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| Title: | A beginners guide to football in Spain |
| Author: | Mike McDougall |
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Football in Spain, much as it is in England, is undoubtedly the
national game with a passion for the sport that can only be
matched in a handful of countries around the world. Spain’s
La Liga (Spain’s premier football league for those not in
the know) is regarded in many circles as the best in Europe and
the international team have been tipped to bring home some
silverware from a major tournament for a long time (I might add
they’ve yet to oblige the nation). Taking all of this into
account football is clearly tied in heavily with Spain’s
cultural fabric. To watch a game and to gauge the day to day
news and debate is to sample something of Spain and its people
firsthand. There aren’t many social areas which football doesn’t
permeate; whether it’s digesting the sports pages in a café,
catching a game in a bar or kids in the streets and playgrounds
emulating the feats of their heroes.
The two most famous clubs are Barcelona and Real Madrid, the
latter having been regarded as the best team in the world for
the last few years. With squads reading like a who’s who of
international football the clubs boast some of the best players
from around the globe. Football in Spain is a big deal and the
stadia, which constitute major tourist sites in both cities,
certainly reflect this passion; the Nou Camp stadium in
Barcelona has a capacity of 100,000 whilst the Bernabeu stadium
in Madrid boasts a capacity of close to 90,000 and both are
amongst the largest in the world. Visitors to the cities should
certainly consider as tour of the stadiums for a chance to see
just how big they are. Both also offer excellent museums
offering insight into the two clubs glittering histories and
also a chance to see the changing rooms – where most Spanish
schoolboys dream of sitting one day.
As you could imagine, the rivalry between Barcelona and Real is
massive and when they play the match is simply known in Spain as
“El Derby”, it is the biggest sporting fixture in the
Spanish calendar and is quite possibly the most fiercely
contested (and supported) domestic match in all of football.
There’s even more to play for this season as Barcelona ended
Madrid’s dominance by claiming La Liga (Spain’s premier football
league for those not in the know) for the first time since 1999.
Madrid will be looking for revenge this season and have brought
in some exciting new players to try and reignite their title
challenge.
One excellent indicator of how big football is in Spain (and
particularly at these two clubs), is just how much pressure is
heaped on players and managers alike by supporters and the media
when results don’t go their way. Club boards can be exceedingly
fickle and the way in which club presidents are actually elected
by the season ticket holders, gives the fans a lot more power as
those running the club have, to some extent, to respond to their
demands and whims to keep their popularity. For these reasons
La Liga is probably the toughest European league to
manage in and most clubs have an alarmingly high turnover of
head coaches. It’s certainly a cut-throat business and an area
in which the Spaniards are partisan, extremely passionate and
always have an opinion.
About the author:
For the last five years Mike McDougall has been working as a
travel writer and marketeer. He's currently working for a
Spanish language School (http://www.babylon-idiomas.com/) to
provide additional cultural and travel related material on Spain
and Latin America. This article is licensed under a Creative
Commons License:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/uk/
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