BY integrating French clubs and particularly Catalans Dragons to their competition, there’s something the stakeholders of Super League probably never predicted.
The arrival of the Catalan culture on the terraces of Super League stadia.
On paper, it could have been challenging already for the North England based authorities to cope with the French culture.
On the field, it wasn’t such a big issue at all and the explanation of this swift adaptation came from an interview with FFR XIII President Dominique Baloup last year on a local radio (see “Treiziste Diary” in RLW 491); he explained that both Dragons and Toulouse Olympique were outposted from the French Federation to join the British competitions. Both clubs have now fully integrated the British rules including even the most unusual one (from a French point of view); a clergyman attached to the teams (Sports Chaplaincy).
But by accepting the entrance of Catalans Dragons, did someone measure how big the contribution of the Catalan culture has been?
To try to be clear about something complex, let me offer you a short and necessarily simplistic presentation.
Catalan culture is shared between France and Spain. On the French side, it represents an area as big as one of your biggest counties; Pyrénées Orientales and Perpignan is its head city. On the Spanish side, it’s comparable with one of your home nations and it’s called ‘Generalitat de Catalunya’, its capital being Barcelona. On the French side, it’s an agriculture and tourist area where rugby union and league rule. On the Spanish side, it’s a tourist area but also an industrial area where football and (maybe) basketball are prevalent. Both have connections with each other, and more and more since there’s no physical frontier between them. In the south, Catalan identity is associated with a bitter close battle for independence, and I wouldn’t recommend you to call a Catalan a Spaniard. Many cities there will welcome you with “l’estelada blava’ only, that flag inspired by the Cuban one, clearly the colours of independence.
In the north, independence may be in the mind of some, but not so many would like to leave the French republic for good unconditionally; that Northern Catalan spirit, more balanced, could be summed up by the motto of the local Département at one time “the Catalan accent of the French Republic”.
Yet, the Catalans Dragons have become a link between North and South, thanks to their President, Bernard Guasch, who speaks Catalan fluently and has a huge address book which explains that, from time to time, the Dracs can access one of the most emblematic European football fields; El Camp Nou in Barcelona.
An easy access to a dynamic and strategic European area is yet not the only asset for rugby league.
The Dracs can count on a network of fans, a network of “penyes” (pronunciation “penas”). They are societies, clubs of fans but very specific to the Catalan culture and their aim is much more than just sharing a “cervesa” (beer in Catalan) or a “pa amb tomaquet” (bread with tomato) with friends, in front of a TV set.
So, what are penyes really?
I had the opportunity to question the founder of one of them; 67-year-old Claude Bordaneil, a former rugby league player and manager and one founding member of “Els amics de Cànoes amb els Dragons Catalans” (“the friends of Canohès with Dragons Catalans”), one of the 15 existing penyes, a penya located in Canohès, a city of 6,000 inhabitants, at the south west of Perpignan.
He explained to me that his friends and him “were inspired by the penyes of the FC Barcelona (or “Barça” for the locals)”. A real institution in the south.
And he offered me a real panorama of the penyes’ landscape.
“Presently, there are 15 penyes, 13 out of 15 are based in Pyrénées Orientales.
“The most important ones in terms of members’ numbers are the three penyes based in Ille-sur-Têt, Baho and Canohès which represent between 1,000 and 1,200 members.”
Each penya is independent, and follows its own rules. A minority of them even have shares in the Catalans Dragons company.
But he wants something to be clear about his own penya.
“Our statutes specify that our penya was founded not only to support the Dragons Catalans but also rugby league”.
As I was expecting, penyes weren’t not created off-shore to support the Dracs, they were already a part of the local culture before the Dracs joined the Super League.
Indeed, Bordaneil pointed out the fact that the oldest one is the penya of Saint-Nazaire which was created before the Dragons, and which was already a penya of XIII Catalan and later of UTC.
Even if they don’t take part in the Catalans Dragons decision-making processes, penyes are seriously taken into account by the club. They are invited twice or three times a year to meet President Bernard Guasch and the board. They offer volunteers for great occasions, have priority for the discount match tickets they offer to newbies or new members as a way to promote rugby league.
Penyes have their dedicated grandstand at Gilbert Brutus, you’ll find most of them in the Guasch-Laborde grandstand. They have their own flags, their own social diary (they organise gatherings, meals, televising sessions). As an illustration of the Northern Catalan spirit I have alreday described, the usual language is French, even if Catalan of course can be heard, and a third language may be spoken too and it may surprise you; English, as penyes do have British members. Canohès’ one for example has been in touch with some Huddersfield fans for more than a decade. Ille-sur-Tèt’s penya cultivates good relationships with Wigan.
Penyes’ activities are not restricted to the sole Catalan culture. For instance, for the French Federation’s 90th anniversary, Lluis Colet, a member of the “Catalans Endavant” penya, offered the Catalan public a photo exhibition in Perpignan. And they are not restricted to Perpignan’s area either.
They are also able to organise journeys by coach for the cause: for the triple crunch in Toulouse in late June for example, but also occasionally to support the other major French club; Toulouse Olympique. And each time for El Camp Nou, of course!
Bordaneil is thankful to all the Treizistes for their support to the greatest game of all and appreciates the fact that Catalans Dragons have been receiving a true recognition in Super League for 18 years now, and especially “by a large majority of English people who now regard Dragons Catalans as their second club”.
With the Dragons entering Super League, Catalan culture was really the guest star.
For Super League, a precious guest to have on its side, if it still wants to promote the game in continental Europe.
Penyes could be also a model for France, which doesn’t have a sporting fan culture as strong as in UK (a few exceptions aside in football).
But also, a lead for those among the British clubs who still haven’t come to terms with the presence of foreign clubs in their rugby league competitions and who complain that French clubs don’t bring them attendances at their stadia.
Maybe they could start to knock at the penyes’ doors?
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 500 (September 2024)
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