say that the NFL players are living in a political vacuum this time around. Cofeld said there're some election talk in the Redskins weight room after every Obama-Romney debate, and teammates Stephen Bowen, Santana Moss and Trent Williams recently talked politics while sitting on the sofa outside the locker room.
"I think he saw the red jerseys and got us mixed up," Weeden said. "But he's got more important things on his mind right now than me and Galt. It was a good brush."
No matter the election cycle, the conversations among the players often turn to a voting dilemma familiar to athletes in all of the major professional sports: Many come from working-class backgrounds, but now earn hefty salaries.
"Everybody's tuned in to see what points Barack and Romney are making on different topics," Bowen said. "I'm very interested."
It's the political die-hards who
STEPHEN BOWEN Washington defensive end
"Most of us
Beyond the locker room, the growth of social media has given the more politically savvy athletes new avenues for making their support known. Three NFL players — Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears, Maurice Jones-Drew of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Antoine Bethea of the Indianapolis Colts — touted their support for Obama in a YouTube video titled "NFL Players Gotta Vote."
aren't that far removed from not being well-paid, from being in that 47 percent that Romney spoke about. That's the way I look at it," Cofield said. I still remember being in that spot, so that's why I lean Democrat. But our paychecks scream Republican."
Then there's Twitter, which gives players an unfiltered forum to opine about the state of the election and the country in general. Dolphins running back Reggie Bush no doubt spoke for many when he tweeted: "When President Obama and Mitt Romney go back and forth saying the other one is lying. How do you know who to believe? Loll!"
The Redskins naturally get drawn into the political discussion more than most teams, given that they play only a few miles from the White House. Those who crunch numbers love to point out that Washington has made the playoffs only once under a Democratic administration since 1945, or that the team's performance in its final home game before the election
correlated flawlessly with the incumbent party's performance from 1936 to 2000, a quirk streak that was broken when the Redskins lost and President George W. Bush won re-election in 2004.
Proven Leadership
Barbara Ballard
State Representative
Forty-Fourth
This November someone has the power to change your life.
Someone who can create jobs for a stronger economy.
Someone who can decide whether your children get the education they deserve.
Someone who can reform taxes to treat all Kansans fairly.
Someone who can impact adult and juvenile crime for community safety and stability
YOU!