Above all do not disturb

For those of us who like football, it's very difficult to enjoy the World Cup, with all this display of banal nationalism and cheap geopolitics. You might tell me, as the elders used to say, and as Aesop said before, that the fox, when it can't reach something, says it's sour. And indeed, I wish Catalonia could participate in this circus, and it irritates me that FIFA instigates a fever of patriotism — as it does every four years — which, in our case, is the expression of a substituted identity. When faced with a World Cup, everyone chooses a jersey, and if the Catalan one isn't available, they put on another, be it the Spanish one (because it's where Catalans play, by decree), the Moroccan one, or the Argentine one, which is the one for many newcomers. In Catalonia, everyone has the right to exercise, except Catalans.Spain is a fragile nation and knows that sport softens the cracks. Since now, in addition, there are many Catalans in the Spanish team, a Muslim and a black person, Spanish nationalism progress has prepared a speech tailored to them, evading the fact that the purported plurality of the red is based on an imposition. Obviously, they have the complicity of the Catalan players, who adapt to the situation because they do not want to be under suspicion. Lamine Yamal speaks Catalan, if necessary, when he wears the Barça jersey, but he gives it up at the World Cup so that there are no doubts about his loyalties, which may be those of the heart but also those dictated by common sense and the pressure of his environment: look, Lamine, they already look at you strangely because you are half Moroccan and Muslim, let's not make it more complicated with demonstrations of Catalanism.