About the German Athletic's Review

Here you have an analysis of the review made by a German newspaper a few days ago appeared at EITb:

Sports

Athletic Bilbao

German newspaper Der Spiegel analyzes Bilbao Athletic

04/13/2008

Walter Mayr has written a long article in which he analyzes the resistance of Bilbao Athletic’s philosophy in the globalized modern football.

Under the title "How a Proud Basque Team Is Resisting Globalization", Walter Mayr journalist analyzes from Germany the philosophy of Bilbao Athletic. History, fans, players, myths… nothing escapes from the particular vision of this newspaper.

The most significant summaries of the text originally written in German are shown below in English:

"Athletic Bilbao is Europe's most exotic football club. For 80 years, the legendary club has managed to keep itself in Spain's top division, fielding players recruited exclusively from the Basque region. But how long can the fiercely independent club continue to resist the trends of globalization?

For the last 80 years -that is, the entire lifespan of the league- the legendary club has played in Spain's Primera División. The only other clubs that have managed the same feat are Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. But the difference between Athletic Bilbao and these two powerhouses of Spanish soccer is that the Basque team only recruits players from the Basque region. More precisely, its players are either Basques or outsiders who came of age playing in Basque clubs.

Ever since the 1995 Bosman ruling by the European Court of Justice, which gave professional football players more freedom to move between clubs within the European Union, Athletic has become somewhat of a dinosaur in terms of its unique hiring policy. The last foreigner left the club in 1912.

Nevertheless, the annals of the club list eight championship titles and 24 cup victories. Athletic can also boast the most unerring goal scorer, the highest score ever in a league victory -its 12-1 win over FC Barcelona in 1931- and the highest number of players invited to join the Spanish national team.

"We cannot and will not change our principles", says Iribar. Even if globalization continues its forward march and survival in the business of professional soccer gets more difficult every year, Athletic insists on abiding by its traditions. "We must keep our feet on the ground and have confidence in the players we have", says Iribar.

Iribar's words carry a lot of weight among the Basques. He has earned that respect because it was he who -in December 1976, a year after the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco- marched onto the field ahead of a match against San Sebastián bearing the Basque flag, which had been outlawed for 40 years.

The crowd in the stands behind Athletic's goalposts is now rhythmically chanting the words "Herri Norte," or "People of the North". Some fans are even waving banners calling for the release of captured members of the Basque terrorist organization, ETA. Others, interspersed among the crowd, are singing "Let's kill a Spaniard" to the tune of "When the Saints Go Marching In".

Nevertheless, radical Basques represent a tiny minority among Athletic fans, who are mostly known for having good manners. But they exist. And despite the fact that it once lost one of its members, Juan Pedro Guzmán, for 11 days when he was abducted by ETA, the club's managing board still favors a hands-off policy in the name of "freedom of opinion".

Whether deliberately or not, Athletic Bilbao is more than just a football club. Athletic is the largest common denominator of the Basques and practically a religion for many of the 2 million people living in the Spanish part of the Basque region. Basque fans refer to the San Mamés Stadium, built in 1913, as their "cathedral", and any self-respecting citizen of this city on the Bay of Biscay has season tickets. The club has 34,000 members, and anyone seeking to join can expect to spend time on a long waiting list.

Athletic's management recognizes that times are changing. But because the overwhelming majority of players, and all of Bilbao's citizens, are opposed to the team's recruiting players other than homegrown ones from Basque "canteras" ("quarries") -as youth soccer academies are known in Spain- it is rather unlikely that transfers will be fielded any time soon.

Athletic's standards are not just a matter of national pride for the Basque people. They also stem from the almost obstinate determination of most Bilbao residents to help preserve what they consider to be the magic of football. Part of that magic means having a stadium in downtown Bilbao, players from the surrounding region and as little commercialism as possible.

Athletic was the last club in Spain's Primera División to allow perimeter advertising boards in its stadium. Athletic's players still wear jerseys with no advertising, and the team continues to adamantly refuse to become a publicly traded company, a standard shared by only three other teams in the Primera División."

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