by Alejandro Ribó-Labastida.
Tomorrow Spain will play against Netherlands in its first World Championship final of football. Maybe they will win. What you don't know is that the day before, that is today, there will be a huge demonstration in Barcelona in protest of the use of the Constitutional Court's decision against some important articles of the new Catalan Statute (l'Estatut) (a kind of Catalan Constitution).
It is ironic that this manifestation of the problems of vertebration of a nation-state that has struggled from its beginning to integrate a dominating Castilian culture with its peripherical partners coincides with the biggest success in Spanish sport history. Furthermore, the core of the skilful Spanish football team is mostly composed by Catalans or people from Barcelona FC, one of the most important symbols of Catalan national aspirations. Irony of fate.
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