“Barça almost disappeared during the civil war”

What would Catalonia be without Barça?

It would be the same, there would have been another Barça, maybe with a different name.

You don’t like soccer. Won’t it be a Martian?

Well, a little bit yes (laughter). I don’t like football because I don’t enjoy it. Not that I have a particular mania. There are other things that I enjoy more.

How did Barça experience the years of civil war?

He lived it just as badly as so many people and institutions. Barça was on the verge of disappearing. A little more and they collectivize it. There was a very clear attempt to demote him and make him a smaller club. Then he is spied on by the Franco regime, and at the end of the war the latter considers repressing him.

In 1936 itself, a president, Josep Sunyol, was shot. Today they would say that Madrid has something to do with it…

It happened in Madrid, but it had nothing to do with it (laughs), apart from the geographical issue.

Were Madrid and Barça facing each other back then?

Real Madrid and Futbol Club Barcelona look at each other with a certain mutual sympathy at the beginning of their history. They are two very similar clubs. They are transversal, they don’t pretend to belong to just one social class, they want to be popular. In the 1930s this began to change. They return to two very competitive clubs.

Was Rossend Calvet a hero for Barça back then?

He’s a very interesting character as there were so many. In many institutions there are these people who are not prominent, but without whom nothing would work. As Barça goes out, Calvet tries to keep the institution alive.

Why did Barça become a target for the regime?

Both Barça and Athletic Bilbao were considered separatist clubs. The assured the Franco press. People increasingly identified Barça with Catalan ideals. The newspaper brand He even went so far as to propose the dissolution of the club, naming it Club de Futbol España and adopting the colors of the monarchical flag.

The club was also bombed.

Yes. But not because it was Barça’s headquarters, but because it was a residential area, the aim was to punish the population. They stormed the headquarters and there were five dead.

The coat of arms was changed, the name Spanishized, but nobody said anything.

what could you say? In 1939 nobody dared to speak. The name was changed because “Futbol Club” was too English and will therefore be changed to “Club de Futbol”.

His father was from Spain. Are you from Barça?

My father was a parakeet and enrolled me as a member. Over the years I’ve fallen less and less fond of Espanyol and football. I never spend more than a minute watching a football news program.

But he dedicated two books to the club.

Yes, because it’s Barça. I’m well aware that the social history of sport is very important for understanding the 20th century. And the history of FC Barcelona is to understand Catalonia.