Think of football in the Catalan capital Barcelona, and the self named giant of the game will instantly spring to mind, even if the roundball game isn’t your interest. Everyone knows FC Barcelona, its reach is global, its commercialisation of the brand is colossal. Being an alternative option to such a club isn’t easy, and while in Madrid, Atletico are a big club but the shadow of Real is long. In Barcelona, RCD Espanyol are the second side, although a long way short of Atletico in the Spanish capital from being a truly competitive rival. Indeed, like any normal situation of sides from the same city the rivalry is fierce, but Espanyol are almost like little brothers. Much to the disgust of Los Periquitos (Parakeets, the nickname of Espanyol), at the end of last season the La Liga title was secured at their Estadio Cornella de Llobregat by Barca, which ultimately was also another nail in the relegation of RCDE down to La Liga 2 for the new season.
With a “Metro” region population of nearly five and a half million, Barcelona has more than these two clubs, with an array of lower league clubs available, including at one time a called Escoces FC (essentially Scottish FC), whose entire existence ran for a mere 10 months in 1900!
The third team of Barcelona are Club Esportiu Europa, or CE Europa as it is more commonly written. As luck would have it upon my arrival in the city in late April, Las Europeistas (The Europeans, nickname of the club), were at home on the last day of the domestic season needing a win to seal promotion from La Tercera Division RFEF, a seriously regionalised fifth tier. FE Grama were also hosting UE Sant Andreu in a Barcelona derby with the visitors the only team that could pip CE Europa should they fail to win. It seemed too good a chance to pass up on, and with Europa’s Nou Sardenya stadium relatively easy to reach by the metro system from the city centre, a midday kick off on a Sunday morning was also ideal.
CE Europa might be down in the fifth tier now, but along with the bigger Barcelona duo, they were founder members of La Liga back in 1929, a proud piece of history that can never be taken away from them. The club itself dates back to 1907 when Madrid de Barcelona merged with Provencal. Its true golden age was in the 1920’s leading up to the formation of a national league, and they survived the first three seasons in the newly formed Spanish top flight. Relegation brought another merger with Gracia FC in 1931 although for only less than one year when the club was known as Catalunya FC. However this merger was a shambles and the club failed to complete its fixtures three games shy of the end of the season, and CE Europa were back as a standalone entity the following season.
While the last 90 years haven’t seen the club exactly set the heather on fire, the Copa Catalunya has provided some fine highlights, winning the trophy three times in the modern era when money was starting to influence performance more. In 1997 and 1998 they beat FC Barcelona in the final, and it wasn’t a second string side either with the likes of Hristo Stoichkov, Amor, Sergi, de la Pena, Pizzi and Reiziger all lined up to face Europa, losing 3-1 and 4-3 (on pens, after a 1-1 draw) in both finals. A slice of humble pie for the big boys and some local bragging rights for the club from the Gracia area just down the hill from Parc Guel in the city. The third success was more recently in 2014/15 when out of town FC Girona, big boys now themselves, were beaten 2-1.
With so much riding on this last day clash and no online ticket sales I decided to head to Gracia early. Alfons X is the metro stop you’ll need, and then head up the hill following the main road with the Nou Sardenya appearing on your left, magnificently shoehorned into its location with one side in particular overlooked by a significantly imposing, high tower block of flats. Lower balcony apartments behind one end certainly provided additional viewing platforms for what would become a near sell-out crowd, where the official capacity of 7,500 wasn’t exceeded, but it came close to it. The stadium is an artificial surface now, with the pitch and low terraces on three sides cleverly sat upon the roof of an underground car park. The main stand is a thing of beauty and it backs onto the main road.
The teams took to the field amid great pageantry and streamers from the hard core home fans all gathered tightly on the Curva to the right of the stand. Indeed some had jumped over the advertising boards to clear their own mess ahead of kick off. The match coincided with Catalan Valentines Day and some of the lady’s present were carrying a single red rose as given to them by their lover. With CE Europa sporting their classic Velez Sarsfield-esque kit with that distinctive blue “V” design, they lined up to host Montanesa, whose 40 or so fans were here to be heard throughout with two megaphones and flares in the repertoire, albeit not one of them was younger than 30!
Whether politics comes into the support bases in Barcelona, as it does elsewhere in the country and Italy etc I am unsure, but a banner hanging at the home end would suggest a potential “left” leaning. Put it this way, upon seeing the banner my musical youth was poked at the back of the grey matter as “Visions of China” started playing in my head! One thing was for sure, the Europa fans and team were not about to walk backwards and say nothing, unlike how David Sylvian crooned the lyrics of that classic song back in the day. The atmosphere was electric, the sun was out and the backdrop was stunning, this was going to be a highly enjoyable occasion.
Having blown the chance to seal promotion away the week before, Europa certainly benefited from many more fans through the gates for this encounter, and they weren’t about to let them down. Montanesa’s season was done, a mid table finish for them, but amid the cacophony of noise the chance to be party poopers seem to spur them on. Alas the will of the home team was greater and they carried a considerable threat straight from the get go. An early goal would settle any nerves and it duly arrived in the 17th minute following a fine move. News filtered up from near the famous ongoing cathedral construction at la Sagrada Familia that Grama led, and the volume bounced up a notch. The game was being played at a furious pace, albeit with fifth tier players the final ball would sometimes let them down, especially Montanesa who seemed somewhat toothless. That said, an incident near the end of the first half might have been a penalty, but the ref seemed to quickly wave it away very quickly, thereby averting any disgruntlement from the nearby home throng, allowing everyone to trot off with Europa one to the good.
While Sant Andreu had equalised just before the break, that result was immaterial as long as the home side won here, and if the ref had waved away a strong Montanesa appeal in the first half, just short of the hour he helped ignite the party by awarding CE Europa a seemingly ‘soft’ spot kick. It was duly despatched and at two down, with the summer break just thirty minutes away the visitors down tooled and they all went about seeing the game out with pretty patterns and little to threaten either goalkeeper. The final whistle was greeted with great joy and in some cases great emotion. CE Europa were moving up and deservedly so. It will be interesting to follow their journey and see if they can continue to push on. The football romantic in me is always drawn to tales of clubs rising back to where they once belonged, and while La Liga seems like a pipe dream, the sheer possibility is what makes a real football fan turn up through thick and thin to cheer on their team. Just look at Luton Town from fifth to first tier in a decade, so never say no chance.
Football Adventures with James Rendall 