Real Madrid and Barcelona are getting ready to play the first ever El Clásico on U.S. soil, the first matchup between the Spanish giants outside of Spanish soil since 1982. It’s also the first friendly El Clásico since 1991. Here, Alex McVey asks: can it really count as an El Clásico if it’s only a friendly?
Real Madrid vs Barcelona, AKA: El Clásico, is the biggest sports rivalry in the world. Greg Cote from The Miami Herald wrote, “It is the grandest, most famous rivalry, by a lot, in the most popular sport on earth — Yankees vs. Red Sox times a ton.”
Cote goes on to write that El Clásico might be the biggest sporting event Miami has ever hosted, bigger than even the super-bowl. These plaudits earned an enthusiastic RT from a man who is no stranger to hyperbole, Mr. Ray Hudson:
Is El Clasico Miami as big as hosting a Super Bowl? Don't be ridiculous. It's bigger https://t.co/qgH3Q7GAHs
— Ray Hudson (@RayHudson) July 23, 2017
Based on the outrageous ticket prices, it seems the organizers of the contest agree that this match is of monumental importance. Fans may pay as much as $245 for nosebleed seats, with the best tickets selling for upwards of two grand.
For those who only watch soccer occasionally, the hype might be expected. Two of the world’s biggest sports teams, meeting up for the first time in a country that is just now starting to catch the soccer bug in a big way. Messi vs Ronaldo, Ramos vs Pique, the Catalans against the Capital: it’s easy to buy into the hype that this match is of utmost importance for everyone involved.
But for true fans of the two clubs, those whose stomaches churn with anticipation for weeks leading up to the match at least twice a year, the Miami El Clásico seems much ado about nothing. The very idea of a “Friendly El Clásico” is perhaps a contradiction in terms.
When these two teams compete, the rivalry transcends pure sport. So when the competition aspect of the match is taken away, what is left?
Yes, El Clásico Miami is an opportunity for U.S. fans to go see some of their favorite stars on U.S. soil. Miami is a great market for it, and the event will surely be a spectacle for tourists coming to visit.
But for those who live and breathe Madrid and Barcelona, the Miami El Clásico has to feel like a letdown, a hyped up media spectacle done mostly for the purpose of lining the coffers of the two European Superclubs and Stephen Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins and the International Champions Cup.
The Miami Él Clasico is sort of like Disney’s World Showcase in Epcot Center. In that exhibit, tourists wander from “country to country”, sampling supposedly authentic cuisine and culture from around the world. But ultimately, it’s all fake: a simulation of travel and culture where everything is manufactured, up to the smells being pumped into the park.
Ultimately, that’s all this match is: football as simulacra, a simulated tourist trap. A select group of fans who can afford the exorbitant ticket prices will get to watch a faux fixture, a recreation of competition that normally means everything, but ultimately means very little when divorced from its true context. When played as a friendly, El Clásico loses the spirit that defines the historical essence of the match.
El Clásico is the pig’s head thrown on the field to mark Luis Figo’s supposed betrayal of Barcelona.
El Clásico is Messi holding up his shirt to the Bernabéu after snatching three points from Real Madrid at home.
El Clásico is Ronaldo telling the Camp Nou: “calma, calma”.
El Clásico is Sergio Ramos having enough red cards to make a list of his greatest all time El Clásico red cards.
El Clásico is Alfredo Di Stefano and Johan Cruyff, whose spirits now watch over the hallowed grounds in Madrid and Barcelona.
I, like many fans, will probably watch the Miami El Clásico on TV. And you can bet dollars to donuts that if I were lucky enough to get tickets to the match, I would be in attendance. I’m not so cynical that I would refuse to watch my team in a warmup game. Nor do I deny that there can be a certain value in spectacle and tourism.
But I will still watch this match knowing full well that it will never truly count amongst the great El Clásico matchups in history.
The real El Clásico is not a publicity stunt. It’s not a tourist trap. And it’s certainly not a friendly.
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