There is a rumour in Spain that the Real Madrid player Guti is gay.
I googled this and it lead me to a Barcelona fan forum where they were discussing this and each and every one of the posters on the thread came out with various very nasty homophobic and anti gay sentiments in general and about Guti in particular.
I thought Barca fans were supposed to be political, with left and liberal leanings?
Most of what they said wouldn't have been out of place on a BNP website.

I beleive Heiko has posted on here before that Barca's main ultra group is fascist. A fact that dismays me and is somewhat perverse/bizarre considering the civil war and Barcelona's part in it.

You are referring to the right-wing group Boixos Nois who in their early infancy were left-wing but have now turned full circle and are right-wing.

I am not sure they are the biggest Barcelona Ultras' Group but certainly they are the best known because of their 'political' stance.

One of the first things Laporta did when he came to power at Barca was tackle this goup, there was a doucmentary about Barca shown on BBC which showed him coming under attack from the Boixos Nois. They apparently had plans to kidnap him as well. They used to also have hundreds of tickets given to them by the club as is the norm for Ultras' groups in Italy and Spain - these were soon stopped.

Not sure how much prescene they have now. WIll find out next week I suppose

Cheers for that. Interesting stuff. It is pleasing to know that the club has done something to tackle the Boixos Nois.

I said biggest but I wasn't 100% with that statement.

Enjoy your trip. Hopefully the Catalan Police won't be quite as 'enthusiastic' with you as the Madrid lot were with Bolton last week!

I am afraid that nationalism (in this case Catalan) is almost always incompatible with left wing political beliefs.

Hence you find socialist revolutions transforming themselves into expressions of national interst. Hence the French revolution transformed itself into Bonaparts Empire, the Bolshevik revolution into Russian imperialism, I could go on and on.

The only solution is to break down national and racial distinctions. Until that point I am afraid that we will continue to witness disharmony and discrimination.

Would that not be the same for the Basques as well? This is not a statement but a question. I am rather curious as to the Basque expression of identity and how far it goes to the more sinister side of nationalism.

For my part nationalism and left-winged politics can go hand in hand.. If you look at Basue, Corse, Palestine, Irish, Quebec, ...
Of course there are many opposite examples but I don't think nationalism always has to be a bad thing..

I was thinking something similar to what you posted. In Ireland and Palestine surely they are nationalist movements (along side the Basques) My question however is how far does that nationalism go?

while there are undoubtedly extreme nationalists within the irish republican movement - and, i must admit with no little sadness, even homophobes and, indeed, racists who call themselves "republicans" - i, and my comrades, are resolutely REPUBLICAN SOCIALISTS, who see national self-determination within a capitalist hegemony as being the first step to shifting the paradigm of......

ok: i'll stop there.

WOLF TONE - JAMES CONNOLLY - BOBBY SANDS - MAIREAD FARRELL - you can not walk in the historical shadow of this lineage anywhere other than the LEFT side of the road.

the main driving force of euskal herriatok is LEFT REPUBLICAN, who see the basque struggle as inextricably POLITICAL and NATIONALIST.

as for the rag heads? sure they're all LEFTIES.... except for the JUDEAN PEOPLES' FRONT - fekkin' judean peoples' front - fekkin' SPLITTERS!

happy st patrick's pagan / comercialised drink-fest to y'all

DIMITRI

ps: had a GREAT time in barcelona. watched the game in a bar full of barca fans. fabulous. pretty CERTAIN they weren't fascists..... though i didn't actually ask.... shame on me.

pps: sligo rovers holding drogs to 0:0 15mins into the second 1/2 - as we speak.

dimitri wrote:

while there are undoubtedly extreme nationalists within the irish republican movement - and, i must admit with no little sadness, even homophobes and, indeed, racists who call themselves "republicans" -

Has this not always been the case (albeit a minority)?
Franco's mate Eoin O'Duffy for example?

Am I missing something or is it obvious, are there any openly gay footballers? Reason being they know the reaction of the majority of union flag / flag of St George waving tossers on the terraces would be, in short, the same as the Barca minority. Probably leading to their tragic suicide in a derelict building.
As for the Irish nationalism issue, I always felt that the church had a role to play in the homophobia I witnessed - keep religion out of football.

Interesting stuff about the Basque team. Anyone know more about their history and fan base? I would really like to know a bit more about this club.

I can remember a while back them getting into the champions league and getting a fair bit of media attention especially due to their Basque only policy and the links with the club and Sunderland I believe.

Can I direct you to another thread on this board?

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Ha Ha looks like this has been brought up a million times before as there seems to be links to links to links......

I first heard the Sunderland thing years ago (well before I even heard of wikipdeia anyway) But who knows?

Seems it is all a little foggy regarding political affiliations of fans in Spain as it is anywhere else.

huddie wrote:

Am I missing something or is it obvious, are there any openly gay footballers? Reason being they know the reaction of the majority of union flag / flag of St George waving tossers on the terraces would be, in short, the same as the Barca minority. Probably leading to their tragic suicide in a derelict building. As for the Irish nationalism issue, I always felt that the church had a role to play in the homophobia I witnessed - keep religion out of football.

It's not as simple as the fans reaction, club chairman have ordered gay players to keep their sexual orientation a secret as it could affect their sell on vallue.

A current Premiership defender, who made a high profile transfer between two North London clubs is having some mental health problems. I wonder how much this has to do with having to hide his sexuality, and his relationship with a Canadian/British boxer.