In the Catalonian capital, Barcelona, the city's football fanatics are out in force. Tonight is an important game for their beloved team.
FOOTBALL FAN (Translation): We have the best home grown players, for us this is the best team, it has been proven.
For the Catalonians, Barcelona Football Club, known as Barça, is much more than a sports team. It's a rallying point for the region's unique identity.
FOOTBALL FAN 2 (Translation): It is our pride and joy.
FOOTBALL FAN 3 (Translation): From the time of the civil war in Spain the club was already a symbol of liberation. People could discuss the end of the war, cheer, speak and sing in Catalan and this has continued.
At their home ground for the second-last league match of 2012, passions are high. These days, at every match Barça plays, it's as much about the politics as it is about the sport. And tonight they play a team from the Spanish capital, Madrid. In a nod to their Catalonian ancestor, conquered by the Spanish in 1714, as the clock strikes 17 minutes and 14 seconds, hard-core fans lead the crowd.
CROWD (Translation): In… Inde… Independence! In… Inde… Independence! In… Inde… Independence! In… Inde… Independence!
As the call for Catalonian independence grows louder across the region, how the Barcelona Football Club is seen to react is crucial.
CARLES SANTACANA, CLUB HISTORIAN (Translation): As a matter of fact, the team has always been alongside, not in front or beside, together with the aspirations of Catalonian society.
The club's historian, Carles Santacana, tells me that ever since Barça players started kicking their first goals over a century ago, they've been involved in a political struggle.
CARLES SANTACANA (Translation): In the 1920s there was an unsuccessful push for a declaration of autonomy. Barça participated in that movement. In the 1930s the team continued its support for the recognition of Catalonian identity, making Catalan the official language of the club.
But when the Spanish civil war broke out, the club's Catalonian identity was targeted. And in 1936, its president was executed by General Franco's troops. For 36 years under fascist rule, Catalonian nationalism was repressed and the Catalan language was outlawed. But the Barcelona Football Club held strong.
CARLES SANTACANA (Translation): In 1972, while Franco was still alive, here in the stadium the announcer started speaking Catalan so the president was taken to the governor’s office. They wanted to lock him up. So there were a series of events which demonstrated that Barça didn’t stand with the status quo of the dictatorship but with a society that was having difficulty expressing itself.
Today, the club continues its role as a social institution, blurring the lines between politics and football.
FOOTBALL FAN (Translation): People have chanted this for a long time, claiming independence.
REPORTER (Translation): Is it changing? Is it more now than before?
FOOTBALL FAN (Translation): Yes, definitely. Much more than before. Before, not many people believed or said openly that they wanted independence, now the percentage is much higher.
CROWD (Translation): Long live Barça! Long live Catalonia! Freedom!
The further Spain plunges into financial crisis, the deeper the austerity cuts and the louder the cries for independence. Catalonia is Spain's richest region and its people are taxed some of the highest rates in Europe.
MAN: They had taken our money, so that's why the people in Catalonia are claiming for independence.
REPORTER: Right. So it's an economic problem that's coming up?
MAN: It's on economic problem.
YOUNG MAN (Translation): I am in favour of independence.
REPORTER (Translation): Why?
YOUNG MAN (Translation): For historical reasons, because of the relationship between Spain and Catalonia, which has always been unequal.
At last count, 190 Catalonian towns have already symbolically cut ties with Spain. An hour's drive from Barcelona, you can't miss the giant independence flag as you drive into Vidreres. It's been flying proudly since August, just before the municipality symbolically but illegally declared Vidreres independent of Spain.
BOSCO ANTON, POLITICIAN (Translation): This one, with its blue triangle and white star, is the flag that represents Catalonia’s freedom – Catalonia’s desire to be independent.
Local politician Bosco Anton tells me that the flags are here to stay.
BOSCO ANTON, (Translation): We have agreed, as a way of supporting our fight, to hang the starred flags on our balconies until the day we gain out independence, which we hope will be soon. You can see that many families support the idea of Catalonia’s independence. Hello, hello.
Bosco takes me to his office at the Town Hall. His colleague, Antonio, is a Spaniard and the only elected representative here not to vote for symbolic self-rule. His belief that Catalonia will never break away makes for good office banter.
ANTONIO (Translation): No, it won’t leave. Catalonia won’t leave. It’s not possible, I don’t think so. Catalonians are not bad. The worst is Bosco.
BOSCO ANTON (Translation): He’s such a joker!
Bosco invites me home to meet his family. He and his Dutch wife speak Spanish together but use Catalan with their three children. Margot has been living here for 25 years and feels very much at home. She views Catalonia's difficult relationship with Spain in family terms.
MARGOT ANTON (Translation): It’s like a child, a teenager, if you don’t let them speak out or act, they will leave. They will get angry and abandon you and won’t ask for permission first.
BOSCO ANTON (Translation): There is still this idea of assimilation, they think having our own personality is an anomaly. So they don’t understand us, because they don’t understand us we don’t feel loved.
MARGOT ANTON (Translation): Cheers!
BOSCO ANTON (Translation): Long live Catalonia. Come and see our wealth.
MARGOT ANTON (Translation): Long live Catalonia, a free Catalonia.
The children in this family are already well-versed on the independence issue. But for 11-year-old Marcal, it's all about the football.
MARCAL (Translation): Spain does not want Catalonia to be a country, because….now it’s like the Barça team belongs to Spain and they would lose a great team if we became independent.
There's another issue which may have direct and far-reaching consequences for children like Marcal. Since Franco's death in 1975, Catalan language has been given priority in the region's schools. But now the national government proposes to make Spanish the main teaching language. Many Catalonians are outraged and they're accusing the Spanish government of a return to the oppressive ways of the Franco dictatorship.
WOMAN: I am Catalan and I speak Catalan. My daughter speaks Catalan too, in schools.
Catalonian regional education minister Irene Rigau stormed out of a recent meeting with her national counterpart in Madrid over the dispute.
IRENE RIGAU, REGIONAL EDUCATION MINISTER (Translation): I asked for the policy to be withdrawn, the minister refused, so obviously… in the government that I represent, I said, language is not negotiable. If it is not negotiable, it can’t be on the table.
Even though I ask the questions in Spanish, Rigau makes a political point and answers in Catalan.
IRENE RIGAU (Translation): We base our coexistence, our cohesion, on knowing a common language, and after that, mastering the other official languages. If you destroy this coexistence and cohesion by educating differently, people of Catalonian and Spanish backgrounds we understand that as an attack against the way we view coexistence and culture.
Then the breakthrough that many have been waiting for.
NEWS REPORTER (Translation): It’s 12 o’clock. Convergence and Union and Republican Left are about to formalise the deal that includes a self-rule referendum by 2014.
The two main political parties coming to an agreement to hold a referendum on independence next year, I race to the Catalonian Parliament to witness history in the making.
MAN: For the first time, this country is gonna ask the question whether we want to be Spanish or not and we are very excited about this possibility. It's huge for us.
REPORTER: Madrid says it's not constitutional?
MIQUEL NOGUER, EL PAIS REPORTER: Yeah, it’s actually unconstitutional for sure. This is why we will have two years of very, very interesting, on a political way, I mean, on a journalist way, I mean. Because things can change, laws can change. But Spain is very clear that this is absolutely illegal.
As the documents are signed, it's clear they will be entering a difficult period. This Parliament is a coalition of odd bedfellows. The parliamentary president has the difficult task of bridging the gap between his centrist party and the Republican left.
REPORTER: Busy day, huh? Yep.
Complicating matters further, even the far-left Indignants have a voice in this parliament.
REPORTER: All new for you isn’t it?
MAN (Translation): Yes, all new - From the streets to here. I am calm - the power is with the people.
The Indignants inspired the street sit-ins that became the Occupy movement, which swept the world by storm two years ago. It's the first time the movement has won a seat in any parliament.
REPORTER (Translation): Are you nervous?
MAN (Translation): No, I’m calm. 120,000 people are behind me.
With a referendum on the horizon, what happens next is in parliament will have profound implications for Barcelona Football Club. Anything the players do or say is being watched with great interest. Team captain Carles Puyol recently created a stir by using Twitter to criticise the proposed clampdown on Catalan language in schools.
JOAN LAPORTA, FC BARCELONA PRESIDENT 2003-2010: A lot of people that is trying to involve the players.
With such big money at stake and questions about sponsorship and contracts, former club president Joan Laporta knows better than anyone how complicated this issue could become.
JOAN LAPORTA: The Catalan players and they love their country and they love our culture, the Catalan culture, and they share a lot of feelings for our - to promote and defend our culture and our language.
REPORTER: Do you think the players are pro-independence? The Barcelona players?
OSCAR, FOOTBALL FAN: I know that most of them are pro-independence. But they cannot say it. They are professionals and they also have to play in the national team now - the only national team and it's compulsory for them, the Spanish national team. So, they have to go with the Spain.
There were seven Barcelona players in the Spanish squad that won the last World Cup in South Africa. It was a Barcelona player who scored in the final minutes of extra time off a pass from another Barcelona player.
SPORTS COMMENTATOR: Iniesta scores! Surely the winning goal.
For many Catalonians, Spain could never be described as their national team. While the rest of their countries celebrations raged through the night, Barça fan Oscar says that in Barcelona it was muted.
REPORTER: Were you not happy when the Spanish side won the World Cup?
OSCAR: No. For sure, no.
REPORTER: No?
OSCAR: No. No.
REPORTER: Why not?
OSCAR: No. In Barcelona, was just a few people that celebrated.
And if Catalonia does become independent, Barça could be looking way past the country's new borders to find teams it can play.
OSCAR: So maybe we can play English league for one year. Or we can play Italian for a year. We are sure that Barcelona will be a club that anyone wants in his league.
REPORTER: But you can't just pick and choose the league you want to play in, can you?
OSCAR: The most important thing for us is to play within our national team.
ANJALI RAO: David O'Shea and the fiercely independent Catalonians. David tells us their last independence rally drew a massive 1.5 million people and that was a police estimate. And tonight's program will also be available online shortly.
Reporter/Camera
DAVID O’SHEA
Producer
VICTORIA STROBL
Fixers
FATIMA OVEJERO
ROBERTO FIGUEROA
Editor
WAYNE LOVE
Translations/Subtitles
CLAUDIANNA BLANCO
ANNA SAGRISTA
Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN