Mon, Oct 30, 2017 page11

• Spain’s golden sports age faces Catalonia threat

  • AP, BARCELONA, Spain
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  Catalonia’s attempt to secede from Spain represents a threat to one of the world’s sporting powers.

  For more than a decade, Spain has punched above its demographic weight in sports. The nation of 42 million has produced stars in sports ranging from its most beloved soccer, to tennis, basketball, racing, golf and even water sports.

  However, if Catalonia manages to overcome stiff opposition from Spanish authorities to secede, Spain and an independent Catalonia would suffer on the pitch, parquet and pool.

  Catalonia’s regional parliament on Friday voted in favor of a declaration of independence. Spain’s central government acted swiftly to exercise extraordinary powers to fire Catalonia’s government and dismiss its parliament. Catalonia’s president responded that he was not stepping down and called for a massive public protest.

  In the hypothetical case of Catalonia establishing its own state, Spanish sports would retain tennis’ Rafael Nadal and Garbine Muguruza, Formula One driver Fernando Alonso, golfer Sergio Garcia, badminton Olympic champion Carolina Marin and world champion figure skater Javier Fernandez, plus a slew of coveted soccer players.

  However, it would also lose an important number of talents if a frontier went up around Catalonia.

  A core of soccer players for Barcelona and Spain, the pillars of the successful national basketball team and several Olympic gold medalists all hail from Catalonia.

  Nadal, who is from Mallorca and speaks the island’s dialect of the Catalan language, said that “I can’t see Spain without Catalonia.”

  “I have said many times that I feel very close to Catalonia. I feel Spanish, of course, and I understand that Catalonia is a part of Spain,” he said. “I understand that we are better and stronger together than separated.”

  Here are the key issues at stake for Spanish sports:

  NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM

  Catalans have played a key part in establishing Spain as one of the best national teams. The team has qualified for the World Cup in Russia relying on defender Gerard Pique, holding midfielder Sergio Busquets, and left back Jordi Alba.

  Pique and Busquets helped Spain to its greatest triumph at the 2010 World Cup, where they helped beat the Netherlands 1-0 in the final alongside fellow Catalans Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol, Joan Capdevila and Cesc Fabregas.

  Catalonia does have a regional team that plays the odd friendly, usually during the winter break by Spanish club soccer. On its own, it would be fortunate to even qualify for major tournaments.

  BARCELONA AND LA LIGA

  The most alarming cost, when it comes to sports, for many Catalans on both sides of the secession debate would be the harm done to the wildly popular Barcelona club.

  The Spanish government and league have repeatedly warned that Barcelona and Catalonia’s other clubs, including topflight sides Espanyol and Girona, would not be allowed to remain in Spanish competitions in the case of secession.

  Expulsion from La Liga would put an end to one of sports’ greatest rivalries, the at least twice annual clasicos between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

  The loss of income from television and the huge drop-off in quality of competition, not to mention access to the Champions League, would put Barcelona in peril of plummeting from its position of one of the world’s richest sports clubs.

  It is hard to imagine that Lionel Messi would keep his pledge to finish the best years of his career at Camp Nou if he is limited to testing his skills against a tiny Catalan league.

  Spain allows teams from itty bitty Andorra to play in its competitions, but for Catalonia to get a similar deal it would need the good will of Spanish authorities to change the law. That seems very unlikely given the level of acrimony between Barcelona and Madrid.

  BASKETBALL

  Led by Catalans Pau and Marc Gasol and guards Ricky Rubio and Juan Carlos Navarro, Spain established itself as the next-best basketball power to the US.

  A young Pau Gasol led it to the 2006 World Cup. It lost hard-fought Olympic finals to the US in 2008 and 2012, and it has won three European championships in the past nine years.

  TORN BY POLITICS

  Secession has put Catalonia’s athletes under pressure to declare their allegiance.

  Pique has become a divisive figure in Spanish soccer. Some Spain fans jeer him during Spain matches because of his outspoken defense of Catalonia.

  Pique has strongly supported what many Catalans, including some who want to remain in Spain, claim as their right to self-determination.

  Pique voted in a referendum on secession on Oct. 1, although he has not said he wants a free Catalonia and has insisted on his commitment to the national team.

  Former Barcelona player and manager Pep Guardiola has gone much further and become a leading proponent of Catalan independence.

  MotoGP champion Marc Marquez and taekwondo gold medalist Joel Gonzalez have said that like many people in Catalonia, they are perfectly content with the dual identity of being Catalan and Spanish.

  Kayak gold medalist Saul Craviotto is in the unique position of being a top athlete as well as an officer in Spain’s National Police stationed in his hometown of Lleida in northeastern Catalonia.

  After Catalonia’s parliament declared independence on Friday, Craviotto said he felt forced to speak out on the political crisis.

  “I only ask that everything return to its normal course as soon as possible, because with this senselessness we are going adrift,” he said on Twitter.
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