The Spanish men’s football team, for the first time since 1967 in the Basque Country, will play three Euro 2020 matches at the stadium in San Mamés. “In 2014 we presented the candidature of the City of Bilbao, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the Basque Government, when we did not yet know what selections would be classified,” said Culture Advisor Bingen Zupiria, at the post-Governing Council hearing on 19 November. “Spain has been ranked and we will maintain the commitment made. We want to project an image of normality. It is nothing more than a sporting event, from there every citizen will know what to do.”

It's true. In 2014, the Basque Government did not know whether or not the Spanish selection would be classified for the 2020 Euro Cup. But he could imagine it, because only once since 1980 (in 1992) he has failed and he was the champion of the last two editions (2008 and 2012). What I did know was, of course, who would not play the Euro Cup: the Basque selections. But since it is perfectly compatible to work for the Basque selection and to break simultaneously with the Spanish one, as the coach Javier Clemente has shown, we will not be framed in supposed contradictions, although he deserves it.

In spite of everything, the institutions will maintain their commitment, to project an image of normality and show how well we organize things. Everyone will know what attitude to take towards it. “But all sensibilities must be respected,” Zupiria said. Or that phrase as false as it is white. “Don’t confuse sport with politics.” The thousands of football fans who will fill with Spanish flags Bilbao and surroundings, the hooligans journalists who will come to us and who are already there, the even closer security forces, representatives of UEFA and FIFA related to corruption cases – looking for volunteers working musutruk – politicians who invite them to make sports events policy, etc.

Football, moreover, a championship like the Euro Cup that moves so many people, interests and money, that the institutions will soon blow the argument of economic impact, will never be just a sporting event. “Those who think that sport has nothing to do with politics, or know nothing about sport, or know nothing about politics,” says Uruguayan historian Gerardo Caetano. And Zupiria – the government – knows about politics, about sport – at least in part. So ...