My War Against Spanish ‘Newspaper’ MARCA

By: Cesar | April 8th, 2009

Allow me to jump on my soap box this morning.

I’ve had long-standing issues with the Spanish ‘journalists’ over at goal.com for a few months now.

They’re opinionated. They do a terrible translation job. They’re slightly biased towards the big clubs and thumb their noses at the little clubs.

Then again, I read them every day. I even use them often in this very column.

I give goal.com a fair shake for one reason: Most of their news is merely translated from Spanish news sources such as MARCA and AS.

My main bones of contention with goal.com come when they try to actually write; when they sketch opinion pieces about Our Beloved that seem to have come out of nowhere, with an incredible glee at the mishandling of our club.

Overall, they’re a fine site. They just annoy me at times.

But MARCA? I’ve had it with them.

For those that don’t know, MARCA is a Spanish daily sports newspaper that deals mostly with football-related topics. It has a readership of over 2,300,000, the highest in Spain for a daily newspaper and more than half of sports readership.

With such a high readership, they’re one of the main sources of football news in the country.

Problem is, they’re Real Madrid shills. They advance the cause of the Merengues, letting the higher ups of the team speak to the masses through their pages.

They also use the news paper as a propaganda piece, making sure that Madrid is always on the front page, front and center so they’re seen as the biggest and the best that Spain has to offer.

Of course, Madrid’s the capital city of Spain. So this makes sense, no?

It would make sense if MARCA was a Madrid news paper. But MARCA sells itself as a Spanish newspaper, a national repository for La Liga football news.

So why then have they been on a campaign since 2007 to obtain Cristiano Ronaldo for Real Madrid? Why did they do the same before David Beckham came to Madrid? Or Zinedine Zidane? Or Fat Ronaldo?

In the words of Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson, MARCA is ‘…a vehicle to unsettle players on behalf of Real Madrid.’

And how.

This is the news paper that had the audacity to print a message that read ‘Do It For Us’ on their front page, in reference to Valencia beating Bayern Munich in the 2001 Champions League final.

Do it for us? Why? Because Bayern had eliminated Real Madrid in the semi’s. So do it for us meant do it for Real Madrid …

So why am I jumping all over them today? Take a look at today’s MARCA front page.

That’s right. David Villa and David Silva to Real Madrid for 60 million Euros.

Because getting Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t enough, now they’re going to nick Villa and Silva from us for a mere 60 million Euros.

Is this journalism? Did these clowns go to school to learn how to write this garbage?

I’m not angry because I’m jealous of Real Madrid and their money.

I’m angry because this is irresponsible writing. It’s a headline and a story that exists for two reasons:

1 – To sell papers.
2- To advance the cause of Real Madrid.

MARCA want Villa and Silva on Madrid. So MARCA will run with this story until it either disappears (because it isn’t true) or Real Madrid’s directors actually try and buy the two.

Today, Vicente Soriano denied any thing to do with selling the two.

“We (Soriano and Madrid president Vicente Boluda) only exchanged a greeting because we know each other, but we did not speak a single word about football, certainly not about players,” he said.

“I am obliged to comment on this because the news is completely false. Whoever has released this false information could have contradicted it with just a call and we would have avoided any trouble, although that probably would have damaged their cover story.”

So true.

I am sick to death of this so-called journalism.

I am sure no one from MARCA would ever read this blog. But if they do, please step forward and defend yourselves.

Please tell us about MARCA exists only to advance the causes of Real Madrid and no one else.
Please tell us about how ‘fair and balanced’ your coverage is, when day in and day out it’s simply a newsletter for Real Madrid’s fans.

Please define what ‘journalism’ means to you, so we can understand how you can sell this drivel and call it ‘reporting.’

Look, I know Valencia CF have been going through a tough economic time. But what do headlines like this do? Exactly whose cause do they advance? Certainly not ours.

Do you think this type of reporting should exist in a national news paper?

Maybe I’m just tired of the endless stream of transfer rumors regarding these two. Maybe my head’s done in by board room bantering. I love football for the game on the pitch, not the back room shenanigans.

Something about this front page ‘news’ screams ‘disgusting’ to me and I had to say something.

It’s my own fault. I’ve been reading this garbage for years. But they’re truly damaging to the game and do nothing to advance anyone’s causes but their own and Real Madrid’s.

Truly pathetic.

Ok, I’m done. Time for a deep breath.