Soccer and The Spanish Civil War.
A tale of FC Barcelona, a Dutchman and Franco's Facists.
It was the late Liverpool coach Bill Shankly who said "Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you it's much more serious than that".
To someone who is not a soccer fan Shankly's statement probably seems absurd. To die-hard fans, players and coaches from across the world it is a perfect way to sum-up the game they live and breathe.
Nowhere, does Shankly's statement have more resonance than in Barcelona, Spain.
The Spanish Civil War lasted from 1936 to 1939, ending with the founding of a fascist dictatorship led by the Nationalist General Francisco Franco. The war claimed 500,000 lives. Writers such as Hemingway, Laurie Lee and George Orwell recorded the death and destruction. The painters Dali and Picasso committed it to canvas. The conflict claimed military and civilian lives alike and served as a horrible premonition of the total war that was to engulf Europe in the 1940s.
Barcelona was the epicenter of the republican resistance against the Fascist Nationalists.
Consequently, as a focal point for the population of Barcelona, the city's football club, FC Barcelona, was soon drawn into the conflict .A month after the Civil War began, FC Barcelona's left-wing president Josep Suñol i Garriga was murdered by Francisco Franco's soldiers in Guadalajara.
On 16 March 1938, the fascists dropped a bomb on the club's social club. A few months later, Barcelona was under fascist occupation and as a symbol of the 'undisciplined' Catalanism, the club, now down to just 3,486 members, was threatened with extinction.
After the War, Franco banned the Catalan language and flag. Football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures led to the club having its name changed to Club de Fútbol Barcelona (from FC Barcelona to CF Barcelona) The Catalan flag was removed from the club's shield.
During Franco's reign one of the few places that Catalan could be spoken freely was within the club's stadium.
CF Barcelona spent many of the post war years trailing the Nationalist club Real Madrid. Franco's Government frequently intervened to give Real Madrid an advantage over Barcelona. Most notably in making sure that the great Alfredo di Stefano signed for Madrid and not Barcelona.
Then in 1974, with Franco in ailing health and his grip on power slipping, two things happened that breathed renewed hope into the club and the city. Firstly, they changed their name back to the Catalan FC Barcelona. Secondly, one of the game's greatest players to have ever graced a football pitch joined from Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam.
Johan Cruyff, is often claimed to be the greatest European footballer of the 20th Century and he duly led FC Barcelona to a period of dominance in the Spanish League. Cruyff was the game's greatest exponent of Total Football, a dynamic and aesthetically pleasing style of play in which players should have the technical skill to be able to switch positions with each other.
He quickly won over the support of the Barcelona fans by saying that he chose to play for them over Real Madrid because he could never play for a club associated with Franco. He further endeared himself to the fans by giving his son the Catalan name Jordi.
Cruyff's legacy to Barcelona is exciting, free-flowing and graceful football which is evident in current players such as Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho.
For many sports clubs every time they take to the field the most they play for is victory or pride, For FC Barcelona football is not just a matter of life and death, it's about history, resistance and freedom
