When the CE Europe announced through its networks that the draw had paired them with Las Palmas In the Copa del Rey tie, several fans of the Catalan team showed their animosity towards the Canarian rival on Twitter. “Neither forget nor forgive”was the most repeated message among the escapulates. This rejection against the island group has a clear political background and dates back to October 1, 2017the day of the self-determination referendum in Catalonia that the autonomous government called unilaterally.
The fact is that the referendum of October 1 coincided with the Barça-Las Palmayes, on Sunday. It was the first match in the history of the Camp Nou, inaugurated in 1957, that was played behind closed doors. And it was almost not disputed; In fact, such a possibility was considered by the Barça board given the exceptional situation and the police charges that occurred in different polling stations in Catalonia. By the way, not long ago Gerard Piqué spoke about this matter and he assured that both Sergio Ramos and Lopetegui forced him to apologize for his behavior during those days.
Finally it was played, but without an audience. And Las Palmas attended the meeting with a special t-shirt for the occasion, which had embroidered a Spanish flag on the chest and the date of the match. The club justified its decision through a long statement in which it explained that “the UD Las Palmas visits on an unprecedented date for our countrythe day that the Catalan Government set for holding a referendum outside the Spanish legal framework.”
“We believe in the unity of Spain”
“UD Las Palmas could have limited itself to being a silent witness to this historical crossroads or taking sides. We opted for the second. We decided embroider a small flag on our t-shirt Spanish and today’s date, October 1, 2017, to testify without stridency our hope in the future of this country and in the good will of those of us who live in it, in search of the best understanding”, continued the announcement of the Canarian entity .
“With the Spanish flag embroidered on our kit we want to vote unequivocally in an imaginary consultation to which no one has summoned us: we believe in the unity of Spain. We do it from the moral authority that they want to grant to the region furthest from the capital of this kingdom. “We do it to tell the world that we feel pain for what is happening,” the Canary Islands club closed it with a clear and transparent message that did not sit well with either Barça or Catalonia.
No one is aware that Europa has a marked Catalan character. In fact, when the Spanish National Team won the Euro Cup, the club published a controversial tweet with the message “the only Euro Cup that interests us” accompanied by a photograph of its captain Álex Cano raising the 2014-15 Catalunya Cup trophy with his teammates just behind a large Catalan flag.
Furthermore, in their animation group, the Eskapulats dominate the background, You usually see quite a few pro-independence flagswhich makes clear the political tone of that crowd, which also declares itself openly anti-fascist. For all this, The Copa match against Las Palmas is much more than a simple soccer match.
Europa, the founding team of the League, is a club based in the town of Gràcia that in recent times, together with Sant Andreu, has become the great exponent of popular Barcelona and Catalan football. It is an entity that has deep roots in its neighborhood, with a project and a clear positioning beyond the grass, since since 2021 it has been officially defined as an entity anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-fascist, anti-homophobic, anti-bullying and anti-transphobic.
