By Joao Cunha
In a few days there will be yet another clasico in the Soanish Supercup between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Everytime the clasico comes around the media narrative rolls around about “Franco’s team” facing the Catalan club, as if Real Madrid were stricly linked to Francisco Franco’s facistic regime. The mdia loving a cheap narrative always brings it up, and Barcelona fans echo this as well mostly to justify their club’s overall inferiority in the rivalry. This narrative oddly enough only greows stronger when Barca are the weaker of the two sides, as they try to garner some sympathy for their own mismanagemnet and ineptiude. It’s infuritaitng to see this myth being perpetuated as a fact throughou the years so I finally thought it was time to debumk the myth once and for all. But first we have to start at the beginning, how this narrative was created and why was it allowed to spread.
Firstly let me summarize a little history about Spain and the Spanish Civil War. Spain in the mid-1930’s was in a crisis that led to a split in the country, as a lot of regions including the Basque and Catalan region wanted to maintain indepedence as well as an ideological battle between the Socialist and Fascist movements within the country. This was partly caused by the fall of the monarchy and corruption nin subsquent elections in the early 1930’s. Francisico Franco with his army wanted to unify Spain under one rule with the capital of Madrid being the main center of power, while the opposition wanting more regional powers spread across the indepedent states. Things came to a head after the elections of 1936 ended without a clear winner, chaos broke out in the streets and the election was seen as a farce. A bloody civil war insued and after about 3 years of heavy conflict, Franco and his forces won the war and unified Spain and Madrid became the central part that would dictate the laws to every other region of the nation. Franco was a ruthless dictator he would jail oppostion leaders and cracxk down on dissent. He would ban the Catalan language from being spoken in public places insisting that Spanish would be the country’s official language. He was the symbol of repression and totaltarianism in Western Europe post World War 2 and certainly his methods had similarties to other fascist leaders of that era.
Now I will describe how the narrative first began to surface. Real Madrid in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey had lost the first-leg 3-0. Heading to back Madrid they need a miracle to reach the final and in a stunning evening Real inflicted a staggering 11-1 humilation upon Barcelona to reach the final. Which is to this day the biggest defeat in the rivalry’s history. However the Barcelona players soon after the game alleged that police and goverment officials threatened them and coerced them to lose the tie. The Barcelona players felt that their lives could have been in danger if they didn’t comply, and at half-time when the tie was still winnable the officials came in and put in a final threat to the Barca players. The second-half the game got out of hand and Real scored the majority of the goals in the 11-1. Barcelona fans believe this defeat was solely the fault of Franco and his goverment supporting the capital club. The next incident was the Alfredo Di Stefano signing. Barca had allegedly signed him first and according to the myth, Franco stepped in and undid the deal to allow Real Madrid to make the signing. Real Madrid after signing Di Stefano became the best club in the world and Barcelona were never close after that. Barcelona fans to this day believe Franco cost them Di Stefano and helped Real Madrid become a dynasty. The final myth that exists is that due to Franco’s influence Real Madrid benefited from refree decisions and won many unfair league titles and even European Cup titles. Franco was thought by many to be a Real Madrid fan which isn’t actually the case. With all these narratives so embedded in people’s minds it became easy to paint Real Madrid as the club of the goverment while Barca are the club of freedom fighting against the facists. But with all myths there is no shortage of lies, distortions, and wishful thinking wrapped to make certain people feel better about the cold reality. The reality that Real Madrid have always been a better club historically than Barcelona.
Alright now it’s time to debunk some of these lies beginning with the Di Stefano transfer. Alfredo Di Stefano was a legend who played in River Plate and Millionarios and won many titles at both clubs. He was the most sought after player in the world in the early-1950’s. Barcelona and Real Madrid were fighting for his signature but Real Madrid ended up with him not because of any malice by Franco but because of Barcelona’s own arrogance and incompetence. Barcelona intially agreed a transfer fee to Millionarios who was the club that he was loaned out but wasn’t the club that held his rights. In interviews Di Stefano said that he warned Barca directors to talk with River Plate as that was his parent-club but they refused. Santiago Bernabeu who was the president of Real Madrid saw an opening and agreed a transfer deal with River Plate who owned Di Stefano’s rights. (Lowe, Ch) By every rule in the modern game, Real Madrid would have conducted a legal transfer, while Barcelona conducted an illegal transfer. It would be a clear-cut case today but back then they need mediation. FIFA sent a mediator who came to a strange agreement: Di Stefano would play for Real for two seasons including the upcoming season but Barcelona would get to also have for two seasons. All parties reluctanly agreed and Di Stefano was off to play for Real Madrid. But it doesn’t end there Di Stefano due to not being fully fit got off to a slow start to the season so Barcelona thinkling Real Madrid signed a bad player withdrew their two years of the contract and allowed Real to have him permanently. So to recap Barcelona ineptly agreed to a transfer fee to the wrong club, got bailed out a strange mediator system that allowed them to have some rights to Di Stefano, then after a few games they didn’t want him anymore becaue it looked like he would be a bust! That is not Franco’s fault or the goverment’s fault, it’s Barcelona’s fault for being poorly. The president of Barcelona resigned soon after the deal hit a snag and the Barca directors who took over were even worse as they allowed Di Stefano to go to Real permanently. After the first few games Real Madrid met Barcelona in a clasico the final score was 5-0 with Di Stefano being the big star. Real went on to win the league in 1953-54 and dominate Spain and Europe for the next decade. Barca would go on to make up bullshit stories about how it wasn’t actually their fault.
The Di Stefano affair is not that different from many other transfer targets between both clubs when Barcelona think they have the player and then Real Madrid sign them. In 1986 Barcelona allegedly believed they had an agreement with Hugo Sanchez to go to the Catalan giants. The only issue was he didn’t want to join he wanted tos sign for Real Madrid, and within a few days after Atletico sold him to a Mexican club to avoid selling him directly to Real Madrid he ended up at Real. 17 years later Joan Laporta then and current president of Barcelona arrogantly announced that they had reached a deal to bring David Beckham to Barcelona. There was only one problem, they hadn’t agreed personal terms yet. Real Madrid under then and still current president Florentino Perez hijacked the move and convinced Beckham to join Real Madrid. But of course the most stunning and humiliating transfer fail in Barcelona was the Lionel Messi saga in 2021. Laporta and his directors assured all the Barca fans that Messi was coming back that they could affored to bring Messi back despite their financial struggles. Howver Laporta one fateful August day announced that Messi was not coming back because they couldn’t register him because of La Liga’s salary rules. Messi left the club to go to Paris Saint Germain and Barcelona lost their greatest ever player because they were too stupid to not handle a salary cap. To top it off Barcelona with their typical annoying victim complex blamed La Liga for not bending their rules to accomdate them. Laporta also desperately insuinated several times that Messi should have taken an absurd pay cut to stay, even though the club had been run into the ground for the past 5 seasons. Barcelona in a lot of situations are architects of their own downffall and the Di Stefano situation is not really different from other transfer sagas when Barca arrogantly think they signed someone only to realize they hadn’t. After they realize they failed they either move on with their tail between their legs or blame every other factor but themselves for the inability to succed at the transfer market. This was easy to debunk but the next few have more nuance.
The 11-1 game is so infamous in Spanish football history it’s hard to completely refute. Barcelona at the time were very evenly matched with Real and it would be odd even away from to lose by 10 goals. There is certainly many acvcounts of players feeling threats by officials but there aren’t many direct threats that can be traced. The game itself is shadowed by such infamy that it is hard to get a gauge on how much of it was Real’s performance and how much of it was Barcelona players feeling the pressure of the threats. But one of the things missed in this entire discussion of Franco being a Real fan is this game was used as the number one example of why he was as his “staff” allegedlly interfered with the result. While I can’t refute that I can ask one simple question, why didn’t Real win the final afterwards??? Yes believe it or not Real Madrid after their destruction of Barcelona somehow lost thr final to the Athletic Bilbao 2-1. That is indeed strange especially as Bilbao are a Basque club which is one of the regions that fought against Franco’s regime. If Franco was truly a Real Madrid fan, if he really interfered in games why did he not interfere in the final? That was the most important game, it was a trophy and against a region that wanted autonomy from Spain. There was no reason if he rigged the match against Barce he would have stopped at the final against Bilbao. It would make no real sense unless of course he wasn’t really a Real fan at the time. That is the next narrative that I will address.
Franco was NEVER originally a Real Madrid fan as Adolfo Melendez the president of Real Madrid during the beginning of the Civil War had criticized Franco was openly against the regime. Franco not taking the slight well decided to throw his support to Real Madrid’s local rivals Atletico Madrid. He even helped rename Atletico into Atletico Avaicion de Madrid which was a reference to Spain’s airforce. Franco for all his dislike of Real Madrid had a long history of rewarding succeessful Spanish teams. Since Franco considered Barcelona, Bilbao parts of Spain he had NO issue with them winning titles contrary to popular belief. In Sid Lowe’s wonderful book “Fear and Loathing in La Liga” he details how Franco would reguarly award special honors to Barcelona players, the club, directors for titles that they would win. (Lowe,) Franco wanted to support winners and his intial choice of Atletico was smart because in the 1940’s they won more than Real Madrid actually winning the league which Real failed to do in the entire decade. Atletico in the first 15 years of Franco’s reign were clearly the best team in Madrid, and Barcelona won the most league titles in that time span wiht Bilbao coming in second. Real Madrid until 1954 were so bad they went a staggering 21 years without winning a league titles with only a few Copa wins in the cabinet during that time span. As a fan at the time once complained “Real Madrid have a first division stadium yet a second division team.” Santiago Bernabeu built the new stadium but came close to getting the team relegated before Di Stefano came and changed Real’s inconsistent history to a victorious one. After the European Cup was created in 1955, Real had won the the first five titles and the Franco’s attention turned to Real Madrid. While teams like Sevilla, Bibao and Barcelona would limit Real Madrid’s triumphs on the domesic front, no team could stop them in Europe. After seeing the inernational attention Real garnered after winning the European Cup, Franco made the political decision to attach his name to a winner not because he was a Real fan because he wanted to promote a positive image of Spain to the world. He didn’t give a crap about Real, he used the club to further his standing and Spain’s place in the world. As one of Franco’s advisors noted, “Real Madrid was the best embassy we ever had.” (Lowe,) It was indeed the best embassy Franco had as it put veneer on a very stringent regime, it allowed Spain to be seen as winners. More importanly Real Madrid was THE club of the capital, it was the club that put the city of Madrid which was the center of Spain’s political power on top. That was never lost on Franco and until his death in 1975, he never allowed that connection even if fake to sever. He wasn’t a Real Madrid fan but he reaped the benefits from, the titles they gained. As a result the narrative was built that Real is the team of the regime, as many fans would shout “Madrid equipo de governo, verguenza del pais” or “Madrid team of the goverment, shame of the nation.” As a result of Real Madrid’s supporting success, Madrid became an increasingly desirable tourist destination and the counrty slowly opened up. The Euros were hosted in Spain in 1964 and Franco delivered the title to the victorious Spain squad, a moment that likely wouldn’t have ever happened had it not been the success of the European Cup and Real Madrid’s dynasty. Real Madrid through the brilliance of their players and shrewdness of president Santiago Bernabeu was in part hijacked by an egomaniac who used the club to gain clout. But to end this chapter Franco awarded Valencia, Atletico Madrid, and Barcelona honors for winning European titles at the time. Franco wanted Barcelona to win the European Cup in 1961 to maintain Spanish dominance, he wasn’t against ANY club suceeding all he cared about was his image. (Lowe,)
So the question were Real Madrid more or less successful post-Franco? To answer this question I will start by analyzing the four most important titles a club can win amd seing whcih club has more post his death in 1975: Champions League, La Liga, Europa League/UEFA Cup, Club World Cup/Intercontiental Cup.
Real Madrid
Champions League titles: 7
La Liga tiles: 18
UEFA Europa League: 2
Club World Cup titles: 6
Total: 33 trtles
Barcelona
Champions League titles: 5
La Liga titles: 17
UEFA Europa League tiles: 0
Club World Cup: 3
Total: 25 titles
Real Madrid even after Franco have won more La Liga, Champions League, Europa League, and World titles than Barcelona which are in my opinion the most important titles a club can win. However Barcelona do have more Copa Del Rey, Spanish Super Cup and UEFA Super Cup, and Cup Winners Cup titles than Real Madrid. But these trophies carry a lesser weight as two of them are supercups which are the least important titles, and the other is a domestic cup and the third-most important European title which no longer exists as of 1999. So Real Madrid even post the Franco-era have been better run than Barcelona, have won more important tiles than Barca, and are the only La Liga side to win five straight league tiles and the only team to win the modern Champions League three times in a row. Barcelona despite many of their fans and sympathetic media accuse of Real being built on the Franco era, have won the majority of their La Liga, Champions League titles after his death. In fact I will evem show more examples of how Barca actually won more tiles for the first 15 years of the Franco era.
1939-1954 Fitst 15 years of the Franco era
Barcelona
La Liga tiles: 5
Copa del Rey: 4
Copa Eva Duarte: 3
Total: 13 titles
Real Madrid
La Liga: 1
Copa del Rey: 2
Copa Eva Duarte: 1
Total: 4 titles
Barcelona between 1939 and 1954 actually won 9 more trophies than Real Madrid and dominated La Liga througout the 1940’s and 1950s’. Barcelona won more of every possible domestic title in these 15 years while Franco wss in charge. In fact it could be argued that this stretch of Barca dominance compared to Real’s struggles is the biggest stretch of consistent superiority they ever had in the rivalry. Even in the recent 20 year run of Barca excellence, Real have had more Champions League wins, and the Dream Team era lasted only four years. Barca for about 15 years not only reigned above Real but was the best team in Spain, pardoxically this is the biggest flaw in the rigging games argument. Because if Franco really did favor Real Madrid do you really think he would allow them to go TWENTY-ONE years without a La Liga title? If he really interfered do you think Real Madrid would have only lifted FOUR trophies in 15 years? Or is it proabable that he didn’t care about the results and focused on other matters, because for the Franco narrative to be true Barca CANNOT be better than Real Madrid for such a long period of time. The real key to Real’s dominance wasn’t Franco it was Di Stefano, the next 20 year comparison will prove it.
Di-Stefano and post Di-Stefano years (1955-1975)
Real Madrid
Europan Cups: 6
La Ligas: 13
Copa del Rey: 4
Intercontinetal Cup: 1
Inter Cities Fair Cup: 0
UEFA Cup: 0
Cup Winners Cup: 0
Total: 24 titles
Barcelona
European Cups: 0
La Ligas; 3
Copa del Rey: 5
Intercontiental Cups: 0
Inter Cities Fair Cups: 3
UEFA Cups: 0
Cup Winners Cup: 0
Total: 11 titles
After Di Stefano’s arrival, Real Madrid were able to attract other stars to the club and through the excellent managemnt of Bernabeu kept a winning culture until his death in 1976. That’s the biggest reason for the disaprity, Real’s excellence and new-found fame attracting talent while Barcelona underachiveed under chaotic presidents. After Helenio Herrera led them to two La Liga titles in a row the club unfairly scapegoated him after a European Cup semi-final loss to Real Madrid. Herrera would take Inter Milan to two straight European Cup titles just 5 years later and Barcelona wouldn’t win the leageua again until 1974. Barcelona sick of being under Real’s shadow fired managers, got rtd of presidents, and sold and bought players to try fix the situation which led to more instability. While Real had the same president for this entire time period, plus had the legendary manager Miguel Munoz who led Real to 14 trophies in 14 years the longerst run in Real Madrid’s history with the same manager. This era of stability, intelligent transfers, promotion of youth allowed Real to dominate Spain and Europe. Franco wasn’t the main reason for Real’s dominance it was their own inteeligence, strategy, and brilliant players that led them to success. Try as they might the anti-Madrid media and Barca fans have never proven that Franco rigged games in any great capacity, the 11-1 was sketchy but there is no actual proof that the events took place. The narrative while comforting to a lot of people is wholly inaccuarate. As while Real Madrid had their most successful era under Franco they also had their LEAST successful era under Franco too. Barcelona had one of their least successful eras under Franco but believe me it;s not actually their worst that would be the 15 years AFTER Franco’s death.
Barcelona (1975-1990)
European Cups: 0
La Ligas: 1
Copa del Rey: 5
League Cup: 2
Spanish Super Cups: 1
Cup Winners Cup: 3
UEFA Super Cup: 0
UEFA Cup: 0
Intercontiental Cup: 0
Total: 12 titles
Barcelona in the first 15 years of the post-Franco era only won ONE league title in 15 years while in the previous 15 years they had won 3 (1959-1974). From 1959 to 1974 they had won 10 titles despote Real’s dominance and the fact that there were fewer competions as there was no League Cup, UEFA Cup or Cup Winners Cup, and no Spanish Super Cup for most of or all of that time period. Both time periods Barcelona reached the European Cup final and lost, in 1961 they ourplayed Benfica but hit the post 4 times in the famous “square-post” game. In 1986, they lost a virtual home game in Seville to a Steaua side without scoring a goal on penalties. Both 15 year-increments were defined by chaos in management, players being bought and sold, and managers without long-term ideas being brought in. What plagued Barcelona during the final years of Franco, continued to hamper them well after his death. He wasn’t resposnible for the reason Barcelona werren’t successful, Barca’s hierarchy were the main culprits. When Barcelona got things together was after the hiring of Johan Cryuff in 1988, and although he had a slow start he built the Barca side that would finally match Real’s dominance in the league. it was through planning, ther right manager and players that Barca finally had an upper hand in the rivalry. Although Barcelona would suffer barren years in the early-2000’s Joan Laporta rebuilt the club with the signing of Ronaldinho and Frank Rijkard led the team to more tiles. Then Guardiola came in and created a truly fantastic side that ruled Spain for years and through La Masia products in Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Pique, and Busquests finally had a generation to match Real’s dominant run in the 1950’s and 1960’s. But even with Neymar and Suarez joining Barcelona couldn’t dominate Europe like Real falling short of that even if they did win 10 La Liga titles in the last 20 years. But the financial woes forced them now to return to where they once were, feeble and weak, unable to compete financailly and on the pitch with Real Madrid. All the years of recklessly spending beyond their means to emulate Real’s success led them to this point and the only thing some fans cling on to is the Franco narrative. The Franco narrative like many excuses in life doesn’t allow the person to see the actual problem. It’s a villain and he is one to be sure. But he isn’t and has never been the reason why Barcelona struggled so much from 1960 to 1990. and he certainly isn’t the reason Real became a superpower. Real Madrid for better or worse were almost always better run than Barcelona save for the early 1990’s and from 2004 to 2012. Barcelona have returned to where they belong below Real Madrid and the only thing that can keep Barca fans sane is a fictional story of how one evil man made their club smaller than Real Madrid no matter how untrue it is, it’s the only argument they have left.
Author’s note
I wrote this article as a life-long Madridista anyone who wants to say I’m biased you can go ahead. But I did my fair share of research, read books, articles, throughout many years to prove my point. I think the entire Franco story is absurd on multiple levels but because any football fan knows what actual rigging loooks like. Dynamo Dresden was the goverment’s team in East Germany and they were always eliminated early from the European Cup. That team clearly and factually benenfited from bought officials and couldn’t succed outside East Germany. Real won Latin Cups in the early 1950’s and small World Cups later in the decade, they won 6 European Cups played across Europe and became World Champions in 1960 beating Penarol 5-1. Was that all Franco’s influence too? Of course not. I think the only way to fight lies, dishonesty, and bad narratives is through the truth and facts. There are many Real fans who need a guide on how to combat this kind of bs and this is your guide. Use this whenever a rival fan says Real are Franco’s club. Real Madrid fans we have to combat this because this is used to get unfavorable treatment by the media. Have you ever wondered why the media treats Barcelona better than Real? This is a major reason why, I cannot tell you I’ve heard British, American, Brazilian commentators say Real is the club of Franco. We need to combat this, Alfredo Relano the AS editor once bemoanded the fact that Real don’t defend the history of the club that we allow outsiders to define it. We can’t allow that anymore, we have to write our own histroy. History belongs to the winners and I cannot understand why the biggest club in the WORLD has to play second fiddle to Barcelona. The sad truth is that they have a better story to tell, as Sid Lowe said if Real Madrid wrote a book it would be one page and it would just have a picture of the Champions League. (Lowe,) That should be enough to define the greatness of a club, its success but Real fans have to defend the club too. Because it’s too great of a club to be stained by lies and fairytales.
Works Cited
Alfredo Relano, AS editor, 1999.
Sid Lowe, “Fear and Loathing in La Liga”, 2014.
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