On Wednesday, I was unable to watch the fourth El Clasico of the season so instead “watched” the game online to get my updates, only to find an incredible amount of abuse being hurled at Barcelona. I was a little taken aback. I was not overly surprised; many people, normally me included, tend to dislike the team who are always winning. Everyone gets bored with countless superlatives being levelled at a successful side and begin to prefer the underdog in such situations.
To call Madrid underdogs sounds rather patronising but in all honesty they are. They have now not beaten Barcelona at the Bernebeu since 2008 and Mourinho has only beaten them once – even that took extra time. However, to see the level of criticism floating around was quite shocking.
Don’t get me wrong, football fans can be quite an odd bunch at times because of allegiances and dislikes are personal feelings. I for instance cannot stand Arsenal Football Club in any way, shape or form. I find it incredibly difficult to be objective when I give an opinion about them and so many of my Gooner friends know not to ask for my views anymore. The fact that I live in Islington and do not support Spurs makes my feelings towards them even stranger to many but it is just the way I have always felt.
There is no doubt that a couple of the Barcelona players do not endear themselves to football fans; most notably Daniel Alves and Sergio Busquets. Both are very good players but have clearly developed an interest in amateur dramatics over the last couple of seasons which certainly feeds the Barcelona detractors. Busquets in particular manages to get himself in too many situations not to be guilty but for me these circumstances tend to arise more frequently in the El Clasico encounters.
I must clearly be missing something but I don’t find anything else they do offensive. They play the game to a higher level than anyone else around at the moment and what separates them even more in my humble opinion is that they all seem to enjoy it so much. The problem they have with Madrid at the moment is that they are the second best side around – by quite a way – and are therefore fighting with Barca – probably not the best choice of wording given the circumstances – in every competition they enter.
Another element in these games is the Jose Mourinho factor. He is an antagonist and therefore certain members of his team embody this to the letter. I find it hard to believe that there are any more unpleasant players in the game than Marcelo and Pepe. The former is in my opinion an average full-back who goes round kicking people when he loses the ball – which happens quite frequently – and the latter quite simply is a disgrace to the game; a thug who would be better suited to a rugby field rather than a football pitch. Quite how he has only managed to rack up eight yellows in the last 11 El Clasicos is beyond me.
Whatever your club allegiance I find it hard for any true fan of football to dislike Barcelona. They are a phenomenally good side who are lucky enough to boast three or four of the best half dozen players in the world at the moment. The quality of their football is beyond doubt as their recent success has proved but they still cannot please everyone. Perhaps I am missing something… or perhaps I simply need to accept football fans foibles and let them dislike if they want to.
James McManus
January 21, 2012
I think Barcelona are by and large disliked, not because they are the best team in the world and win everything, but because they are such a contradictory brand, and that is what they are now, a brand.
The fact that the club consistently portrays itself as some sort of club of ‘the people’ is irritating for a start – this ‘more than a club’ ethos may be more true than say, Arsenal and Manchester United for example, who have alienated their fan bases to a large extent, but they aren’t bankrolled by them and they simply aren’t the key decision makers that they are often made out to be.
Another is that they have openly admitted that the club going for Unicef as their sponsors was little more than a gimmick to drum out sponsorship interest, and it worked with the landmark Qatar Foundation deal – so essentially they admitted to profiting on the backs of a charitable organisation.
They also seem to think that their style of football is the way to play – tiki-taka infuriates me. There is no hierarchy to football, let alone attaching some sort of loose moral compass to styles of play. Winning football is what matters, not how you get to the result.
They also portray themselves to be the saviours of academy football, the antithesis of Real Madrid if you will – but that also ignores the astronomical fees paid out for the likes of Ibrahimovic, Villa, Fabregas, Mascherano.
I happen to like Barcelona. When I went to a game way back in 2005 to see them play Celta Vigo at the Nou Camp, it was one of the greaest experiences that I’ve ever experienced as a football fan.
However, whenever you attach morality to football it always tends to get lead to a deeply flawed argument. Their arrogrance is unquestionable and they are by far the most hypocritical organisation currently existing in football, FIFA aside.
People don’t dislike them because they are the best, for most of us, watching them is a thing of pleasure and the pinnacle of the game at present. Most of us don’t see Barcelona as rivals so it can’t really be to do with a degree of jealousy either. In my eyes at least, it’s their faux-superiority complex that they’ve acquired and the fact, like you said, they happen to have horrible people like Busquets and Alves playing for them.
This Barca side may be better than the Ronaldinho 2006 vintage, but I for one preferred that side a lot more – at least you didn’t feel almost dirty for supporting them.
badgrammer
February 21, 2012
“Winning football is what matters, not how you get to the result.”
This comment, out of all you said, stands out. Its your opinion that winning is thats important in football, which is fine. Barcelona have a different opinion and philosophy that the their teams should play the beautiful game no matter what the result. The club have installed this belief throughout every team, from the juniors to the first team, which is nowadays common knowledge seeing how the press have fixated on it. I think what infuriates people is that there belief, due to their recent dominace, proves to one which works. People argue about the validity of religions but none of them have any solid evidence (e.g. shown on Sky Sports every weekend) that there belief is the correct one. Barcelona have been proving all their disbelivers (tikki takka atheists?) wrong by winning trophys, scoring wonderful goals and breaking a bag-for-life-full of records. Perhaps its some form of jealousy.
To some extent James is right, there is section of football fans, which dislike Barcelona over the UNICEF saga. For me, I’m not really interested, clearly it immoral and understand that, but I am a football fan and I’m too bothered who owns Man United or what Sepp Blatter says. As a football fan i can only fully appreciate what i see on the football field, as for football politics we probably only recieve 50% of the true events, which doesn’t leave the humble fan in a positon to give a balanced opinion…..Trailed off a bit, back to James’ point. I get the impression that a larger section of football fans either aren’t interested or aren’t aware of the politics and mindlessly accuse all Barcelona players of cheating (only in more colourful terms).
My observations of the Real Madrid vs Barcelona games in recent seasons are they are isolated events in La Liga football. Mourinho’s antics are usually isolataed to those game’s (e.g. the poke in the eye, and no one can win at the Nou Camp comment). Players make the referee’s job a complete nightmare by exaggerating, accusing opposing players to get them booked and mass brawls (both sets of players are equally to blame). El Classico isn’t a classy affair, it brings out the worst in both teams and sets of fans who often make rash comments in the heat of the moment (anything goes on Derby Day).
Away from El Classico Barcelona do seem well respected, especially Iniesta who gets an ovation at every away ground except the Bernabeu where they convenienlty forget his exploits for the national team. As an Everton fan, comparing my team to a great side like Barcelona I can’t help but admire them. The keeper and defenders are confident balls players, they defend from the front, there movement off the ball is outstanding and the individual brilliance of their forward players is evident to all those who…..watch Everton. Basically, Barcelona are no Saints but they play an enthralling brand of football which should appreciated by football fans while they have the opportunity to watch them.