If Barcelona did not install a giant screen, the surrounding municipalities did. Badalona, for example. While the mayor, Xavier García Albiol, followed the World Cup from New York, Plaça President Tarradellas became the meeting point for thousands of fans ready to push the Spanish team towards a new final.

Tomorrow at 9 the Spain-France game will be played, and banal Spanish nationalism is infiltrating everywhere, including the mobile screens of Movistar customers, which, instead of saying “Movistar” says “with the selection”, regardless of whether the client completely ignores it of the World Cup or the selection bothers them. The performance that states and companies derive from their sports selections explains to what extent sport is also politics and identity is also business. A cruel paradox for so many Catalans who have at some point shouted "neither Spain, nor France, Catalan Countries", and it turns out that tomorrow, it will be one or the other. About M. Rajoy and his comment that France plays without French saying that: first, following their reasoning, Spain plays without Spaniards, and second, that Republican France has felt very offended, but it would be good for them to consider whether the indignation they feel about the racist comment is consistent with the absence of racism in everyday life. Contrary to what this article says, it is not that people like Rajoy bring the World Cup into the realm of identity, but rather that the entire World Cup is a competition of identities (one only needs to look at the anthems, the flags, and the heads of state in the stands). Another matter is what is understood by national identity in each country. But this week there is another important appointment, which is on Thursday, the day on which the Court of Justice of the European Union must rule on the amnesty, specifically on whether the crime of embezzlement is amnestible or not. It is another episode in this judicial quarrel that the Spanish judiciary's refusal to apply the amnesty law as approved by the legislative power more than two years ago, in May 2024, has become. Remember that, to prevent its application, the Supreme Court ruled that, since the referendum was paid for with public money, the leaders of the Process personally enriched themselves because they saved themselves from putting money from their own pockets, like someone who pays for their daughter's wedding with public money (the example is from the Supreme Court). Well, on Thursday the CJEU will rule, but even if the ruling says that the amnesty is in accordance with European law, it will not be automatically applied, but rather then, the Constitutional Court must decide whether the Supreme Court's interpretation is correct or not, presumably it will say no, but this ruling will not arrive until the autumn, practically when Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Lluís Puig will have been in exile for 9 years.  

Argentina will play the World Cup semi-finals thanks to Julián Álvarez. He hadn't scored in the entire tournament and was dealing with some murmurs about his rather mediocre performance, but he showed up at the best moment to save his team in another match decided by delirium (3-1). Sought after by big European clubs like Barça, the Atlético de Madrid forward invented a championship goal to unbalance a match that was heading for penalties. A rocket into the top corner from a brave Swiss team to meet England's Kane and Bellingham in the semis this Wednesday.

Hours before the initial whistle, in the streets of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat there was no room for doubt regarding the World Cup quarter-final duel between France and Morocco. Minute by minute, the red jerseys of the Atlas Lions colored the neighborhoods of Florida and Torrassa, where Hakimi and Brahim Díaz competed to occupy the backs of the youngest, who imitated their idols with a ball at their feet. Among all these jerseys, some from the Spanish national team with the name of Lamine Yamal, also of Moroccan origin, also stood out.

No surprises in Boston. The French team will play in the semifinals of this World Cup and is already awaiting the rival from the match between Spain and Belgium today. Didier Deschamps' team devoured Morocco, which had performed very well throughout the championship, with a voracity proportional to the talent it possesses and the importance of the occasion. The superiority displayed by the Gauls is comparable to that of Brazil, thanks to an imagination that has been lost. The multicultural breeding ground of 21st-century France is the favorite to lift the World Cup.

The Spanish team has lived up to expectations and has qualified for the round of 32 of the Football World Cup as group leaders. A lucky goal from Atlético player Álex Baena just before halftime was enough to defeat Uruguay in a very dull match between the two teams (0-1). By finishing in first place, the team avoids playing for a ticket to the round of 16 against Lionel Messi's Argentina. If they do their homework against weak Jordan, the reigning world champion will play the first knockout round against the Cape Verde team, which advances in its World Cup debut after drawing three matches out of three, the last one this morning against Saudi Arabia (0-0).

The fever for football shirts vintage grows without stopping. What was once worn only to cheer on your team on match days has become a staple on the streets and in wardrobes. More or less everyone knows someone very into football who has a collection of jerseys, and if not, they are probably themselves. This is how the story of Joel Jaggar began, a man from Nottingham who decided to trade the London rain for the Barcelona sun and the radio for selling football jerseys vintage. “After ten years in London, I felt I needed a change of scenery: I wanted to live somewhere else, learn another culture and a new language,” Joel explains to ARA. “I was juggling jobs between the two cities, but I soon saw the opportunity. In England, the football jersey market is incredibly active and I was already a collector,” he adds.

Every World Cup leaves a recurring image: a coach on the pitch, surrounded by his players, who seems to have reached the end of a journey taken over years. Meanwhile, out of focus, the rest of the football world tries to find the explanations, the keys, or the recipe that allows a team to lift the World Cup. What are the ingredients to win the top football competition? This question fuels a good part of the debates in these weeks. Will a younger, innovative coach, like Julian Nagelsmann (38 years old, Germany), prevail? Or will it be a more veteran coach? The most veteran of all, Dick Advocaat, 78, can no longer, because Curaçao has been eliminated.

It has caused some scandal that Sabadell goalkeeper Diego Fuoli celebrated his team's promotion to the Second Division by singing, from the balcony of Sabadell City Hall, an insulting chant against Pedro Sánchez, chanted by some of the supporters in the square. The controversy is not fully understood: Fuoli and the singing fans were in the typical atmosphere so characteristic of football: celebration, relaxation, communion, healthy camaraderie, team spirit, shared enthusiasm, and a little – nothing, barely a spark – of spirits, narcotics, and testosterone. All without malice, naturally, because football does not understand politics. Football, as is well known, is the most important of unimportant things (a big smile on the face of whoever repeats this cliché).Fuoli's songs –which, curiously, are those of the Spanish right and far-right, but this is also a coincidence– are perfectly consistent with the general tone of most non-strictly sports news coming from football, and, what's more, in all its categories. From parents who encourage their children to kill the opponent or assault the referee (or who boastmastegots with other parents) in school or children's tournaments to players, fans, and management of high-level competitions who display unacceptable behavior both on and off the field, the parade of role models for young people is constant. Examples: Raúl Asencio (Real Madrid, prosecuted for two counts of invasion of privacy), Álvaro Aguado (exRCD Espanyol, processed for sexual assault), Santi Mina (ex Valencia CF, convicted of sexual abuse), Dani Alves (ex-Barça, for rape: convicted, imprisoned and finally acquitted). The list of rapists and sexual aggressors in the world of football could fill the length of a handful of articles like this one. The list of tax evasions and fraud would fill the entire newspaper. Alves, by the way, once out of prison has become an evangelical preacher, an honest way to spread the divine word. Messi visited Trump last March and they took some photos, both smiling. In Paris, the celebration of PSG's Champions League ended in street chaos, three deaths and nearly 800 arrests. FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino's complicity with totalitarian regimes, petrodictatorships, and – once again – Trump is blatant to the point of obscenity. These are the kind of news usually related to football (not to other sports, or not as much), often dismissed with a few jokes and some routine comments.We are all grown up and rather difficult to shock, and for that very reason, since the daily and obsessive nagging about football must be inevitable (due to the masses of money and people it moves, not the interest of the game itself), let's at least save ourselves the exclamations every time a footballer, a fan, or a director goes off the rails or directly commits a crime. Football is like that, indeed.

Once upon a time, footballers seemed to have only one dimension: when they weren't sweating it out on the field, they were always seen in tracksuits. People programmed solely to perform athletically, as if there were no boundary between athlete and person. And when they appeared in street clothes, they conveyed the same discomfort as men who only dress up for weddings: outfits that seemed to wear them rather than the other way around. Times that, seeing the national teams' arrivals at the World Cup, seem absolutely past. But this transformation has taken several World Cups to crystallize.

Although this is the World Cup with the most participating teams in history, the kits continue to be concentrated in the hands of a few brands. In fact, despite this edition featuring the greatest diversity of manufacturers to date, with 13 brands represented, Adidas, Nike, and Puma maintain an overwhelming dominance: they dress 37 out of the 48 qualified teams, meaning three out of every four teams aspiring to the golden trophy.

66,000 t-shirts would practically fill the stadium where the World Cup final will be played on July 19 in New Jersey. But these 66,000 t-shirts are the fake World Cup kits that the National Police have seized in an investigation affecting various points in Spain, including Barcelona and Girona. They are seven tons of fake clothing that have led to the arrest of up to 95 people.

While the FIFA World Cup fills the impeccable stadiums of the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the entertainment industry deploys its machinery of millions, exclusive television rights, and global marketing. But far from this golden showcase, there is another football. A stubborn, free, and essential game that needs no turf or giant screens. It is the global game of bare feet. From the remnants of the destroyed streets of Gaza to the outskirts of Buenos Aires or the communities of Nigeria, the ball rolls, moved purely by the game. It generates identity, survival, and rebellion. Where advertising does not reach, sport maintains its truth intact and the dreams of the little ones.

Women's refereeing will once again have a presence in a men's World Cup. FIFA has included six women in the group of 170 referees called up for the tournament: two main referees, three assistants, and one VAR specialist. The focus is particularly on the two main referees: American Tori Penso and Mexican Katia García. Both come from host countries and face the most demanding challenge of their careers in men's football.

Mariano Rajoy knows what is expected of him and does not hesitate to give it to his followers. "In football, what really matters is scoring more goals than the opponent. If you don't, you lose. Or, at best, you draw." Yes, the former Spanish president returns to sports commentary for the World Cup and, again, in the digital media El Debate, which four years ago — also for the World Cup and, later, for the European Championship — already opened its doors for him to publish his analyses of the Spanish national team's matches. Rajoy does so without pay and, in fact, without writing: he sends audio notes when the matches end so that the media's editors can transcribe them. He did so this Monday after the draw of La Roja against Cape Verde.

"It's a tremendous joy and something that almost seemed impossible," highlights Valdo (Villaseca de Laciana, León; 1981), former Espanyol player and player for the Cape Verde national team. He speaks of the feat of this African archipelago, one of the four debutants in this World Cup and Spain's first opponent this Monday in the group stage (6 PM, La 1). Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony, is the second smallest country in the tournament's history by territory and the third by population with 4,000 km² and 600,000 inhabitants. The province of Girona has 6,000 and 850,000.

In 1994, the United States hosted a World Cup for the first time. One of the novelties of that event was the introduction of a new rule that changed the game: it became forbidden to pass the ball to the goalkeeper and for him to catch it with his hand, as had been the case until then, which led to significant time-wasting. This year's event will also be remembered for the introduction of new rules that will significantly modify the game, always with the intention of avoiding time-wasting, according to IFAB (International Football Association Board), the body that determines the rules of the game.

The season has begun in Swedish football and, where one would not expect to find any Catalans, you stumble upon the name of Marc Manchón, a 28-year-old from Barcelona. He plays for Sundsvall, in the country's second division. His is not a story of overcoming adversity, but rather of resilience and effort. A young man who found himself on the verge of fulfilling his dream and debuting with Espanyol's first team. One summer he was left with no future in professional football and was on the verge of giving it all up. “They always say you have to be in the right place at the right time. It's a cliché and true at the same time, but you also have to be prepared in case it ever happens.” After a moment of uncertainty, the moment arrived via an Instagram message. And to a destination he surely never would have imagined.

FIFA will have to clarify its ticket sales practices for this year's World Cup in the face of accusations of artificially inflating prices and deceiving fans at the time of purchase. The state attorneys general of New York and New Jersey have opened an investigation into the eight World Cup matches that will be played at MetLife Stadium, including the tournament final. Currently, on the Seatpick.com portal, tickets to watch some of the matches at the New Jersey stadium are being sold for an average price of $2,790.

Storm winds are blowing for Lleida football. To the category descents of two historic clubs from the region, such as Unió Esportiva Tàrrega (which falls to Segona Catalana) and Borges CF (to Tercera), three more simultaneous ones concentrated in Lleida city are added. It has been a long time since so many sporting failures have been accumulated in the capital: AEM's women's team will no longer continue in the Primera RFEF after thirteen years of competition; Atlètic Lleida, despite having opted to compete in the Segona RFEF, drops dramatically to Tercera; and Lleida Club de Futbol, in addition to falling into the abyss of the Lliga Elit (the sixth level of Spanish competitions), cannot find an investor to cover its debts and is one week away from disappearing.