The leaders of the governments of Catalonia and the Basque Country renewed calls for the two Spanish regions to play international soccer as their teams met for the first time in 32 years. The teams drew 2-2 in an exhibition game at Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium before a 53,000 crowd yesterday.
"It's more than a game between friends,'' Juan Jose Ibarretxe, president of the Basque government, told reporters, according to the Barcelona team Web site. "There's a clear request behind this that we want our own team.''
In February 2005, the Spanish parliament rejected Ibarretxe's plan to hold a regional referendum on giving the Basque Country more autonomy. The plan included a proposal for the region to have its own soccer team. The area of northern Spain already controls its own police force, education system and tax collection.
"Wales and Scotland have their own soccer teams -- why shouldn't Catalonia?'' Artur Mas, leader of Catalonia's biggest nationalist party, told TV station Telecinco today. Ibarretxe and Pascual Maragall, president of the Catalan government, watched yesterday's game together. Both want more regional powers from Spain. "Participating in competitions is a step we have to make,'' Maragall said.
Spain's parliament in March approved a plan to allow Catalonia, a region of north-east Spain that accounts for about 20 percent of the national $1 trillion economy, to retain more tax revenue among other concessions.
"There's no plan at the moment'' to ask European soccer's ruling body UEFA for membership, Joseba Garcia Bengoetxea, a Basque government spokesman, said in a phone interview today. Albert Mayol, a spokesman on sport for the Catalan government, wasn't immediately available for comment. Some spectators at yesterday's game waved banners with separatist messages and a photograph in today's Marca newspaper showed two setting fire to a Spanish flag. The Madrid-based sports daily described the match as a "political meeting.''
The opposition People's Party condemned the game. It was "an act against Spain,'' Angel Acebes, general secretary, told the Cadena Cope radio station today, adding that it was only of interest to a "minority'' of the population.
The Basque and Catalan teams usually play exhibition games against foreign national teams. The Basques lost 1-0 to Wales in May, while Catalonia lost 5-2 to Brazil in 2004.
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