Marca Madness makes Guti look good
Credit:
There are two sides to football coverage in the Spanish newspapers.
Firstly, there are the three mainstream newspapers - El País, ABC and El Mundo. These are the equivalent of The Irish Times, the Irish Independent and the Irish Examiner.
Secondly, and more importantly, there are several dedicated sports papers, such as Marca and AS. This is a completely new experience for Irish people living in Spain. Of course, we have nothing like a dedicated sports paper at home. Although they are called "sports" newspapers, anything between 50% and 90% of their content can be devoted to football.
El País is the biggest selling daily newspaper, with a circulation of roughly 400,000. In style, it's a lot like The Irish Times. Unlike The Irish Times though, it actually has a very good domestic football section.
The writing is eloquent and extravagant but it doesn't display any overt bias towards any club. Real Madrid and Barcelona are given an equal amount of space and attention, something which is very important if a paper wants to sell more copies seeing as over half the Spanish nation supports either Real (32%) or Barça (25%), according to a 2007 poll.
ABC is the third biggest selling daily newspaper. It's circulation hovers around 240,000 at the moment. The paper is like an Irish Independent of Spain. It's a conservative paper which consistently backs the Partido Popular, the Spanish Fianna Fáil.
Their football coverage is pale in comparison to El País'. Their coverage focuses on the Madrid sides but it's hard to pick out an obvious bias in their coverage.
I must stress that while ABC may focus more on the Madrid sides, they, like all other national Spanish newspapers, release different editions for each region. As I live in Madrid, of course I’ll get the Madrid- heavy version. Also, the three main dailies, El País, ABC and El Mundo, are all based in Madrid.
In Cataluña, La Vanguardia is the paper which sells most copies, although I can’t find any evidence that it sells only in that region. With a circulation of roughly 200,000, it’s the fourth largest daily paper in Spain and by far the biggest in Cataluña.
Naturally, it is obsessed with Barça. Looking at their sports pages, there are currently five stories dedicated to Barça and one dedicated to Real Espanyol, Barcelona’s second club. The only other football story is about Juventus and there is nothing whatsoever about Real or the rest of La Liga.
Of course, football enthusiasts in Spain will buy one of the sports papers if they want to read about football. Marca sells about 300,000 copies a day, while AS sells around 215,000. Again, in Cataluña, there are two papers there which focus on Catalan football and, in particular, Barça. Sport and El Mundo Deportivo both sell about 100,000 each daily.
Marca is infamous in and outside Spain for it’s unwavering devotion to all things Real Madrid. Every day, it advertises a promotion for all sorts of Real merchandise, including everything from wallets to cake and ice cube moulds with the Real logo on it.
It’s obsession with Real can be nauseating at times. When Guti, a favourite of Marca, showed incredible vision to create a goal for Karim Benzema, Marca went mad.
In the match against Deportivo la Coruña, Guti, inside the box, received the ball from Ronaldo in a quick counter-attack. He was through one-on-one with the Depor keeper but instead of going for goal, he back-heeled it for Benzema, who was following up. Benzema had an open goal and was able to easily tap home.
It was a great move, there‘s no denying it. However, Marca went into a frenzy, lauding it as the greatest assist ever and even arranged a two-page interview with Guti to discuss it. It even printed pictures of him acting out in his back garden. Marca’s love affair with Guti leads to crediting him with a lot more than he does. When Real came back from 2-0 to beat Sevilla 3-2, Guti was the catalyst in Marca’s eyes.
Another Marca pastime is trying to get the current Real manager sacked if things aren’t going 100% smoothly. For instance, the day after Lyon eliminated Real from the Champion’s League, Marca published a front-page story asking who should replace Manuel Pellegrini as Real boss. The piece completely ignored the fact that Real are top of the table.
Marca is completely unlike any Irish newspaper’s football coverage. It even knocks the English tabloids into a distant second with it’s over-the-top delivery. AS is much calmer, and less painful to read, in this regard.
Firstly, there are the three mainstream newspapers - El País, ABC and El Mundo. These are the equivalent of The Irish Times, the Irish Independent and the Irish Examiner.
Secondly, and more importantly, there are several dedicated sports papers, such as Marca and AS. This is a completely new experience for Irish people living in Spain. Of course, we have nothing like a dedicated sports paper at home. Although they are called "sports" newspapers, anything between 50% and 90% of their content can be devoted to football.
El País is the biggest selling daily newspaper, with a circulation of roughly 400,000. In style, it's a lot like The Irish Times. Unlike The Irish Times though, it actually has a very good domestic football section.
The writing is eloquent and extravagant but it doesn't display any overt bias towards any club. Real Madrid and Barcelona are given an equal amount of space and attention, something which is very important if a paper wants to sell more copies seeing as over half the Spanish nation supports either Real (32%) or Barça (25%), according to a 2007 poll.
ABC is the third biggest selling daily newspaper. It's circulation hovers around 240,000 at the moment. The paper is like an Irish Independent of Spain. It's a conservative paper which consistently backs the Partido Popular, the Spanish Fianna Fáil.
Their football coverage is pale in comparison to El País'. Their coverage focuses on the Madrid sides but it's hard to pick out an obvious bias in their coverage.
I must stress that while ABC may focus more on the Madrid sides, they, like all other national Spanish newspapers, release different editions for each region. As I live in Madrid, of course I’ll get the Madrid- heavy version. Also, the three main dailies, El País, ABC and El Mundo, are all based in Madrid.
In Cataluña, La Vanguardia is the paper which sells most copies, although I can’t find any evidence that it sells only in that region. With a circulation of roughly 200,000, it’s the fourth largest daily paper in Spain and by far the biggest in Cataluña.
Naturally, it is obsessed with Barça. Looking at their sports pages, there are currently five stories dedicated to Barça and one dedicated to Real Espanyol, Barcelona’s second club. The only other football story is about Juventus and there is nothing whatsoever about Real or the rest of La Liga.
Of course, football enthusiasts in Spain will buy one of the sports papers if they want to read about football. Marca sells about 300,000 copies a day, while AS sells around 215,000. Again, in Cataluña, there are two papers there which focus on Catalan football and, in particular, Barça. Sport and El Mundo Deportivo both sell about 100,000 each daily.
Marca is infamous in and outside Spain for it’s unwavering devotion to all things Real Madrid. Every day, it advertises a promotion for all sorts of Real merchandise, including everything from wallets to cake and ice cube moulds with the Real logo on it.
It’s obsession with Real can be nauseating at times. When Guti, a favourite of Marca, showed incredible vision to create a goal for Karim Benzema, Marca went mad.
In the match against Deportivo la Coruña, Guti, inside the box, received the ball from Ronaldo in a quick counter-attack. He was through one-on-one with the Depor keeper but instead of going for goal, he back-heeled it for Benzema, who was following up. Benzema had an open goal and was able to easily tap home.
It was a great move, there‘s no denying it. However, Marca went into a frenzy, lauding it as the greatest assist ever and even arranged a two-page interview with Guti to discuss it. It even printed pictures of him acting out in his back garden. Marca’s love affair with Guti leads to crediting him with a lot more than he does. When Real came back from 2-0 to beat Sevilla 3-2, Guti was the catalyst in Marca’s eyes.
Another Marca pastime is trying to get the current Real manager sacked if things aren’t going 100% smoothly. For instance, the day after Lyon eliminated Real from the Champion’s League, Marca published a front-page story asking who should replace Manuel Pellegrini as Real boss. The piece completely ignored the fact that Real are top of the table.
Marca is completely unlike any Irish newspaper’s football coverage. It even knocks the English tabloids into a distant second with it’s over-the-top delivery. AS is much calmer, and less painful to read, in this regard.
About Finbarr O'Sullivan
Currently working in Brazil, Finbarr will be giving his take on Brazilian football in his regular Extratime.ie column. Finbarr peviously studied in Spain and worked in the Czech Republic and had regular column pieces on … View Full Profile