(10-03-2017 07:52 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(10-02-2017 04:32 PM)Loco Bearcat Wrote:  

(10-02-2017 10:29 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(10-02-2017 09:45 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(10-02-2017 09:29 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Barca is Catalonia, so Barca's stance is expected, you know, Mes Que Un Club", etc. What people don't get is that the people, and the club, merely waned the opportunity to vote. Heck most Catalan's, from what I've read, do not want independence but only the chance to vote. The violence is all on Madrid and will only fuel Catalan distrust of the capital. Regardless, the next El Clasico should be more interesting than usual.

People are likening what happened this weekend to things that occurred during the Franco regime...you best be sure more and more people will be flocking to the Yes side of the referendum the more Madrid does this. With that being said, the BBC is reporting voter counts of around 2.2 million, with 90% of the tabulated votes saying they were for independence. I'm not sure where the narrative that a majority don't want independence is coming from...hell in 2014 they had 45% voter turnout and 84% of them said they wanted independence.

From what I've read recently it's close to 50/50 wanting and not wanting independence. Most just want the opportunity to vote. I'd imagine since the police were brought in to beat voters and steal ballots, then only the more ardent "yes" voters bothered to show up. You are right though in that Madrid has screwed up big time with it's actions which will result in loads of more potential "yes" votes. On another note, Las Palmas pulled a dick move before the match by putting the Spanish flag on it's uniforms. The Spanish flag isn't normally on Las Palmas' kit. Apparently 3 Barca directors resigned yesterday and maybe more are set to resign today. However, that's probably a good thing from a sporting perspective.

How does putting a Spanish Flag be considered a dick move? Spaniards are livid about Catalonia wanting independence, the Catalans are violating the Spanish Constitution. I have been to Spain and a lot of Spaniards don't like the amount of autonomy that Catalonia has and they feel that they get special treatment. They also don't like how the Catalans play the victim in the Spanish Civil War when there was very little fighting there for the first 2 years of the War, the War lasted 3 years and their casualties were very light compared to the rest of the Spain.

It was a dick move because the flag isn't normally on the uniform. It was put there to poke at Barca. It was 100% political. Barca didn't even want to play the match; however, La Liga threatened to dock the team 6 points if the game was cancelled. Also, Spain is not a homogenous nation, it's a collection of former cultures. Catalonia is definitely not the only region that would like to be independent. The Basques region comes to mind in that regard.

Hell, Basque Country has been downright militant about it at times.

The thing that most people don't get is that Catalonia speaks what can for all intents and purposes be considered a different language than Spanish, was an independent kingdom until the late 1700's and again between the early 1800'2 and until the Franco regime it operated autonomously much in the same way Puerto Rico does for us...only Barcelona is a major hub of commerce and that region accounts for roughly 28% of their country's GDP but only receives roughly 8% of their country's financial funding.

See, Spain was a conglomeration of smaller, unwilling kingdoms that only banded together to depose the Moorish invaders and never truly accepted the overall rule of the Spanish monarch due to what they perceived as no acceptable representation. It's akin with what would've happened had the English crown not developed the House of Lords to represent the specific areas.