Football: After listening to the advice, I became the strongest free man!

In order to further promote the development of local football, Gamper took a different approach and decided to establish a truly professional football club.

In October 1899, Gamper published an advertisement in a very famous newspaper in Barcelona, ​​calling on citizens who love football to work together to establish a professional football club.

But Gamper's efforts ultimately failed. His invitation did not attract much attention, and only 11 people accepted his call.

What's more frustrating is that more than half of these 11 people are from foreign countries.

Despite repeated setbacks, Gamper's enthusiasm still supported the establishment of Barcelona on November 29.

However, compared with the Madrid club introduced earlier, Gamper's way of operating Barcelona is relatively different-due to repeated setbacks in the process of recruiting local players, Gamper focused on introducing foreign players in the process of operating the team. Therefore, Barcelona had few Spanish players at the beginning of its establishment, and the team from the management to the players were mostly foreign legions.

But such a team was named "Barcelona", which was naturally difficult to accept in the early 20th century when the circulation of players was not frequent.

In addition to the team building policy, the regional background of Barcelona and Madrid also determines the complicated relationship between the two teams.

Catalonia, where Barcelona is located, is a region with extremely turbulent independence in Spanish history. Catalonia has never lost its dream of separating from Spain to establish an independent country.

Even today, the so-called independence wave often breaks out in Catalonia.

As the best football club in Catalonia, Barcelona created brilliant achievements in the 1920s - they won the King's Cup five times between 1920 and 1928, and also strongly supported the independence movement in Catalonia off the court.

This attitude is reflected in the first official charter in Barcelona's history. In order to express support for Catalonia's independence, the first charter in Barcelona's history was written in Catalan, which was banned at the time.

The team building model violates tradition and has completely opposite political positions. Barcelona naturally finds it difficult to please the Spanish government.

However, considering that Barcelona had a good reputation in European football at that time and had a group of solid supporters in Spain, the Spanish government could not suppress it openly, and could only express its attitude indirectly by giving the Madrid club the "Royal" crown.

It is precisely because of the above that Barcelona and Real Madrid have been on opposite sides since their inception. This opposition may only be reflected on the green field in an era of relatively stable domestic situation, but it will be more radical in turbulent times.

In 1936, Franco joined other reactionary officers to launch an anti-government armed rebellion, and the Spanish Civil War broke out.

After that, Franco was elected as the "head of state" and served as the commander-in-chief of the rebels, promoted to the Grand Marshal, and finally won the three-year Spanish Civil War.

In 1941, in order to show his support for Real Madrid, Franco announced that the "Royal" crown that had been deprived of the team would be returned.

It is undeniable that the damage caused by the Spanish Civil War to Real Madrid is far greater than that of Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona, ​​which are also top teams.

Barcelona's system has been thoroughly studied by all the giants, and Barcelona's system is not good at fighting tough battles and against the wind. It is easy to collapse at critical moments, even in the peak of 2009-12. This is fatal in the Champions League knockout stage. In addition, the retirement of Habab and Baibu has a great impact on the Barcelona system, and the younger generation cannot take over well.

Even if it regains the "Royal" crown, Real Madrid's performance on all fronts is far from returning to the level of its peak period.

In the 1940-1941 season, Real Madrid only achieved the sixth place in the league;

In the 1942-1943 season, Real Madrid fell to the 10th place in the league (there were only 14 teams in the La Liga at that time).

In the 1943 King's Cup, Barcelona successively eliminated Levante, Celta, and SD Ceuta to advance to the semi-finals; while Real Madrid successively eliminated Salamanca, Espanyol, and Jerez, and met Barcelona in the semi-finals.

Combining the comprehensive performance of the two teams in the previous seasons, Barcelona is undoubtedly the more powerful side.

In the previous King's Cup journey, the Red and Blue Army showed amazing offensive strength - facing Levante, Barcelona scored 11 goals in two rounds; facing Celta, Barcelona scored 9 goals in two rounds; facing SD Ceuta, Barcelona also scored 9 goals in two rounds.

In comparison, Real Madrid's overall performance was much worse - in the game against Espanyol, the two sides failed to distinguish the winner in two rounds, and Real Madrid finally defeated the opponent 2:0 in the extra game; facing Jerez, Real Madrid tenaciously equalized in the 75th minute of the first round, and finally tied the opponent with difficulty.

In the second round, the team tied with the opponent 2:2 in the first half, and relied on a small climax after 70 minutes of the game to defeat the opponent 5:3.

Overall, although Real Madrid had signs of recovery at that time, public opinion generally believed that they would still find it difficult to compete with Barcelona in a short time.

In the first round of the semi-finals, the Red and Blue Army defeated the opponent 3:0 at home. Such a victory seemed to confirm the outside world's judgment on the huge difference in strength between the two sides.

With such a judgment, the second round kicked off.

However, what is unexpected is that Real Madrid, who lost 0:3 in the first round, showed their full strength in the second round. At the end of the first half, they led Barcelona 8:0.

After that, Real Madrid scored three consecutive victories in the 74th, 85th and 87th minutes, rewriting the score to an astonishing 11:0.

At the 89th minute of the game, Barcelona regained the victory with Mariano Martin's goal, and finally settled the score at a humiliating 1:11.

After the game, Barcelona goalkeeper Miro was overwhelmed and announced his retirement directly, and the president of Barcelona also announced his resignation after publicly apologizing.

But for the fans, a simple apology is no longer helpful. The "abnormality" revealed by Barcelona's top and bottom is the most infuriating - the players had no fighting spirit throughout the game and had no determination to catch up when they were lagging behind. .

Afterwards, there were rumors that police broke into the Barcelona dressing room during halftime, further fueling the news of this fiasco.

But to this day, Real Madrid and Barcelona's official explanations for this game are completely different. There are also various opinions circulating in the outside world, but there has never been a final conclusion.

So, is this "mysterious case" that has troubled fans for many years because of Barcelona's own lack of strength, or is there something else fishy?

The author does not dare to make any assertions about this. I have collected widely circulated speculations from various parties over the past few decades for your reference.

Argument 1: Franco threat theory

As mentioned earlier, Franco successfully came to power with the help of armed rebellion.

Since the Catalonia region where Barcelona is located has long supported the independence movement, Franco tried every means to attack Barcelona after he came to power.

During the dark and oppressive dictatorship, football was one of the few ways people could escape reality.

Over time, football has also become an outlet for people to express their emotions.

For Franco, football also seemed to be a good promotional tool.

It was against this background that Franco became interested in Real Madrid in the capital. He did not really care about football, but he observed the special status of Real Madrid in Spanish football and also realized that Barcelona was in Catalonia. of great importance to the Nia region.

Franco realized that in addition to guns, football was also a way to suppress the "arrogant" Catalonia.

First, Franco issued a number of bans on Catalonia, including a ban on the use of the Catalan language.

After that, Franco forced Barcelona to change the team name from Futbol Club Barcelona to the Spanish Club de Futbol Barcelona, ​​and changed the team emblem accordingly. He also appointed his cronies as chairman of Barcelona, ​​trying to unite all Catalonia. The traces of Barcelona have been erased.

But the so-called ban on language and changing the team name are just scratching the surface after all. Barcelona's position in Spanish football is still unshakable, firmly suppressing Real Madrid, which was not yet fully revived at the time.

As a result, Franco went further to extremes, and finally directed the tragedy in 1943.

It is said that Franco sent troops to surround the hometowns of various Barcelona players before the start of the second round. If the Barcelona players did not deliberately lose in the second round, their families would be in danger.

When the Barcelona players arrived in Madrid, the head of the National Security Service visited them and reminded the players that it was the country's generosity that allowed them the opportunity to continue playing football.

During halftime, members of the National Guard even openly broke into the Barcelona locker room and threatened the Barcelona generals to deliberately lose the game.

Under huge pressure, Barcelona players had to give up their struggle and lost the game at Real Madrid's home court with a humiliating 1:11.

On Barcelona's official website, although there is no positive description of this humiliating match, the following sentence is still used in the introduction to the 1940s and 1950s:

The first few years after the war were the most difficult period that Barcelona had ever experienced, and a fight might wipe out the entire club.

Ruthlessly suppressed and purged by the military and those in power, the organization's identity has completely changed.

The purge also affected players, with players who participated in tours of Mexico and the United States suspended for two years and many players exiled abroad.

The club's crest and name were changed on the grounds that they were not sufficiently Hispanic, and the club's president was carefully selected by the sporting authorities.

In the following years, the team was rebuilt and more championship titles were won in the 1950s.

For many, Barcelona's games at Les Corts were an oasis of freedom during a period of fear, pain and inhibition.

It can be seen that although the 1:11 loss to Real Madrid was not directly mentioned, Barcelona officials have already confirmed the authenticity of the dictator's crazy suppression of himself in that era.

Due to the age, there is no reliable empirical evidence to prove the "Franco threat theory". However, according to the research of many netizens, some data are also tried to confirm this conjecture from the side.

In the 1942-1943 La Liga season, the 14 teams averaged 3.91 goals per game.

Barcelona achieved 14 wins, 4 draws, 8 losses and 32 points that season, and finally won the third place in the league. They scored a total of 77 goals in a single season and were the strongest offensive team in the league.

At the same time, the top scorer in La Liga that season was also obtained by Barcelona player Mariano Martin. The Spanish forward scored 30 goals in 26 games and won the La Liga Golden Boot with an absolute advantage.

In comparison, Real Madrid was still in a difficult recovery stage during the 1942-1943 season.

The team only achieved 10 wins, 5 draws, 11 losses and 25 points in 26 games, escaping the relegation play-offs with a slight advantage of 1 point.

The Los Blancos scored 52 goals in 26 games that season, averaging two goals per game. Their offensive strength ranked ninth in the league, and their number of goals was even lower than Granada, which ranked third from the bottom. .

In addition, the defensive performance of Los Blancos is not very satisfactory. They conceded 50 goals in 26 games, and their defensive performance can only rank 9th in the league (Barcelona lost the most goals in La Liga that season). The second-fewest team).

It can also be seen from the overall data that Barcelona's state in the 1942~1943 season was far better than Real Madrid.

Even looking at the 1943-44 season when Barcelona's form declined rapidly, the Red and Blues' league rankings were higher than those of Los Blancos, and the two sides also tied in the two rounds of the match that season (Barcelona and Real Madrid each won one game).

Combining these data, many fans will naturally doubt the authenticity of this game: Why did Barcelona, ​​which had outstanding performance throughout the season and was at the top of the league in offensive and defensive performance, lose 1:11 in the Copa del Rey?

You know, Real Madrid scored more than 1/5 of the goals in a single season in one game. Even though it was an era when the level of football was not completely average, it could be described as "unprecedented."

Taken together, the Franco threat theory is the most widely circulated theory at the moment.

However, some fans raised objections after research. After years of development and the descriptions of some parties, a second version of the incident was gradually formed:

Competitive defeat theory.

Regarding the real cause of this tragedy, who else has a more authoritative statement than the person involved?

The famous commentator Juan Antonio Samaranch watched the game in person, and on the second day he published "Madrid's score and rude lead" in La Stampa.

In this review, Shaman Lanci did not mention the "Franco threat theory" that would become popular in the future, but attributed the reason for Barcelona's defeat to the "rude home fans":

"We didn't pay much attention to the yelling that started at the beginning of the game. But we never imagined that things would develop to this point.

A few minutes later, the rough movements suddenly increased, and when Real Madrid's forward broke through the center line, the audience cheered loudly, seriously disturbing the players' sense of competition.

How can such an audience be civilized?

This ridiculous 11 to 1 is not an exaggeration. More goals could have been scored, maybe 20 to 1. This is a shameful score and a scandal.

But for this misfortune, we should still treat it with a smile, as if to say to them: 'Since we can't play, then you can do whatever you want. ’”

“It is true that this game should serve as a warning, and we also believe that this will not happen again.

We don’t have to blame any Barcelona player, the responsibility does not lie with Barcelona.

Objectively speaking, Barcelona did not play well or badly, or in other words, under the circumstances, they were at their best.

The matter is over, 11 points is no different from 50 points, but the price Madrid paid for this is the loss of their spirit that has been praised many times in newspapers. "

In this comment, Samaranch made sharp criticism of Real Madrid fans, but did not mention the "Franco threat theory" that has been discussed by the outside world.

In addition, Spain's most recognized sports historian Bernardo Salazar (who is a supporter of Real Madrid's local rivals Atletico Madrid) testified in his book that two Barcelona players who participated in that game told him that they did not There was no threat that forced them to lose the second leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final against Real Madrid.

From the perspective of the game itself, many fans who hold the theory of competitive defeat believe that although the score seems absurd, it is not completely impossible if combined with the game process——

Barcelona was sent off one man early in the first half, and then another player left the game due to injury.

Since the substitution system was not yet popular at the time, Barcelona could only fight with 9 players against Real Madrid's 11 players.

Amid the overwhelming boos and constant interference from the home fans, Barcelona's defense completely collapsed, and Real Madrid finally scored 8 goals in the first half.

As for the rumors that the National Guard entered the locker room at midfield and threatened Barcelona players with guns, many fans also raised objections——

First of all, Real Madrid had already taken an 8:0 lead in the first half, and the comeback and promotion was already certain. Wouldn't it be unnecessary for the National Guard to enter the lounge in the midfield to threaten the Barcelona players?

Secondly, if Barcelona players are threatened during halftime, shouldn't they be even more defeated in the second half?

Why did the two sides end up fighting 1:3 in the second half?

Some fans who support the theory of competitive defeat admit that the behavior of Real Madrid fans in that game was indeed excessive——

The home fans threw stones at Barcelona players during the game, and the goalkeeper could not even touch the ball. He could only watch the Real Madrid players score easily in an extremely passive situation, but they took a negative attitude towards the so-called threat theory.

In recent years, some fans have provided some brand-new materials for reference.

Barcelona's "discord" with the Spanish government at the time was indeed well known, but after Franco came to power, it seemed that he did not forcefully suppress Barcelona's record through off-field means.

After beating Barcelona 11:1, Real Madrid did not successfully win the Copa del Rey, but lost to Athletic Bilbao in the final.

If Franco intended to suppress Barcelona and promote Real Madrid, how could he let this situation happen?

In addition, combined with the overall record of the two teams during the Franco dictatorship, Barcelona is even better:

The Franco regime won the civil war and took power in 1939, but Real Madrid never won the Copa del Rey from 1939 to 1947, nor the league title in the 15 years from 1939 to 1954.