Traditions can be both good and bad. The tradition of excluding people based on race, religion or nationality does not seem like a good tradition to me. Athletic's decision not to employ non-Basques, smells more than a little suspiciously of xenophobia. Athletic was not the only Basque team to do this, either; Osasuna and Real Sociedad both used to employ similar methods of Basque-only exclusion. However, neither Osasuna nor Sociedad have the following that Athletic has, nor do the others have the political history that Athletic does. Like Bara was the team of anti-centralism for Catalua during Franco, similarly, Bilbao was a bastion for Herri Batasuna in the Pais Vasco. Bara moved forward, and now has a healthy but heated rivalry with Real Madrid, but Athletic has held on to its "traditions" more as a political/nationalist statement (ie., we don't want to have our team filthied with those Francoist Spaniards) than a sporting one. When Chivas USA tried to be an all Mexican team in the US, it was roundly criticized, and fortunately saw no success in its first few seasons, so it made the decision to just have a Hispanic image, rather then being an exculsionary employer. Similarly, Athletic could give up being discriminatory and still be THE Basque team, but xenophobia (especially as it pertains to Spaniards) is so firmly rooted in both the administration and fans at Athletic that this clearly is unlikely to happen unless Athletic finally get their comeuppance and are relegated.
Hi aupa-athletic. It sounds fabulous, I would love to go to one of their home games sometime. I'm only 7,000 miles away though. I don't see this as xenophobic at all, remember that the history of soccer is one of local clubs, often workingmen's clubs, and not one of the more "franchise" (fuck I hate that term applied to teams) type of origin we associate with such sports in North America. So a club that is true to its roots is not necessarily xenophobic, anymore than the old Montreal Canadiens were when they got the first two picks out of Quebec every year. I do think they will have an uphill battle though, as the article notes. On preview: Chargres, you make good comparisons, thanks, very interesting. For Montreal, it was a big deal when they had their first non-francophone Captain, and it still is a big deal if their players don't speak French, even though now most of them are Russians, and the Captain is a Finn. But the fans above all wanted to win. I think that transition was made easier when Quebec City had a team (emblazoned with the fleur-de-lis) because now they had an in-house rival, so to speak, and the need to project Nationalism declined.
The tradition of excluding people based on race, religion or nationality does not seem like a good tradition to me. Athletic's decision not to employ non-Basques, smells more than a little suspiciously of xenophobia. Of course, this begs the question what is a Basque? It's far too complicated to get into here, but what seems to be happening now is that Basques are trying to re-define what a Basque is. As the article mentions, there is a player born in Mali who is coming up through the Athletic farm system. He has lived in the Basque Country and plans on learning the language. He is, essentially, a Basque. I have a friend who was born in Seville--one of those Spaniards that Basques allegedly detest so much--who grew up in Bilbao, is a devout Athletic fan, and considers himself Basque. I'm not sure of the details, but I remember him telling me something that if you live in the Basque Country long enough, you have the right to self-identify as Basque regardless of where you were born. Equally, someone who was born elsewhere, say Latin America, but had Basque ancestors can also be considered Basque, which is why the team is searching throughout the world for players. Essentially, Basques are expanding the definition of what being a Basque is and the team is trying to reflect that. You mention that Barca has moved forward. Well, Athletic is trying to do that, but in a different way, one that ensures that players are closely tied to their community. As the article mentions, Athletic is forced to invest a tremendous amount of resources to develop local players, something that has benefited the region, including people who have emigrated there from other parts of the world. This may seem a bit silly or xenophobic, but it's just a different way of going about constructing a team and a culture.
