Last April, in Barcelona's 99,000-seat Camp Nou stadium, the much-anticipated final game of the Copa del Rey soccer championship began. Just before kick-off, Felipe VI, the King of Spain, to whom the tournament lends its name, stood in the stands with his typical dignified, austere expression. On the pitch, players of the two teams, the Basque Country's Athletic Club Bilbao and FC Barcelona, stood in a line as tradition calls for, arms behind their backs. Then, the Spanish national anthem played.
The King did not look like he was having a good time.
During the playing of the anthem, fans began whistling (a generally understood gesture of disrespect), and the music soon became inaudible. Blowing in whistles handed out at the beginning of the match, the fans reached a noise level of a deafening 119 decibels. YouTube videos show the typically unaffected faces of the players from both teams even during the particularly raucous display, but also the dismay of Vicente del Bosque, the manager of the Spanish national team that won the World Cup in 2010. But there was one face in the stands, that of Artur Mas, the president of the local Catalan government, who stood next to the King and couldn't help but let a smirk slide across his face. Everyone there knew what was going on.
After the anthem ended, then came the chants: "In, inde, independencia!" And in addition to the orange and red cards placed on the seats by the stadium staff (which, when held up by the fans, form an enormous quasi-Catalonian Senyera banner surrounding the grass field), there emerged several of the starred Estelada Blava. Both the Senyera and the Estelada are often used as symbols of the Catalonian independence political movement.
It has since been revealed that the whistling ordeal was organized in part by Catalonian political action group Cataluña Acció. Its president, Santiago Espot, considers himself, and by extension Catalonia, victims of the same sort of oppression that was dealt out in Inquisition-era Spain and during the dictatorship under Franco. In his view, Catalonia is a disenfranchised victim of a forced cultural assimilation and oppression. For years a follower of FC Barcelona (also know as Barça), Mr. Espot sees in sports a valid platform for political peddling.
As a product of a young, highly individualistic culture born of a revolution against imperialism, it is easy for me to disparage the idea of a monarchy. But it is also easy to notice when blatant disrespect is being directed at a symbolic figurehead. Why would soccer fans in the year 2015 jeer the King of Spain? Put simply, it is because of the anachronistic view that the powers that be are still, to this day, oppressing cultures that are desperate to be recognized as wholly distinct from the traditional Spanish identity, Catalonia being the example at hand (the Basque Country has also long been associated with an independence campaign themselves, with famously brutal and violent manifestations, which seem to have tapered off in recent years). But the obvious problem, I would argue, may not be whether the Catalonia's complaints are legitimate or not, rather it is the venue of the protest.
Spain's State Commission Against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport have expressed like concerns, having fined FC Barcelona€66,000 ($71,900) for their fans' behavior and failing to quell an anticipated public disturbance.
FC Barcelona has framed the fine as unjust, while maintaining support for their fans' behavior as a "reflection of a sentiment, which [the Club] fully respects."
Mr Espot and Cataluña Acció have also been fined by the Commission, Espot being cited for his "involvement and personal participation" in the whistling protest.
It must be said, in the context of a free society, that shouting things at sports events must indeed be approached as an expression of speech that should not be legally prevented. And some may ask, "who cares about a bit of whistling or banner-flying at a soccer game?" Indeed, even if insults from fans are wholly offensive, it is commonpla
The King did not look like he was having a good time.
During the playing of the anthem, fans began whistling (a generally understood gesture of disrespect), and the music soon became inaudible. Blowing in whistles handed out at the beginning of the match, the fans reached a noise level of a deafening 119 decibels. YouTube videos show the typically unaffected faces of the players from both teams even during the particularly raucous display, but also the dismay of Vicente del Bosque, the manager of the Spanish national team that won the World Cup in 2010. But there was one face in the stands, that of Artur Mas, the president of the local Catalan government, who stood next to the King and couldn't help but let a smirk slide across his face. Everyone there knew what was going on.
After the anthem ended, then came the chants: "In, inde, independencia!" And in addition to the orange and red cards placed on the seats by the stadium staff (which, when held up by the fans, form an enormous quasi-Catalonian Senyera banner surrounding the grass field), there emerged several of the starred Estelada Blava. Both the Senyera and the Estelada are often used as symbols of the Catalonian independence political movement.
It has since been revealed that the whistling ordeal was organized in part by Catalonian political action group Cataluña Acció. Its president, Santiago Espot, considers himself, and by extension Catalonia, victims of the same sort of oppression that was dealt out in Inquisition-era Spain and during the dictatorship under Franco. In his view, Catalonia is a disenfranchised victim of a forced cultural assimilation and oppression. For years a follower of FC Barcelona (also know as Barça), Mr. Espot sees in sports a valid platform for political peddling.
As a product of a young, highly individualistic culture born of a revolution against imperialism, it is easy for me to disparage the idea of a monarchy. But it is also easy to notice when blatant disrespect is being directed at a symbolic figurehead. Why would soccer fans in the year 2015 jeer the King of Spain? Put simply, it is because of the anachronistic view that the powers that be are still, to this day, oppressing cultures that are desperate to be recognized as wholly distinct from the traditional Spanish identity, Catalonia being the example at hand (the Basque Country has also long been associated with an independence campaign themselves, with famously brutal and violent manifestations, which seem to have tapered off in recent years). But the obvious problem, I would argue, may not be whether the Catalonia's complaints are legitimate or not, rather it is the venue of the protest.
Spain's State Commission Against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport have expressed like concerns, having fined FC Barcelona€66,000 ($71,900) for their fans' behavior and failing to quell an anticipated public disturbance.
FC Barcelona has framed the fine as unjust, while maintaining support for their fans' behavior as a "reflection of a sentiment, which [the Club] fully respects."
Mr Espot and Cataluña Acció have also been fined by the Commission, Espot being cited for his "involvement and personal participation" in the whistling protest.
It must be said, in the context of a free society, that shouting things at sports events must indeed be approached as an expression of speech that should not be legally prevented. And some may ask, "who cares about a bit of whistling or banner-flying at a soccer game?" Indeed, even if insults from fans are wholly offensive, it is commonpla