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Real Madrid will play their highly-anticipated El Clasico against arch-rivals Barcelona on Sunday with internal injuries at the Spotify Camp Nou amid a storm of crises at the Santiago Bernabeu, where there have been weeks of rumors of a dressing room row that eventually cost the team players. Aurelien Choumini and Fede Valverde.
But despite the exceptional nature of these events, they are not the first of their kind among the giants, as some El Clasico matches have historically suffered from internal crises in the corridors of both Barcelona and Real Madrid.
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The “Hesperia Hotel Mutiny” incident on April 28, 1988 is the most notable example of an internal explosion in the history of Barcelona.
The crisis began when the team’s 23 players, led by captain Jose Ramon Alexanco and supported by coach Luis Aragones, met at the Hesperia Hotel in Barcelona to issue a statement openly calling for the resignation of club president Jose Luis Nunes.
The impetus for the rebellion was a heated dispute over taxes related to image contracts, as players felt abandoned by management to the IRS. Although the relationship between the team and management reached an impasse, Barca entered the Clasico match on April 30 in high spirits and were able to beat Real Madrid 2-0 thanks to goals from Carrasco and Gary Lineker.
However, the final result of the season was disastrous as Barcelona finished sixth in La Liga, their worst since the 1940s, with just 39 points, 23 behind Real Madrid, who won the title at the time.
Historical error
In January 1992, Real Madrid made one of their historic administrative mistakes when president Ramon Mendoza decided to sack coach Radomir Antic, despite the team leading La Liga with 7 points at the time.
The crisis was not related to results, but rather to the administration’s desire to present a “prettier” game, which created a mental void in Real Madrid, which lost its tactical compass after the departure of the Serbian coach.
The next El Clasico match took place on March 7, 1992 at Camp Nou and ended with a score of 1-1. However, the administrative crisis caused by Antic’s sudden dismissal eventually led to Merengue’s collapse, losing the title to Barcelona in the final round, while the club’s management at the time deemed it a “sporting suicide”.
Mourinho’s battles
Merengue also experienced an intense divisive period in the 2012-2013 season when manager Jose Mourinho decided to break one of the club’s biggest taboos by benching captain Iker Casillas after he accused the historic Spain goalkeeper of being a “spy” who broke the news about his relationship with a journalist.
The team at the time was divided between Mourinho’s supporters and his opponents, led by Sergio Ramos and Casillas. The two stars of Real Madrid, club president Florentino Perez, have also made a choice between their stay and Mourinho’s continuation.
Ironically, despite this crisis, the Merengues managed to beat Barcelona twice in a row at the beginning of 2013 (3-1 in the Copa del Rey and 2-1 in La Liga).
During the reign of coach Rafael Benitez (November 2015), the tension between him and some of the stars of “Real Madrid” (Cristiano Ronaldo, Ramos, James Rodriguez) reached its peak.
The Spanish coach tried to impose a strict tactical system, but he eventually caved to the pressure of the management and the players who wanted to play an exclusively attacking style in El Clasico, so the team appeared completely disorganized, with the “6-0-4” plan described in the press.
Barcelona took advantage of this internal gap and tactical imbalance to thrash Real Madrid 4-0 at the Bernabeu amid whitewashes calling for the departures of Benitez and Perez.
Identity crisis
In October 2018, Real Madrid entered El Clasico suffering from a deep identity crisis following the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo and the failure of coach Julen Lopetegui to manage the situation, which led to his swift dismissal.
The Royals lacked spirit and leadership, which was reflected in Casemiro’s famous statement after the 5-1 defeat by Barcelona: “This season is a disaster, we are all playing very badly.”
In light of Barca’s stability under German coach Hans Flick and their 11-point lead in La Liga, Merengue fans fear a literal repeat of 2015 and 2018 as their side go into today’s match with internal bleeding wounds.
