When this mad run of four El Clasico match-ups between Barcelona and Real Madrid began, I wrote that soccer fans should care about every match and giving this unique run of games your full attention would be worth it. Now roughly 24 hours from the final match, I feel like what should have been a celebration of the sport has become another glaring example of the issues that are rotting soccer from within.
El Clasico Has Become About Everything But The Game
I find myself drowning in a sea of negativity and ugliness that has all but overwhelmed any positives that have occurred on the field. Instead of talking about Madrid’s wonderful tactical display in the Copa Del Rey Final or Messi’s magical 40-yard goal dash last Wednesday, we’re stuck dealing with finger pointing, cheating and an accusation of racism. El Clasico has gone off the rails and become about anything but the soccer and honestly, it’s a little sad.
Even as a fan of Barcelona it was impossible not to be left with a bad taste in your mouth after last Wednesday Champions League semifinal first leg. Diving and cheating is a part of the game and short of a massive FIFA led initiative to change how soccer is played and officiated, that’s not going to change. There is a tremendously exploitable gap between what referees can see at full speed and what the camera shows us in slow motion, just watch the Dani Alves/Pepe incident.
In retrospect, with the aide of multiple replay angles, it’s an ugly, egregious and ultimately successful attempt by Alves to earn a card against a key player on the opposition. You can berate Alves all you want but it’s not the first time we’ve seen this behavior in a soccer match and it won’t be the last because Alves has gone unpunished. You can yell and scream at Alves all you want, but there has always been an element of cheating in organized sports over the decades and the idea of manipulating a situation for you, or your team’s, benefit is part of the game. It’s even been given a title: gamesmanship.
I’m not defending Alves or the other Barcelona players that went overboard with the play-acting last week but I can’t help but be annoyed by media and fans who are acting like the match was some kind of an afront to the game of soccer. We see this kind of crap week in and week out and suddenly we’re all going to lose our minds now?I’ll conede to you that these El Clasico matches are under a much bigger global microscope that the average soccer match, but the idea of people claiming that particular 90 minutes of soccer somehow cast a cloud over Spanish soccer or the game in general is really absurd. You’re grandstanding and ignoring the basic fact that cheating is a part of soccer and the various organizing bodies that could do something to remove it from the game continue to act out the same old hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil routine.
This certainly doesn’t absolve the players of the behavior but if there are no repercussions for your actions, why not push the line in hopes of gaining an advantage? These are professional athletes shouldered with a tremendous amount of pressure and expectation and we act surprised when they jump through a loop hole?
Real Madrid and their supporters can cry and moan to their hearts content but you’ll have to forgive me if I’m not listening. I’ve watched a lot of Madrid matches this season and the idea that they are suddenly above the tactics displayed by Barcelona last week is absolutely laughable. This is where the fallout from the match negatively effects the perception of the game.
It’s like the fable of the boy who cried wolf. We’ve become so conditioned to the likes of Jose Mourinho and Alex Ferguson crying foul and making conspiratorial claims that when something actually occurs on the field that deserves genuine review and analysis, we’re not inclined to care. Casual observers of the sport who see regular headlines about Mourinho claiming some injustice are given the easy opportunity to slap a generic label on the sport and move along. So when Mourinho has a genuine gripe, backed by evidence, it doesn’t really matter because our programmed reaction is to say it’s just Mourinho mouthing off again or playing mind games.
People can trash Madrid and Barca all they want, they can make grand claims about the rotten state of Spanish football, but whether they are English, Italian, American or any other nationality, they really have no grounds to act like the actions of a few players in the third of four massively important and heated derby matches are somehow an across the board indictment of a league or an entire country’s style of play.
You’re really just trying to divert attention away from the fact that the same cheating and jackassery occurs in your favorite league or ix exhibited by your national team. Just because it might look different doesn’t change the fact that it’s happening and no one is doing anything about it. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised since it’s always easier to push the blame on to someone else.
As for the accusations being made against Sergio Busquets by Real Madrid that he called Marcelo a monkey (he's accused of saying "mono", Spanish for monkey, twice to the Madrid player) are an issue entirely on to themselves.
The video evidence presented by the club’s own television station, and being trumpeted by MARCA, makes a possible case against Busquets but is ultimately inconclusive. However, simple right and wrong are not really the point here. Just the accusation of racism is a black eye on the game and another example that badges on jerseys and reading pre-match statements aren’t going to remove an ugly element of human nature from soccer.
If Busquets made a racially insensitive remark towards Marcelo, he should be suspended. Simple as that. If he’s being falsely accused, Real Madrid should face heavy punishment. Trouble is, we’ll likely never really know what happened since this essentially comes down the word of one player against another. Short of multiple players coming out to either confirm or deny what was said, this will probably be a story that’s debated in the media and ultimately filed away with no clear resolution.
There’s no excuse for racist behavior anywhere, let alone on the soccer field. If the accusations are proved true, Busquets deserves whatever punishment comes his way. What’s really troubling is that matter what the results, there isn’t a positive resolution to this situation. Either a player used a racial slur against an opponent or a world renowned soccer club is using their own television channel to promote a false accusation of racism. Both outcomes are equally ugly and detrimental to the sport.
At that’s left now is one more match that hopefully can turn some attention back to the events on the field, instead of everything happening off it.
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