Basques
One interesting question was posed in today's Football Focus. It was related to the inclusion of Bixente Lizarazu in Athletico Bilbao. For those who haven't heard of either, Athletico Bilbao is a football club in Spain and Lizarazu is French footballer.
This shouldn't have raised much interest, considering the fact that in today's professional era where players change their clubs frequently. But the club in question here is Bilbao. Athletico Bilbao is club in the basque region of Spain and has a policy of fielding only Basque players in their squad, since 1912. Lizarazu is a Frenchman, but he is basque. So he could be included in the team.
Basque region consists of region of southern France and nothern Spain ( many have also migrated to Idaho,USA and Argentina). They have their own language which is not related to any other European language. It is considered as language isolate. The origin of basque people and languages are much debated. The theories suggest that they may be the first people to arrive and settle in Europe. Throughout the history basques have tried to remain independent, which is the reason behind the special status given to basque country by Spain. The basque extremists group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna(ETA), meaning "Basque land and Liberty" was responsible for Madrid bombing couple of years back.
Basques people have very close attachment with their homes and they have very strong family ties. The current well-known players of basque origin are Xabi Alonso and Asier del Horno. In the 50's Basque region also played as an independent country and they have their own flag as well.
In fact, this practice of fielding regional teams as countries is prevelent even today in Spain. Even today Catalonia ( region in Spain, whose capital is Barcelona) plays as a national team, though it is not recognised by FIFA. Regional sentiments run high in Spain. They are proud to be, say, catalans than Spaniards. That might be the reason behind Spain's failure in big International competitions!
posted by ninad @ 5:25 pm
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