Arcadi Alibés: “I feel bad that maybe I'll only be remembered for being the man from Canaletes.”

BarcelonaArcadi Alibés is another of the founding names in TV3's sports department who is retiring, following in the footsteps of Imma Pedemonte, Pere Escobar, and Jordi Robirosa. In this interview, he reviews his career as a journalist and runner, and the weight of having been the man celebrating Barça's titles in Canaletes for two decades.

Being a marathon collector, you could have lasted until you were 42 years and 195 days old on TV3, but you're finishing a year before this milestone. How did you decide when to leave?

— In fact, if you count the years at the Corporation as a whole, it's 42 or so, because I joined Catalunya Ràdio in 1983. Last year I had my first doubts, when I reached 65. The company doesn't kick us out, but rather gives us a margin of two or three years, and I decided to do an extra year as a bonus. When the year was up, they insisted they wouldn't fire me, but in the end, it was a burden to occupy a permanent position at a company like TV3, when there are many young people who have passed the exams and are waiting to get in. Ethically, if I'm old enough to retire, I should retire. I said one more year, I've done one more year... So, home.

What was it like doing sports journalism 40 years ago compared to now?

— It used to be easier, starting with access to athletes. You didn't have to go through the filters of the press and communications managers. Now there's a huge, very strict barrier between journalists and athletes. They're super-protected by the clubs. And there weren't that many of us, playing sports. Nowadays, you see the typical crowded press conferences, or someone arriving at the airport and having 85 microphones trying to get a word in edgewise.

But your cell phone will be a treasure trove of contacts from the country's sports history.

— Well, look, except for cyclists and some athletes, there aren't many. Of current soccer players, not one. Also because for the last 15 or 20 years, I've practically only worked on set; I've done studio journalism.

How do you imagine life from now on?

— Since I've been working a lot on weekends, as is usual if you play sports, it won't change much either, because from Monday to Thursday I'll still be doing the same things as before: spending time with my wife and daughter, going for a run... The adjustment is easy, although, obviously, I'll miss going to work more and more, and having colleagues who, meeting colleagues who, colleagues. I'll miss the typical 3/24 stress of refreshing the news every half hour.

Sorry to correct you somewhat maliciously: 3CatInfo.

— [laughs] Well, except for the last weekend I worked, when I was able to debut the new 3CatInfo set, I retired on the 3/24. It's just that for those of us who have been here for 40 years, it's hard to say 3Cat or 3CatInfo.

Last week there was a protest by workers who are not entirely clear about the brand dance.

— I was hooked on my last day of work, October 1st. It was a meeting called by the works council to inform them that from high up, from management, they had said not to suffer, that the TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio brands would not be lost. I don't know if it was necessary to put up those intermediate umbrellas for 3Cat and 3CatInfo, but maybe I'm being nostalgic. Whatever the case, I will always say that I worked for 42 years at TV3, although, obviously, TV3 also encompassed everything else, because in recent years I've been mainly at 3/24 and Esport3.

How did you get into sports journalism?

— It was my first vocation.

Never a firefighter or an astronaut?

— No, no. I was hooked on sports from a very young age, even though there was no tradition at home, because my parents were farmers until they were 50 and then worked in factories. But I remember childhood afternoons watching soccer and cycling, or glued to the radio with several other kids listening to the Tour de France. And I started memorizing the lineups of all the Primera teams.

If I now say Oviedo, 1970-1971 season?

— Lombardy, Carrete, Tensi, Juan Manuel, Javier Iriarte, Marianí, Galán, Uría...

I'll check it out, because I admit I don't have the slightest idea. [Indeed, everyone got it right.] And from sports to journalism?

— Oh, I liked writing and writing, even since I was little. I must have been 9 or 10. So writing and sports combined, well, sports journalist.

And has the job given you what you expected?

— More! If I had known, when I was a kid, that I'd be covering fifteen Tours de France, that I'd be going to the World Cup in Mexico, and that I'd be working in sports for 47 years... Wow, my dream has come true.

A phrase that haunts his lineage: "Whoever is worthy, is worthy. And whoever isn't, to sports."

— Oh, yes, this was always said. Yes, yes. I remember it in Spanish, the phrase, perhaps because at that time, sports journalism was always somewhat undervalued, but those of us who dedicated ourselves to it were screwed. For me, reporting on sports has the same value as reporting on economics or politics. It possibly even has an advantage: if you report on politics, you can be much more conditioned by the company you work for than if you report on sports. I've never been told "yes" or "no." We've always said and done what we wanted, while maintaining a certain impartiality...

Man...

— Okay, no matter how much one may be a culé, or the other may be a perico, or even a Real Madrid fan, like Esteve Soler, you always separate your work from your tastes and try to be even-handed and as neutral as possible.

A 47-year career, including your early years in the press. Have there been any particularly challenging moments in this nearly half-century?

— Whenever you look back, you remember the stages with a certain fondness. Complicated... Oh, well, perhaps TV3's first. We didn't have sports rights; Televisión Española wouldn't let us use their network, so we had to return from the matches by plane because the flight schedules didn't match up. You'd arrive at the airport and there a colleague would be waiting for you with a motorcycle to take you to TV3, where the game had already begun. Goal by goal, and you'd quickly edit the goals and rush into the studio to comment on them live. It was stressful, but as the years go by, you say, "That was a great time!"

I was also referring to whether at some point you heard that you were not where you wanted to be.

— The first 20 long years I did a lot of everything and touched on a thousand topics: presenting Newscast, programs, reporting, interviews... It fulfilled me a lot. And yes, these last 18 or 20 years I've done a more, let's say, routine job, because you have a more standard schedule, but at the same time you can organize your life better, both with your family and personally. I've accepted it and never thought, "Now they want to send you to the galleys because you're old." 3/24—sorry, 3CatInfo!—is an important and necessary channel on public television. Doesn't it have the audience that TV3 programs do? I know that. But it doesn't matter: you take your job as a journalist and you do it with the usual stress, worrying about whether a certain image arrives five minutes after it arrives. I've endured the stress and enjoyed it.

What was TV3 like 41 years ago, when you arrived, and what is it like now?

— More than content, philosophy or way of doing things, the strongest change I've noticed is technological. Before, we wrote with typewriters and tracing paper to have copies for the prompter And we didn't even know what a computer was. There was no internet or cell phones, and cameras weighed a ton. But, as I was saying, the philosophy and the way we report haven't changed.

TV3 has received a wave of criticism, which is in fact regular, from people who believe it has lost its founding purpose. Do you think it's still there?

— I think on a sports level, yes. We try to cover Catalan sports, because it's the television of Catalonia, but this doesn't mean being a folklore channel; rather, we talk about major events. That's why we've been to the Olympic Games, the World Cup, all the events, because we want to explain sports from a global perspective. And, on a more global programming level, there will always be more nostalgic people who will prefer the programming that was done in the early days, but that's like everything in life: you can't satisfy everyone.

Is sports information free?

— Yes, I think that dedicating yourself to sports coverage gives you a sense of peace of mind. You won't be so closely scrutinized by whoever controls the media outlet you work for: in the case of a newspaper, by an owner, and in the case of a public media outlet, it depends on the political party in power at the time. I don't know if colleagues who work in political coverage are more common, but not in sports. In sports, you're fortunate to have information that's not less important, but certainly less transcendental, so to speak, which allows you to escape all of this.

One of your most iconic things was your appearances in Canaletes.

— I've never been able to shake it off, and it came about by chance! And that's it: if there was a title, Arcadi would be heading for Canaletes.

Were you eager?

— Let's see, with enthusiasm... I remember telling several sports directors that I was done with always going, that I could do something else: go to the fields or do another type of work. And they always told me: "Wow, I can't leave him out. Arcadi and Canaletes go together. If I put someone else in, they'll say all kinds of things to me." This changed in 2005, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the first famous La Liga appearance in 1985. The sports director at the time, Pere Escobar, did understand. He told me: "Hey, we've been doing this for 20 years, so let's stop." And we made the joke of me handing over from the set to Jordi Sunyer, who was the one who went to make the first Canaletes post-Arcadi.

But you have remained in the collective imagination.

— Yes, it's funny, because people still remember me as the guy from Canaletes, even though I only watched the first half of my 41 years at TV3. And sometimes I'm surprised that kids who might not have been born in '85, or were just babies, still tell you, "Wow, you're the guy from Canaletes!" because the images have been shown 50,000 times.

Does it bother you?

— No, it's part of me, of my journalistic career. I've retired knowing that I will continue to be, for many people and for many years to come, the man from Canaletes. In fact, I haven't been there for the last 20 years, and I'm still remembered for that. It's not that it bothers me, but I do feel bad that I can only be remembered for that. I'm very specific about this. only, because I've done many other things as a journalist. But, well, people find this funny, and I trust they'll remember that I've been a sports journalist with a much broader career.

How was that first time?

— We didn't know what we'd find, because Barça hadn't won a league title in eleven years. We didn't know if there would be people... And what happened, happened. The second connection was too much: I disappeared from the image, from the people who existed.

Did you ever suffer?

— No! Maybe it looked like it from the outside, but the atmosphere was festive, celebratory... People were happy. Of course, when they saw me start speaking live... bam! Everyone wanted to come out, and they came, even disappearing into the crowd, but I never felt in danger of anything. The first time I was amazed; I couldn't even see the camera. And I said to myself: "Well, keep talking, and in the end, the images will say more than words." I didn't know what to say.

The feeling was one of chaos, as a spectator.

— Later, when it seemed like it might be a dangerous topic, even the Barcelona City Police were against these connections, saying they would end up leading to violence, vandalism, broken shop windows... But no, because that happened much later, in the early hours of the morning, and I never experienced it. In any case, and in agreement with the City Police, it was decided that we wouldn't make the connections on foot along the Rambla, but instead would go up to a balcony of the hotels nearby. I did it several times, but it wasn't as fun anymore, because you can't interact with people.

What's the point of maintaining a large sports department at TV3 if sports rights have been transferred to paywalls?

— It's true that TV3, during all the years I've been there, has been fortunate enough to have top-tier rights, such as La Liga, the Champions League, Formula 1, Euroleague basketball... All of this has been lost due to the current audiovisual situation. But hey, TV3 and Esport3 have still maintained some important rights, such as the Champions League handball league. Perhaps we should take the step of dedicating the channel to Catalan sports, since we are the television channel of Catalonia. But hey, if you want to provide quality sports coverage, there's work to be done. We need all the colleagues we have: no one is scratching their stomachs. That's why I hope my vacant position remains in sports.

As a retiree, you're no longer bound by the style guide that prevents you from expressing personal and political opinions. If you've ever had to bite your tongue, now's the time to let it out.

— As I said before, playing sports gives you more peace of mind in this regard. If you're dedicated to political coverage and you're an independence supporter, of course, you can't show that in your work. Or, conversely, if you're a die-hard Espanyol supporter.

How would you define yourself politically?

— I'm a separatist, I have no problem saying that. I'm Catalan, I was born here, it's my land, and you only have one homeland, like a mother. But I also want to tell you that, since 2017, I've been very disenchanted with the entire political class. You realize they're very much in their own interests and you can't trust them too much...

What are your future plans?

— For now, I'll continue pursuing my passion outside of work, which has been running. I'm not retiring from that as long as my body holds up, and I already have three marathons planned for the coming months, starting with the New York City marathon on November 2nd, which is the one I always try to run.

Because?

— It's my first marathon. I love the city, and it's the marathon of marathons. There, you realize you're part of a global community, with people from all over running with the same philosophy. There's a communion between the city and the race that you don't find anywhere else. You can run the marathon in five hours and you'll find people on the street cheering you on the whole time. But I've also done marathons with fourteen or fifteen people, don't think so. And I finished third: the only time I've ever made the podium!

What's the sweetest marathon you remember? And the bitterest?

— It's hard to say just one! Obviously, the first one you finish is a dream, but so is the first time you run under three hours, the first marathon you run after overcoming an injury, or a marathon in a special place, like Antarctica or the Sahara. And the bitterest... Well, marathons that didn't go as planned and you suffered more than you should have. I remember one of the first ones in Paris, in '88. I had trained to go under three hours and ended up taking more than five, because I felt terrible, and it was very hot, and I suppose I had overtrained. But anyway, as is generally the case in life, where you always remember the good times more than the bad, these memories become more hidden, and I will always remember the moments when I was happiest.

And who would be your popular athletics heroes?

— Abebe Bikila is a symbol for runners, for his feat of running barefoot on the cobblestones of Rome in 1960. Or Domingo Catalán, who symbolizes both athletics. This man was a world champion in the 100 kilometers with a time of 6 hours and 20 minutes, and also won the first El Corte Inglés race. He was basically an elite athlete, but when he had to give up due to age, he continued running. For me, he's a role model and a friend. But I could also mention a man named Miquel Pucurull, who is now 86 years old and now says he doesn't run, but rather corriña, because he goes too slowly. He's found himself facing what I'm going to face in the future: he can no longer run marathons because it takes him longer than the organizations allow, but he still signs up for the odd 5- or 10-kilometer race.

Can you imagine running at 86 years old?

— Man, I'd like to say that my body has respected me, that is to say, I haven't had any injuries. I don't know if elite sport is good for your health, because it puts a lot more strain on the body, while popular sport, if you do it well and don't have any marquitis...I don't mind doing an extra 15 minutes in a marathon. If you approach it that way, you can last a lifetime.

Are you worried about the decline of your body, considering how you have dedicated yourself to taking care of it?

— I'm not worried about the decline that means I used to be able to run a marathon in under three hours and now need four and a half. I hope I can take five or six hours, because it means I'm still running. I'm more worried about having a finish where you suffer, or, above all, make others suffer. One of my sisters died of pancreatic cancer, and the other has Alzheimer's and no longer knows us. Physical or mental illness does worry me.

Do you have spiritual concerns?

— No. Historically, religions are the source of humanity's wars and conflicts. I'm completely atheist: we're here, we live, we die, and that's it. I think this way, and I've been very clear about it for many years.