Barcelona“It is a classic that is worth a League. If Barça wins, they are champions. And if it draws, almost too. The game is more important than what we are giving it”, assures Juanma Castaño. “Yes, it is a final, although I believe that Barça will be champions no matter what happens on Sunday”, says Bernat Soler. They tell each other through the screen. The first is preparing COPE’s great game, the leading evening sports radio program in Spain. The second has been closed in a Catalunya Ràdio studio, the station that narrates Barça’s matches since the retirement of Joaquim Maria Puyal.
One lives in Madrid; the other, in Barcelona. One has an audience merengue; the other, culer. And they meet in a conversation with ARA to analyze what is at stake this Sunday, in a classic that can decide the League and that arrives marked by a current event that makes a lot of noise: the Negreira case.
“I am vintage -says Soler- and I have the feeling that the classics are becoming a show on the sidelines of the championship”. The Catalan journalist regrets that it serves to release the shirts of singers like Rosalía, to hold commercial events or to sell very expensive tickets: “It makes me angry because football alone should have enough weight”. “The worst thing – adds Castaño – is that the best show we could see is at the box office and they won’t focus on it”. And the fact is that the match comes 8 days after Madrid has decided to get involved in the Negreira case. And there will be neither a directive lunch nor a visit from the white president, who will follow the party from the Spanish capital.
“I have to say that I have never understood the Laporta-Florentino relationship, I find it unnatural that they kissed so much”, says Castaño. “Yes – replies Soler – but I’m pretty sure they will continue with the marriage. There is the posturing of not holding a brotherhood lunch, but they have too many shared economic interests. They have already gone too far with the Superliga, with the war against Tebas”. For the COPE journalist, the problem is that it is not a balanced relationship: “Laporta plays the second-row role all the time. A little self-love, man, you are Barça”. And the answer from Catalunya Ràdio: “What is curious is that, in Barcelona, in Laporta this relationship with Florentino is not penalizing him”.
The Negreira case will float in the atmosphere
Both agree that the scandal will hover over the Camp Nou, but without landing on the grass or in the stands. “I’m sure that many players don’t even know what the case is about,” says Castaño. And Soler reminds him that not many days ago Raphinha was on Catalunya Ràdio, they asked him about Enríquez Negreira and he said that the name didn’t sound like anything to him.
Who is sure to know him is De Burgos Bengoetxea, who will manage the match. The case has put the arbitration group in the center of attention. “I put myself in their shoes and I think I wouldn’t want them to give me the classic. I think he’s a moron”, affirms Castaño, who adds, in the line of Soler, that “he will know how to abstract himself from all the ambient noise”.
A noise that would be very different if the classic was played at the Santiago Bernabéu. “I don’t imagine chants or banners. People will focus on cheering”, says the Catalan announcer, who believes, however, that the majority feeling of the people of Culer is one of shame for this episode. “I don’t think that Barça bought referees”, says Castaño. In fact, he remembers the last League match of 2014, when the Blaugrana were not champions because of a badly disallowed Messi goal. “I understand that the Barça fans think that the best years of the team cannot be questioned”, although he adds: “The club established commercial relations with those who were vice-presidents of the referees. If this is not illegal, it is at least immoral”. Soler does not argue and finishes by throwing the question, the same one asked by the judge investigating the case and which remains unanswered: “Where has this money gone? Who has paid and why? Explanations must be demanded”.
A classic in decline?
“I don’t think it will be a classic with a great display of football”, predicts Soler. “I don’t fall in love with either team”, completes Castaño. They do not use the word, but a certain decadence emerges from the speech of one and the other. “I think Barça will get there better, because they are nine points away and have the ambition to lift an important title”, says Soler. For Castaño, the Blaugrana are also favourites: “A more regular team and better defensively. And Madrid is not the Madrid of two seasons ago, mainly because Benzema is not the same”.
There will, however, be many enticements on the lawn. “I’m looking forward to seeing the Vinícius-Araujo duel”, points out Castaño. If you had to put money on it, who would you bet on? The COPE journalist hesitates for a moment, but both end up giving the same answer: the Uruguayan defender. And between Lewandowski and Benzema? They also match. They don’t see the Polish striker well. Matches end when they are prompted for a result. “2 to 1”, glimpses Soler. “Let the culers understand me, but we need a little excitement in the League”, justifies Castaño before betting on a 0 to 1.
There are many hours of radio left to fill until the end of the season and the championship can be almost decided in March. This Barça-Madrid, despite the shadow of decadence and the Negreira case, is a classic that can be worth nothing less than a League.
The radio classic: conversation between Juanma Castaño (COPE) and Bernat Soler (Catalunya Ràdio) a few hours before the game
