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FC Barcelona Rugby League?!


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Look, this has been discussed before on the International forum.  The major issue with anything in Spain is Catalanists.  The people who latched onto Rugby League in Catalunya did so in the understanding they could have their own national team and ditched RL after one season when it became clear that it wasn't going to happen.  As I understand, it's something to do with National Olympic Committees and the like.  Half remembered stuff from five years ago, sorry.

Spain is stuck in neutral as a country, partly due to the Catalanists.  At a certain point, they should just let them go.

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35 minutes ago, bbfaz said:

Look, this has been discussed before on the International forum.  The major issue with anything in Spain is Catalanists.  The people who latched onto Rugby League in Catalunya did so in the understanding they could have their own national team and ditched RL after one season when it became clear that it wasn't going to happen.  As I understand, it's something to do with National Olympic Committees and the like.  Half remembered stuff from five years ago, sorry.

Spain is stuck in neutral as a country, partly due to the Catalanists.  At a certain point, they should just let them go.

And Basques, and Andalusians, all independence was brutally supressed by Franco after the Civil War, and there is still a certain unionist/national mentality.

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7 hours ago, bbfaz said:

Look, this has been discussed before on the International forum.  The major issue with anything in Spain is Catalanists.  The people who latched onto Rugby League in Catalunya did so in the understanding they could have their own national team and ditched RL after one season when it became clear that it wasn't going to happen.  As I understand, it's something to do with National Olympic Committees and the like.  Half remembered stuff from five years ago, sorry.

Spain is stuck in neutral as a country, partly due to the Catalanists.  At a certain point, they should just let them go.

Well that was never going to happen. 

Spain has potential in RL but getting it to grow is a challenge. If a few clubs in the Barcelona region formed, could they play in France? 

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13 hours ago, Bleep1673 said:

And Basques, and Andalusians, all independence was brutally supressed by Franco after the Civil War, and there is still a certain unionist/national mentality.

Basque separatism is no longer mainstream. They've settled for federalism and respect for minority cultures and their language. The only genuine separatist movement with mainstream support in Spain is Catalanism.

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6 hours ago, RayCee said:

Well that was never going to happen. 

Spain has potential in RL but getting it to grow is a challenge. If a few clubs in the Barcelona region formed, could they play in France? 

I don't share your optimism. There doesn't seem to be an appetite for contact sports in the way there is in the UK. They like basketball, they like volleyball. They even like handball more than rugby. Boxing is not mainstream and other combat sports are even more niche than they are in the UK.

Most people take up Rugby Union when they are at university, they aren't even aware that Rugby League exists. That is a big step that the aerl should be taking, which is getting into universities.

It's 2 1/4 hours from Barcelona to Perpignan. So anything from Barcelona to the north might be viable for playing in France. The obvious question is standard of play. For instance, would you want teams playing in Derbyshire or Staffordshire playing in the Heartlands? Or would they get destroyed?

South of Barcelona, perhaps not so viable. Then again, that's the point of the Valencian league being branded as "the Levant". 

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27 minutes ago, TheConductor said:

Barcelona Rugby Union team copied the same colours as the Football team 

The rugby team is part of the FCB family, just like the handball, basketball,  etc. As far as I'm aware they all wear the club colours.

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You have to remember, sport on the continent hasn't developed the same as it has in the UK.  By the structure of certain clubs as community members institutions, they created sports teams within the membership of that club. Olympiacos are probably the most prolific in this regard, as they even have a track & field team.  Barcelona ("mes que un club" and all that) probably kept this going more than anybody else in Spain, whereas most other clubs dwindled back to what made money and concentrated on professional sport.

Real Madrid once had handball, volleyball and Rugby Union but they dwindled down to just their record-breaking football and basketball departments.  They've tried a wee bit of licensing the name, as have Atletico de Madrid, but it has never stuck long term, while Barcelona keep the team amateur within the structure of the club.

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11 hours ago, TheConductor said:

I know its Rugby Union but just saw this on the internet as didn't know Barcelona Rugby Union team copied the same colours as the Football team so it might be hard market to crack if the Union team get crowds like what I post for a final as I'm sure last year the Spainish Union final got over 20000 ?

 

They dont. Though Im sure that wont stop union fans claiming otherwise, delusional as they are. 

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5 hours ago, TheConductor said:

They got sell out in 2016 and 2017.

Spain is going through a bit of a boom in rugby for some reason. Their national team is regularly getting 16k for their home games in Madrid in the 6N 2nd tier. Plenty of appetite in Spain for rugby.

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On ‎16‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 13:35, TheConductor said:

I know its Rugby Union but just saw this on the internet as didn't know Barcelona Rugby Union team copied the same colours as the Football team so it might be hard market to crack if the Union team get crowds like what I post for a final as I'm sure last year the Spainish Union final got over 20000 ?

 

Lord bless us and spare us, this is the slowest moving game I've ever seen. Its more like chess, without the intellect. What a load of rubbish. 

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On 15/05/2019 at 07:43, bbfaz said:

I don't share your optimism. There doesn't seem to be an appetite for contact sports in the way there is in the UK. They like basketball, they like volleyball. They even like handball more than rugby. Boxing is not mainstream and other combat sports are even more niche than they are in the UK.

Most people take up Rugby Union when they are at university, they aren't even aware that Rugby League exists. That is a big step that the aerl should be taking, which is getting into universities.

It's 2 1/4 hours from Barcelona to Perpignan. So anything from Barcelona to the north might be viable for playing in France. The obvious question is standard of play. For instance, would you want teams playing in Derbyshire or Staffordshire playing in the Heartlands? Or would they get destroyed?

South of Barcelona, perhaps not so viable. Then again, that's the point of the Valencian league being branded as "the Levant". 

That being the case, a pro RL club in Barcelona would need to have a draw card(s) to overcome that resistance.  Something like a steady diet of opponents from big world class cities either side of the Atlantic delivering the equivalent of the Champions League and UEFA League week in and week out.  Something like that just might be enough to get FC Barcelona interested.

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1 hour ago, Big Picture said:

That being the case, a pro RL club in Barcelona would need to have a draw card(s) to overcome that resistance.  Something like a steady diet of opponents from big world class cities either side of the Atlantic delivering the equivalent of the Champions League and UEFA League week in and week out.  Something like that just might be enough to get FC Barcelona interested.

Don't f'n start.  Get back in your box and don't pollute other threads with inanities. 

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29 minutes ago, bbfaz said:

Don't f'n start.  Get back in your box and don't pollute other threads with inanities. 

What you call inanities could be the one thing capable of interesting the organization which sees itself as mes que un club in being involved this sport.

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Ages ago people were talking about a few League clubs in Valencia? What's happened to them?

"At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right."

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On 15/05/2019 at 12:43, bbfaz said:

I don't share your optimism. There doesn't seem to be an appetite for contact sports in the way there is in the UK. They like basketball, they like volleyball. They even like handball more than rugby. Boxing is not mainstream and other combat sports are even more niche than they are in the UK.

Yep....same mentality as some southern Asian countries...the Spanish are mummies boys who don't want to get hurt

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1 hour ago, slowdive said:

Ages ago people were talking about a few League clubs in Valencia? What's happened to them?

They still operate. Valencia is essentially the M62 corridor of Spanish Rugby League

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2 hours ago, Ash Hope said:

They still operate. Valencia is essentially the M62 corridor of Spanish Rugby League

The Valencians have the advantage that a whole bunch of clubs took to it. While some have packed it in, they were replaced and so there's a core of a league there. Andalusia similarly. 

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