You like Messi right? I like Messi. I like watching Messi. I like watching Messi dribble through herds of defenders like Frogger hopping for his life.
You like Barcelona, right? I like Barcelona. I like watching Barcelona. I like watching Barcelona tiki-taka their way through hapless defenders. I like watching Neymar and Iniesta and Xavi. I liked watching Carles Puyol ruin an opposing striker’s day. I’m sure I will like watching Suarez when he starts playing.
I like watching Barcelona play Real Madrid. El Clasico. I like the tension and the emotions and the clichés and the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
I like watching the consensus two best players in the world, backed by comically stacked supporting casts, exhaust themselves and do amazing things with a soccer ball and try to beat the other one for my amusement.
I would like to continue to like watching EL Clasico. I’m conflicted though. Catalonia wants out of Spain. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia. Barcelona FC wants Catalonia out of Spain. Barcelona FC wants out of Spain. La Liga is made up of only Spanish teams. If Barcelona is no longer in Spain, Barcelona FC will no longer be in La Liga.
Barcelona FC wants Catalonia out of Spain. I do too. They should be able to govern themselves. But I like watching El Clasico. And I like watching Barcelona in La Liga. Catalonia’s league would not be nearly as competitive as La Liga, and La Liga would not be nearly as competitive as it is now.
This is all an exercise in Chicken Little-esque “the sky is falling” rhetoric, of course. They have not even had the vote for independence yet. Even if it passes, the powers that be in Spain will be reluctant to let go of Catalonia without a fight. There will be litigation. There will be angry words spoken in Spanish and Catalan. This problem will not settle itself soon.
But once the problem is settled, and if the Catalan independence movement is successful, and Barcelona are left without La Liga, and La Liga is left without Barcelona, what then?
This, too, is unlikely. Barcelona brings in too much money for La Liga for them to just let Barcelona drift away into the distance. They will strike a deal. The Catalan teams will stay in La Liga. That is my prediction.
But what if they don’t? It is a fascinating “what if.” Would there be a new Catalan league that Barcelona would rule with an iron fist (presumably the same would go for Real Madrid and La Liga)? Would Barcelona be an independent club and play everybody, a la Notre Dame in college football? This would be fun, and they would be able to play marquee games against strong competition every week.
My favorite option: La Liga takes a page out of the book of American sports and divides itself in half. They’ll have the Catalan Conference and the Spanish Conference, or whatever. Then they could have their tournaments and Barcelona and Real Madrid would meet in the final most of the time, so it would be close to normal. There would still be Clasicos and Spain and Catalonia get to keep their nationalism, and maybe even expand upon it.
You know, if the highly improbably thing that just might happen happens.
Follow Sam Klomhaus on Twitter @SamKlomhaus
