Barcelona Vs Athletic Club |LINK|

The two clubs are among the oldest in the country, and have participated in every season of the national championship, La Liga. Owing to this, as well as contesting nine finals of the Copa del Rey[4][5] (in which they are the two most successful clubs),[6] it is the third most-played football fixture in Spain, after the meetings of each with the third constant member of the league, Real Madrid. Due to this, it has been referred to as a Clsico,[4][6][7][8] the modern Spanish term for a significant and traditional fixture (a classic) which is not a derbi based on geographical proximity.

The relationship between Athletic and Barcelona has historically been fairly healthy aside from certain periods when competitiveness became hostility, such as in the early 1980s.[9][10][11] By the turn of the 21st century, the rivalry had largely become a historical concept due to the disparity in the fortunes of the clubs and the lack of a local element,[12][13] but their frequent meetings in matches of importance, including four Copa del Rey finals[14][15] and three Supercopa fixtures in a dozen seasons, restored some relevancy to the fixture.[16]

Barcelona Vs Athletic Club

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Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona are both owned by their socios (members) who elect a president to oversee club affairs.[18][19][20] They also place great importance in developing local players through their cantera (youth systems),[21][22][23][24] and were among the last major clubs to adopt a commercial sponsor logo on their jerseys (Athletic doing so in 2008 and Barcelona three years later).[25][26][7]

As the most successful clubs in their native regions (the Basque Country for Athletic and Catalonia for Barcelona)[11] and seen by many of their supporters as the sporting embodiment of the native population, the clubs have important and similar roles in the national football culture,[17] with Athletic's adherence to a unique 'Basque only' player policy[12] and Barcelona's efforts to become the world's best while maintaining and promoting a distinct Catalan identity exemplifying two diverse approaches to being a sporting symbol of their homelands.

Regional qualifying leagues were introduced, and Athletic became the dominant club in the Biscay Championship (from 1913) while Bara were the strongest in the Catalan football championship (its earliest version was held in 1901). In that period, the two clubs introduced measures which led to them becoming important symbols of their respective homelands,[35][36] Athletic implementing a policy of using only local players in response to being criticised by opponents for selecting too many foreigners,[37][38] and Bara adopting Catalan as their official language. In that era, matches were played by representative teams from each of the regional leagues, including several fixtures between Catalonia and the Basque Country.

In broad terms, Catalonia and most parts of the Basque Country fought on the losing Republican side in the conflict, and the victorious Nationalist regime soon introduced measures against regional languages and cultures.[42] In 1941, football teams with 'foreign names' and symbols were required to amend them to a Spanish equivalent,[43][44] thus Club de Ftbol Barcelona and Atltico de Bilbao became the official titles of the historic clubs and the Catalan flag was replaced with the Spanish on Barcelona's crest[11] (the short-lived Republic had done the same with Royalist symbols in the previous decade, altering the names of clubs such as Real Madrid and Real Sociedad and removing crowns from their crests). This oppressive centralist atmosphere in society contributed to the clubs becoming even more important to the local populations, the stadium being one of the few places where they could speak their language and express themselves freely.[27] In this regard, the clubs had much in common and meetings between them were akin to an international fixture, with the regional representative teams also having been disbanded.

In the domestic league, the performances of Barcelona and Athletic were comparable until the 1960s, with the Basques winning only two titles during the period from 1939 to 1960 compared to seven for the Catalans, but both finishing near the top of the table most years. Athletic won seven cups to Barcelona's six, although the finals between them in 1942 and 1953 both went the way of the Blaugrana.[4][5][15] The Bara coach in the latter match, Ferdinand Dauk, soon took over at Athletic, and won trophies with both clubs.

Dauk had moved to Spain at the same time as his son-in-law and the club's star of the period, the Hungarian Lszl Kubala, who was the first of several foreign imports to make an impact (although the vast majority of players would remain Spanish until much later), winning the league several times plus two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups and a Latin Cup, and enduring a narrow defeat in the 1961 European Cup Final; he suffered a serious knee injury inflicted by Athletic's Eneko Arieta in 1954.[33] During his stay, the club also opened their massive ambitious Camp Nou stadium,[45] the cost of which would weaken the club economically for many years.[46] Real Madrid had moved to a larger ground a few years earlier, and they too signed talent from Eastern Europe and South America as well as from around Spain which propelled them to further domestic and continental success, with the positive international exposure pleasing the regime.[47]

Athletic had a talented forward line in that era, spearheaded by prolific striker Zarra[48] who set multiple goalscoring records[49][50] including most goals in a season, most overall league goals,[51] most hat-tricks,[52] most goals by an opposition player against Real Madrid,[53] and most goals in the Athletic vs Barcelona fixture.[54] However, just prior to the introduction of regular continental competitions, he and his peers passed their peak, and from that time on the club were unable to consistently compete with their old foes for honours. They continued to use only Basque players, and chose to redevelop their San Mams stadium rather than constructing a replacement, with much of the funding sourced from the transfer of their defender Jess Garay to Barcelona in 1960.[55]

By the early 1980s, Barcelona were becoming desperate for major success. They had still not won La Liga since 1974,[62] and in addition to Real Madrid and Atltico Madrid who usually had talented squads, Real Sociedad from the Basque city of San Sebastin had assembled a strong team composed entirely of local homegrown talent, who finished above Bara in 1979 and continued to improve, being runners-up the following year before winning back-to-back titles in 1981 and 1982, overtaking Barcelona in the closing stages of the latter campaign.[63][11] The Catalans hired famous coaches Helenio Herrera and Udo Lattek, but were left unsatisfied even with Copa victories in 1978 and 1981 (after overcoming Athletic in the semi-finals)[64] followed by UEFA Cup Winners' Cups in 1979 and 1982.[11] They had paid a world record transfer fee to bring Argentina star Diego Maradona to the club, followed in 1983 by his compatriot and mentor Csar Luis Menotti as head coach.[9]

However, besides Real Sociedad (who were weakened when midfielder Perico Alonso moved to Bara after their second title), it was also a strong period for Athletic Bilbao, who developed a group of talented but highly aggressive and physical players under coach Javier Clemente.[11][9][62] Athletic took the title in 1983 (their first championship for 27 years)[11][65] just ahead of Real Madrid,[66][67] while Barcelona defeated their biggest rivals from the capital in the cup final.[11] It was clear that the following season could be a close affair between the three clubs, with the added elements of a clash in style and personality between Menotti and Clemente,[9][62] who were not afraid of expressing their opinions to the press,[11][9][68][69] and the pervading feeling in Barcelona that their 1982 title bid had been ruined by a serious knee injury to influential midfielder Bernd Schuster sustained in a challenge from Athletic defender Andoni Goikoetxea.[70][11][9][68][33] Barcelona too had a reputation for 'hard' play which at times could descend into outright violence, and the club had received fines from UEFA for their conduct in recent European matches including the 1982 European Super Cup.[71]

The following campaign brought change for both clubs. At that time, the Supercopa was given automatically to any 'double' winners (rather than meeting the cup runners-up again, as was the case in later eras), thus Athletic were given the 1984 honour and another potentially hostile clash between the sides early in the season was avoided. Barcelona, having replaced Maradona and Menotti with Scottish striker Steve Archibald and English manager Terry Venables,[62] finally won the league title. Athletic reached the cup final again but lost to Atltico Madrid, and they would not reach another for a generation as a gradual decline set in.[65]

A month later, Barcelona made it to the 1986 European Cup Final held on Spanish soil, but unexpectedly lost to Steaua Bucureti. They had just confirmed the signing of Athletic's goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta[81] who would be an important figure in the years to come. Thereafter, both clubs suffered as Real Madrid, led by 'La Quinta del Buitre', won five championships in a row.[82]

Many of Barcelona's supporters within Catalonia, and several members of the club's hierarchy,[122] are in favour of the region becoming independent from Spain,[123][124] with banners and other slogans to this effect frequently seen at matches.[122] Their visit to Bilbao at the end of that month was one of the few occasions when they were not met with open hostility from opposition fans for their perceived role as the club of the independence movement.[125]

Were Catalonia to gain independence, the consequence for its clubs could be expulsion from the Spanish system,[124][122][28][123] as stated on more than one occasion by the league's president Javier Tebas,[28][126] potentially leading to Barcelona and Espanyol competing in a 'Catalan League' alongside very small clubs from the current third and fourth Spanish tiers.[122][28] FIFA did not comment on the "potential future scenario".[123] Similarly, Basque independence is an issue which continues to occupy the political scene in that region,[127] with nationalist parties consistently receiving high percentages in elections. As with Barcelona, independence is a concept which is favoured by many of the Athletic Bilbao supporters in a wider context,[37] but its implementation could result in their club being the largest in a hypothetical 'Basque League' with only a small number of professional teams, as well as bringing to an end their proud record of longevity competing in the Spanish league. ff782bc1db