“It wasn’t quite ‘Camp Nou: available for weddings and barmitzvahs’ but it was close. It was also seriously tempting. For only €300, you too could play in European football’s biggest stadium. Sixty minutes, a ref, coaches and Gatorade; medical attention as well, which was probably a good thing. Some €1bn in debt and with a salary limit of minus €144m, Barcelona had to raise money somehow if they were to start the virtuous cycle their president talked about. Or just the season with the men they had signed. Trouble was, even hundreds of people playing hundreds of games weren’t going to cover Gerard Piqué sitting on the bench for just one. Which is where the palancas came in. …”
Guardian (Video)

“La Liga have changed their criteria for what merits a red card. That goes some way to explaining the explosion of dismissals we’ve seen this season in Spain. The league’s own corporate account released a video when the media picked up on this phenomenon to explain what’s happening. In the clip, they said La Liga players had not become more aggressive but that the referees had changed their criteria for what a red card is, thus leading to more red cards in La Liga. They stopped short of explaining what the change was. …”
The Analyst

Barcelona fans during the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid at Nou Camp in April 2002
March 2023. “It is close to midnight on the Travessera de les Corts and there is a reluctance to let go of the day. Thousands remain under the glow of Camp Nou’s floodlights and opportunists sell cans of Estrella, the local beer, out of rucksacks to meet the demand of those unwilling to head home. There is a hum of happiness. A new working week can wait. The drama of an hour before had seen to that. Franck Kessie’s match-winning goal in the second minute of injury time had triggered a noise to wake the dead at the vast cemetery next door. Not only had Barcelona taken a giant leap towards the title in La Liga, they had done so by leaving Real Madrid, their despised rivals, crestfallen at their feet. …”
The Athletic

“Barcelona are on the verge of winning La Liga for the first time since 2019. It has been a mixed season for Barca — they were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage and then crashed out of the Europa League against Manchester United — but winning the league for the first time under Xavi would be a huge achievement. With the Catalan side travelling to Rayo Vallecano tonight and defending champions Real Madrid having slipped up against Girona on Tuesday night, when could Barca wrap up the title? …”
The Athletic

“On February 15, news emerged that prosecutors were investigating payments made by Barcelona to a man who, at the time, was vice-president of Spanish football’s refereeing committee. Just over a month has passed since and Barca have been charged with corruption over their relationship with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who received €7.3million (£6.4m; $7.8m) from the club between 2001 and 2018. Both parties have denied wrongdoing. …”
The Athletic

“Spanish football’s third tier could face collapse in the next 24 hours. A stand-off with the country’s football federation means the clubs must fall in line or risk funding being removed and the Primera Federación being abandoned just 18 months after it was set up. With at least 18 of the 40 clubs abstaining from voting on proposed economic controls and management of the two-group Primera Federación, a ballot was set up on Tuesday night. …”
The Guardian

“Barcelona and Espanyol were a quarter of the way into their first game for more than 50 days, La Liga back at last, when the referee, Antonio Mateu Lahoz, was suddenly set off. Urgently heading across the pitch wearing a determined look, triggered by what he heard or perhaps remembering something really important he had to do, he sprinted straight at Xavi Hernández, who was all in black and shouting. This was only ending one way. Pulling up pitchside, he grabbed Barça’s coach. And then he kissed him, whispering in his ear. …”
Guardian

“The map page shows a location-map for the 20 clubs in the 2022-23 La Liga, with recently-promoted and -relegated teams noted. (Promoted in 2022: Almería, Real Valladolid, Girona; relegated in 2022: Granada, Levante, Alavés.) The map also shows the 17 Autonomous Communities of Spain, and the 20 largest Spanish metropolitan areas. Those 20 largest Spanish metro-areas, with their 2018 population estimates, are listed at the top-centre of the map-page. …”
billsportsmaps
W – 2022–23 La Liga

“‘I’ll be watching it of course, at home, because I like football,’ Carlo Ancelotti said. ‘My teams will be the teams where my players play: Brazil, Spain, France, Uruguay, Croatia, Germany, lots of teams. I’ll follow the World Cup as a fan, and may the best team win it. Unfortunately, Italy can’t.’ There was a smile, a goodbye and with that he was gone. They all were. Just before midnight on a Thursday in early November and the Real Madrid coach was the last man to leave. La Liga was finished, everyone out of here for 50 days. Mentally, some had gone already. …”
Guardian

“When at last it was all over, Joan Laporta stood up, shook hands with Florentino Pérez and slipped out. For the second time in five days Barcelona’s president had sat front row centre watching things fall apart. He had listened to the Real Madrid supporters he had been so looking forward to seeing again launch into olés, laugh their way through ironic pleas for his coach to stay and invite him to enjoy Thursday nights in the Europa League, and now it was time to leave. He went down the stairs, past the statue of Sotero Aranguren and Alberto Machimbarrena cast in bronze and to the referee’s dressing room. There, according to José María Sánchez Martínez’s report, he ‘repeatedly asked for an explanation’. He had come to the wrong place. …”
Guardian

“On Sunday evening Iñaki Williams boarded a plane north to Paris. About the time he set off from there to Le Havre on Monday, Nico Williams was heading in the other direction, south to Barajas and on to Las Rozas, 25km outside Madrid. On Saturday, a night none of them would ever forget – a delirious, joyous celebration of everything they are – they had embraced; then, for the first time, Bilbao’s brothers went separate ways. …”
Guardian