Standing in the shadow of giants

Andy Mitten

• Last Updated: January 29. 2009 7:19PM UAE / January 29. 2009 3:19PM GMT

Barcelona met Espanyol late last night in a Spanish Cup match. Television coverage has dictated that more Barca games have kicked off at 10pm than any other time this season – prompting concern from fans.

It was certainly too late for many newspaper deadlines too. The rivalry which exists in Barcelona between the two clubs that make up the Catalan derby is lopsided to say the least.

Espanyol are Barca’s second club, forever patronized by the media.

Espanyol can’t and don’t try to compete with the world famous Barca juggernaut.

Their trophy cabinet holds just three domestic cups won in 1929, 1940 and 2000 – though they reached the 2006 Uefa Cup final and they are sixth in the respected all-time Spanish league table.

“We’ve been beaten so many times that we are used to failure,” says Espanyol fan Andres Merello. “But that makes us stronger people and we are proud of our history. We support our team not because of success but because they are Espanyol. We feel closer to our players than any fan of Barca. And we always stick by our team. When Barca don’t win their fans jeer.”

Most Barca fans will claim that they don’t care about Espanyol and they are too insignificant, whilst reserving their vitriol for the real enemy from the Bernabeu.

At least that’s the excuse given for not attending away games at Espanyol. They sold a paltry 600 tickets last night.

Since leaving their home in Sarria in 1994, Espanyol have played in the city’s 55,000 capacity Olympic Stadium. It’s too big and the running track detracts from the atmosphere. They’ll feel more at home next season in their new 41,000 capacity ground. They’ll also set about winning more local hearts and minds.

Barca’s whole identity is entwined with Catalonian nationalism, as former manager Bobby Robson observed: “Catalonia is a country and FC Barcelona is their army.”

Yet far from being anti-Catalan today, Espanyol have attempted to capture the zeitgeist and Catalanize their club.

In 1995, they changed their name from the Spanish Real Club Deportivo Espanol, to the Catalan Real Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona. Their line has not been consistent. Espanyol’s board refused to support a 1999 campaign for a Catalan national side, despite the club’s moderate president Daniel Sanchez Libre supporting the notion.

Maybe they felt they would alienate some of the club’s fan base. And yet under Sanchez Libre, their days as the right wing club for disenfranchised Spanish nationalists were over, only a few belligerent fascists clinging to the past. Espanyol’s official history was published first in Catalan, not Spanish. Whisper it quietly, but they have got more Catalan players than Barca.

The rivalry may be one-sided, but it has flourished for more than a century since the clubs first met in 1900.

Aware that Espanyol considered them to be “foreign”, Barca fielded a foreigner-free side for the first time in their history. Espanyol fans claim that the rivalry hasn’t been equal since and it’s true that the media is suffocatingly pro-Barca.

In 1988, Espanyol reached the Uefa Cup final, beating three former European champions en route, including the Milan of Gullit and Van Basten.

In the first leg they beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0. Sport, one of the two main Catalan sport dailies, printed a picture of Barca coach Johan Cruyff on their front page the following day, with Espanyol relegated inside.

When a team can’t make the front page of a sports paper in their home city after taking a 3-0 lead in a European final, the fears of some Espanyol fans seem justified.

So no matter what last night’s result was, the only guarantee is that Barca will be on the front pages today.

amitten@thenational.ae