Forget Zohran Mamdani. The local elected official who really rules MetLife Stadium today is Jeffrey Lahullier, whose 10,000-person town sees its population swell by more than 800 percent whenever there’s an event at the stadium complex in the middle of his turf, writes POLITICO’s Will McCarthy:

Read Will’s story “The World Cup came to town. The town grew eight times larger” here.

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Mikie Sherrill has embraced the World Cup like few other Democratic governors, save perhaps Gov. Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania.

She has been to seven matches, built a tight relationship with the former standout U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola and will take in today’s final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. (She missed one match because she was working on her first budget).

“There’s a lot of controversy over whether or not this makes sense. We’ll be doing all the math as these returns come in,” Sherrill said. “When I came into office, I really was focused on how to make this a net benefit for the state, and how to bring everyone into the state. If you’re going to host this game where one in three people in the world will be watching this final, you want the people of New Jersey to feel like they’re part of it, and not just that there are some elite people going to watch the game, but they’re actually able to take part in the excitement, and these fan zones have been really wonderful for that as well.”

Six months into her term, Sherrill spoke exclusively with POLITICO to talk about her battles with FIFA, President Donald Trump and, also, how she ended up in a puddle of beer doing the viral Viking Row celebration with an army of Norway fans outside of MetLife.

The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

How did you end up in that puddle of beer?

I think we’ve seen all over the internet people who are loving our delis and our Wawas and enjoying the shore, and I think it’s just been such a fantastic feeling. And we had Norway come, and as you’ve seen on social media, they were rowing. I rowed at Navy my freshman and sophomore year at Navy, so I had a little bit of a kinship there to all the rowers coming from Norway. So when they were coming back to the stadium, we reached out and said, “Hey, are you guys rowing? We want to come touch base and welcome you to the state. And they said, ‘Yeah, come row with us.’ So I did, and it was really a lot of fun.”

What have your battles been like with FIFA, particularly on cost-of-living issues?

I would say everything we’ve gotten out of the World Cup, we built.

I would really like to leverage it — if the Women’s World Cup is going to be in the U.S. — I would really like to leverage a little bit of what a special place it is to host a World Cup game here. And really try to leverage that for better benefits for the state because FIFA put nothing into this. I mean they’re making $11 billion and now they’re trying to sell grass, and they’re trying not to pay their bills. It’s really a problem.

So you’d be open to being a host site again in 2031?

If it made sense economically, yes.

President Donald Trump — whom you have battled — will be at the final on Sunday. How are you going to handle that?

What I think has been interesting is I think a lot of people went into Trump’s second administration thinking they had learned how to handle him in his first administration, and the word on the street seemed to be you just do an insane amount of flattery, and then get what you want, and just you know kind of work that way. You know, keep your head down, don’t say too much, just flatter the hell out of him, and then I’ll give you what you want. And I don’t think that has been the case in the second administration.

And so we in New Jersey had a year of watching him operate, and every promise he made, he walked back. And so the art of the deal to Trump seems to be. Figure out what you want, leverage the heck out of you, and never give it to you. But try to have you sell your soul in the process.

I just largely have focused on delivering for the people of New Jersey. And when he tries to punish people here in New Jersey, like when he tried to stop the Gateway Tunnel funding, when he gave out pink slips to the 1,000 workers that were already on the job, good union jobs. I didn’t try to cut some deal with him. I didn’t say I was going to name Penn Station after him or something because it wasn’t his money to leverage. I just took him to court almost immediately, and we won. And then he appealed it, and we won again. And now he’s, you know, said he’s going to build some mass detention facility in Roxbury in a warehouse that only has two bathrooms, and he thinks he’s going to put 2000 people in it. And there’s no sewersystem, so we took him to court, and we won.

So it’s not that we’re throwing gratuitous punches here. I’m just constantly fighting for the people of New Jersey, and when he attacks them, I’m going to stand up.

What are your predictions for the final on Sunday? Is Argentina going to prevail? How many goals is Messi going to score? What are some things that you’d make Kalshi bets on?

I don’t do Kalshi bets. But there are a lot of people from South America that live in New Jersey. A lot of our citizens have family there, and they’re going to kill me because nobody down there likes Argentina, right? But I will tell you, I… I feel like Argentina with Messi playing for the MLS. It’s just it’s almost like the closest thing we were getting this year to a hometown team.

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POLITICO asked some of the most dedicated tourney followers in American politics to share their predictions for the final.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul: “Coming from Buffalo, we root for the underdogs, those who have not had the championship. Argentina’s had their opportunity. When was the last time Spain won? That was a long time ago.”

Rob Bonta, California attorney general, former Yale soccer player and father to professional soccer player Reina Bonta: “The South American champs vs. the European Champs. Messi vs Yamal. The current 39-year-old GOAT vs the 19-year-old wunderkind. Argentina vs Spain. Argentina has come from behind in the final minutes multiple times and grittily found a way to defend their World Cup title, led by the little magician #10. Spain dismantled France with their tiki-taka/rondo possession, tactical dominance and beautiful football on full display. Two teams at the top of their game, playing for the most coveted trophy in football. It should be a final for the ages! I’m so conflicted! Love them both.”

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie: “1-1 after extra time, Argentina wins on penalties. After what we have seen in three knockout games from Messi and his team, they will win back-to-back, and he will be considered the greatest player of all time, surpassing Maradona.”

Mia Bonta, assemblymember and mother to professional soccer player Reina Bonta: “I’m rooting for Argentina, the team including Messi have just played a phenomenal, gritty tournament. But most Bontas are thinking Spain is going to walk away with the trophy.”

Tammy Murphy, former first lady of New Jersey and current chair of the World Cup host committee: “As we approach the final, I’m wearing two hats. As chair of the New York New Jersey FIFA World Cup Host Committee, my focus is on delivering an exceptional experience for everyone — from seamless transportation and strong security to a safe, welcoming atmosphere and a lasting economic impact for our region. As a fan of the game, it’s hard not to get emotional knowing we’re about to witness Match 104 after an incredible 39-day tournament. While I have to admit I was disappointed to see England fall in the semifinal, given my family’s English roots on my mother’s side, it’s hard not to be excited about a historic first: the reigning European champions facing the reigning South American champions in a World Cup final. It has all the makings of an unforgettable match. Game on!”

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan: “Given San Jose’s Spanish roots as the first official pueblo in ‘Alta California,’ I’m going to call it 2-1 for Spain with a late-match Argentinian surge that falls just short.”

Tom Steyer, Democratic megadonor, former California gubernatorial candidate and former Yale soccer player: Spain, 2-1.

Randy Villegas, a Bernie Sanders-backed progressive running against GOP Rep. David Valadao: Spain, 2-1.

State Sen. Ben Allen, chair of the Senate Special Committee on International Sporting Events: Could not comment because he was too devastated by England’s loss to Argentina.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill: “In my heart, I just feel connected … to Argentina. In my head, I guess just watching Spain’s midfield, it’s hard to imagine that that doesn’t prevail.”

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.): 2-1 Argentina, with a goal and an assist for Lionel Messi.

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NEW YORK — There’s no bots about it.

The New York City-themed World Cup jerseys announced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani in June and released online from July 8 to July 16 sold out every morning within minutes, though the Mamdani administration tells POLITICO there was no foul play involved.

Frustrated shoppers suspected scalpers using automated bots to buy the jerseys within seconds during each morning’s release at 10 a.m., but New York’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services said it only detected two out of 3,500 orders that came from bots.

“The NYC soccer jerseys have been tremendously popular—thousands have attempted to purchase through CityStore online every day. One thousand very real, very happy New Yorkers have already picked up their jerseys in person—we have not seen widespread bot activity,” a DCAS spokesperson said in a statement.

The two detected bot orders were canceled, the spokesperson added.

The jerseys’ high demand and low supply is a more likely explanation for why they sold out so quickly. The website limited releases to 500 jerseys every morning, and averaged 25,000 visitors to the store during the week it was for sale.

DCAS said it used Shopify’s bot prevention services such as CAPTCHA tests and required in-person pick-ups to prevent automated purchases.

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SANFORD, Maine — Troy Jackson has effectively secured the Democratic nomination in the crucial Maine Senate race, winning the support of a majority of the state delegates who will officially nominate a candidate next weekend.

While they are not legally bound to support him, nearly two-thirds of the 601 delegates have committed to voting for Jackson at that statewide convention. Jackson dominated the county-level meetings this weekend that selected those delegates, with two rivals falling far behind — and one of them, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, dropping out of the race partway through the process Sunday.

The party’s statewide convention in Bangor, Maine, next weekend will cap a tumultuous scramble to replace Graham Platner, who won the primary but dropped out this month after POLITICO reported that a woman he previously dated said he forced her to have sex with him. Platner denied the allegations.

A progressive 5th generation logger from the far-northern corner of Allagash, Maine, Jackson has had a long career in organizing progressive activists and ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who had endorsed him in his gubernatorial race earlier this year.

The candidate will have less than four months to spin up a major battleground Senate campaign against GOP Sen. Susan Collins, the only Senate Republican running for reelection in a state carried by former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

Jackson turned his attention to the general election at a Sunday morning rally ahead of the delegate meeting in York County, where he secured the support of enough delegates to cross the 50 percent threshold.

“Whether you supported me from the beginning, or are still deciding, or support another candidate, there is a place for you in this movement,” he told a few dozen supporters in a school parking lot in Sanford, Maine, echoing what has been a familiar line in his speeches since entering the Senate race. “Because we’re not going to defeat Susan Collins by making this movement smaller. There’s no way that that’s ever going to work.”

Bellows dropped out of the race just minutes before voting began on Sunday and encouraged Democrats to coalesce behind Jackson.

“This has been an unprecedented nominating process, compressed into days instead of months, and I’m grateful to every volunteer who worked around the clock for this movement,” she said in a statement. “That energy is exactly what we need to beat Susan Collins in November — and Democrats don’t have a day to waste in unifying around that shared goal.”

Jackson’s whirlwind path to the nomination is the prologue to an even tougher test. Collins has defeated well-funded Democrats of all stripes since she was first elected in 1996, and currently has an $11 million war chest in reserves, according to the latest filings from the Federal Election Commission.

And Jackson’s last-minute ascension puts him at an even greater disadvantage: Maine’s nominating convention on Saturday is just 101 days before Election Day in November, giving Jackson less time to run against Collins than Harris had in her losing campaign against Donald Trump in 2024.

“We’re going to have to put our ground game even more into maximum overdrive,” Jackson told reporters after his Sanford rally, referencing Platner’s large number of town halls and his short timeline. “What did Graham have, 70 town halls? If we did one every other day we wouldn’t be able to do 70 from here on out.”

Jackson also said he will have to quickly introduce himself to the southern part of the state, given he hails from the far-north and represented the area in the state Senate.

“I’m not as well known down here,” he said. “I’m six hours away from my home. And as we know, the state legislature means nothing. Nobody’s following it. It’s a lot of work to make sure people know what I’m about.”

Many former Platner supporters were part of the team of volunteers, organizers and delegate nominees that whipped votes for Jackson’s delegate slate in counties across Maine over the weekend. The strength of his organizing operation helped Jackson jump out to a commanding lead after Saturday’s meetings, including a sweep of all 149 delegates in Cumberland County, the largest county in the state.

Travis Jones, a former Platner supporter from Seal Harbor, Maine, who was elected as a delegate alternate in Hancock County, where Platner lives, said he’s backing Jackson because of the similarities between Platner’s progressive agenda and the Jackson campaign.

“I was a big supporter of the previous candidate, Graham Platner. I really liked his policies. Troy mirrors a lot of those,” Jones said ahead of the delegate meeting in Ellsworth, Maine, on Saturday. “The previous campaign really energized me, and here I am today.”

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Our Adam Wren spent the last six weeks exploring the summer’s most unlikely fling: between Donald Trump’s MAGA movement and the communitarian, cosmopolitan sport whose flagship event he embraced.

You can read Adam’s POLITICO Magazine piece, “America First, Soccer Second” here.

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Ireland is hoping the global sporting spotlight surrounding the World Cup will also shine on its growing sports technology industry.
Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government’s trade and innovation agency, has been working to help Irish companies expand in the U.S., from sports analytics firms to the Irish company behind the natural grass used at nine World Cup stadiums. POLITICO spoke with Aidan McKenna, Enterprise Ireland’s head of U.S. operations, about Ireland’s sports tech ecosystem and how Trump administration’s trade policies have shaped the agency’s approach.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Ireland has developed a reputation in sports technology. Why has the sector become such a strength?

I think there’s probably two big aspects to this. It’s probably just our passion for sports, all types of sports: soccer, rugby, our own national Gaelic football. But we also, given our cultural connections to the U.S., we have a really good understanding of U.S. games. We have a growing number of technology companies that are looking to bring data and health science into the professional area of sports.

An Irish company is also behind the playing surface at several World Cup venues. Tell us about that.

McKenna: SIS Pitches originated in Ireland. They designed a way to grow natural grass and sod in a certain environment that can be lifted and transplanted into these stadiums.They’ve become world leaders in kind of natural grass solutions for stadiums all over the world.

It is really nice to say that an Irish company is behind growing the best possible surface for our world-class players at the World Cup, and nine stadiums have used their solution.

Beyond the World Cup, what role do you see Ireland playing around the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics?

We’re a proud sporting nation. We punch above our weight. We will have our top athletes come to LA, and I know we’re going to be based in Long Beach, and we’re going to ensure that the Irish athletes are supported.

How has the Trump administration’s approach to Europe and trade changed how Enterprise Ireland thinks about investing or expanding in the U.S.?

Enterprise Ireland, or indeed Ireland and the EU, would always advocate against any trade barriers. Where there’s tariffs, or non-tariff barriers, it makes the opportunity for trade more difficult.

But the U.S. is a fantastic market. It’s a huge market. It’s the largest market in the world.

What we’ve done in Enterprise Ireland is remind the U.S. administration that Irish companies are making a contribution to the U.S. The top 10 Irish companies employ 125,000 Americans in highly highly skilled jobs here.

Has that environment changed what it means to be an Irish exporter?

We would always advocate: if you want to do business, you have to be closer to customers, you have to give your customers confidence that you’re close to them. We have always advocated that to be successful in the overseas market, you got to be committed, you got to be in the market.

I’m actually actively fast-tracking the amount of Irish companies that are establishing a presence in the U.S. So in New York, we’ve done what we call a landing pad accelerator so companies can get the right legal advice, get the right tax advice, develop your go-to-market strategy, hire the right people.

And we encourage the founders of the Irish businesses to come in and spend a couple of years here, carry their culture, bring that into the U.S. teams.

Finally, what role can sports play in strengthening U.S.-Irish ties?

Sport is a brilliant bridge. It’s a brilliant arbitrator of bringing people together… We’re going to host the Ryder Cup in Adare Manor in September 2027. We’re going to open up Ireland to businesses, to people, to golf enthusiasts. The World Cup itself — it’s a fantastic celebration of what’s good in the world.

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SANFORD, Maine — Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ended her Senate campaign on Sunday, further clearing the path for rival Troy Jackson as he consolidates support in a fast-moving Democratic nomination contest.

“This has been an unprecedented nominating process, compressed into days instead of months, and I’m grateful to every volunteer who worked around the clock for this movement,” Bellows said in a statement. “That energy is exactly what we need to beat Susan Collins in November — and Democrats don’t have a day to waste in unifying around that shared goal.”

Bellows was the most prominent woman to enter the breakneck contest, which has unfolded over the last week after Graham Platner ended his campaign following POLITICO’s report that a woman who used to date him accused him of sexual assault. He has denied the allegations.

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MADRID — The last time Spain reached the final of the World Cup it had a team heavy with players from the region of Catalonia, where the all-conquering FC Barcelona had refined a possession-based attacking style that laid the template for the entire country’s soccer identity.

Barcelona stars Xavi Hernández, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué and Sergio Busquets — Catalans, all — were key players in the side that defeated the Netherlands in the 2010 final in Johannesburg.

That historic summer for Spanish soccer was also a seismic moment for the country’s relationship with Catalonia. The day before the final, hundreds of thousands of Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona to voice their anger at a judicial decision which reversed some of the powers devolved to their northeastern region. It was the beginning of several years of territorial tensions which would culminate in a full-blown constitutional crisis, after Catalan political leaders staged a disputed independence referendum.

Sixteen years later, the challenge to Spain’s territorial unity from Catalonia and its other restive region, the Basque Country, has faded — now no more than a subplot to more urgent political battles over corruption and immigration.

Yet the Catalan and Basque presence in the World Cup squad is stronger than ever, with players from those two regions outnumbering representation from Spain’s other 15 in the squad that will face Argentina in today’s final. With no players from Real Madrid, the historic club from Spain’s capital, in the squad — although one did sign for the team in the off-season — this Spanish side relies particularly heavily on the country’s so-called periphery, those regions far from the capital’s power base.

Soccer has eclipsed politics as the vehicle for Spain’s most prominent separatist strongholds to project their identities.

“It’s not that pro-independence feeling has disappeared, but nobody sees it as a priority right now,” Lola García, a columnist at Catalonia’s centrist La Vanguardia newspaper, told POLITICO. “This government inherited one of the worst crises Spanish democracy has seen,” added Justice Minister Félix Bolaños, saying that “normalcy and co-existence have returned.”

‘The Premier League speaks Basque’

The Catalan influence on Spain’s soccer psyche began in earnest with the tenure of Dutch coach Johan Cruyff at Barcelona, between the late 80s and the mid-90s. He introduced a model of play that emphasized cool, triangular passing rather than the more physical, passionate style previously been in vogue.

A decade later, Pep Guardiola would use Cruyff’s blueprint for his own revolution, which prioritized passing and pressing — and saw his Barcelona side of 2008 between 2012 dominate all it faced. Guardiola went on to win further honors and spread his philosophy during coaching stints in Germany and England. Catalan soccer’s stock has remained high since and his former club, Barcelona, has continued to produce world-class players, many graduating from its La Masia academy, with a style that ESPN describes as “the most pressing- and possession-intensive […] on the continent.” The style is now emulated around the world.

While Catalan soccer prowess has become something of a given, expanded Basque influence in the game has been more striking in recent years. Two Basque players — Mikel Oyarzabal and Nico Williams — scored the Spanish goals that defeated England in the 2024 European Championship final.

A generation of coaches from the region have made their name both domestically and abroad. Four Basques will lead English teams at the start of this coming season, including Mikel Arteta at reigning champions Arsenal and Andoni Iraola at Liverpool.

“The Premier League speaks Basque,” the Crónica Vasca news site wrote of the richest and most powerful soccer league in the world.

Catalan separatists split

The last two decades may have witnessed the Spanish soccer team’s greatest achievements — four men’s European and world titles and a women’s world title since 2008 — but they have also seen Spain’s national unity pushed to the brink.

The brewing Catalan unrest of 2010 eventually exploded in 2017, with the separatist regional government staging a referendum on independence deemed unlawful by the conservative central administration in Madrid. The ballot went ahead amid chaotic scenes, as police baton-charged voters and the country plunged into its deepest constitutional crisis since the post-fascist return to democracy in the late 1970s.

Pro-independence politicians were jailed, direct rule was temporarily introduced from Madrid and the president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, fled to Belgium.

Nine years on, Catalonia is a different place. Those jailed are now free, while other legal action taken against Catalan nationalists has been lifted thanks to an amnesty introduced by the Socialist-led central government of Pedro Sánchez, who has been in power since 2018. On Thursday, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in favor of Puigdemont after a Spanish court had sought to prevent him from benefiting from the amnesty. The decision could, finally, pave the way for him to return to Spain without facing jail time.

“The previous independence attempt failed and so there’s not going to be another one in the short or medium term,” said García, author of two books about the Catalan crisis. “Insisting on it doesn’t make political sense” for nationalist politicians, she added.

She said Catalans are more concerned about housing, where a rental crisis is pricing out many in the region — and more widely across Spain — from the market. Immigration is also a growing worry, providing fertile ground for a relatively new far-right party, Aliança Catalana. It preaches a unique blend of anti-immigration policies and Catalan nationalism. But while advocating independence for the region, it is not promising to lead another secessionist bid.

Meanwhile, the disparate pro-independence parties that buried their economic and social differences in order to defy the government in Madrid a decade ago are once again divided.

“Since the independence drive what we have seen is a deepening of the left-right ideological differences” between separatist forces, Francesc-Marc Álvaro, a member of the Spanish Congress for the separatist Catalan Republican Left, told POLITICO.

That party now takes a more moderate approach to the independence issue than Puigdemont’s conservative Together for Catalonia and the far-left Popular Unity Candidacy.

“Not enough time has passed to embark on another [independence bid],” Álvaro said. “We’re in a phase of what you might call reconstruction and building up of strength.”

Terror and violence

Basques have their own long-standing independence movement, with some mainstream parties supporting that aim. But, as in Catalonia, the issue has been pushed into the background.

In 2011, the armed Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent ceasefire. In 2018, it disbanded. Compared to Catalonia, the sovereignty issue in the Basque Country had literally been a matter of life and death: ETA killed 853 people over a four-decade campaign of violence, during which government-sponsored death squads also operated.

“Basque society is still in a phase of wanting to move on from what happened,” said García. “It was a lot of years of terrorism and people prefer to forget about it altogether.”

The moderate Basque Nationalist Party leads a coalition government in the region, while the more stridently separatist EH Bildu is the main opposition. With polls showing support for Basque independence at just 23 percent, and memories of the failure of the Catalan secession bid still fresh, neither party is focusing on the territorial issue.

However, nationalists in both the Basque and Catalan regions continue to demand their own national soccer teams. In the former case, they want to see players from the French-Basque region eligible.

“I’m not supporting either side,” nationalist party leader Aitor Esteban said when asked in a radio interview ahead of the Spain vs. France semifinal earlier this week. “My team is the Basque national team, and neither of these sides [France or Spain] has my support because the governments of both countries knowingly prevent us from having an official national team.”

Santiago Segurola, a sports journalist and editor of a book of essays exploring soccer’s relationship to politics, describes an “Asterix village” mentality in Spain’s Basque Country, which has a population of just over two million and a passion for soccer that verges on the religious.

“The Basque Country is small, so they look for space for pitches wherever they can find it because soccer’s so important there,” he told POLITICO.

Second-division club SD Eibar’s Ipurua stadium, for example, is on the side of a mountain, built on top of the rubble left by the bombing of the city by German and Italian aircraft during the Spanish civil war.

The region’s most successful club, Athletic Bilbao, has arguably been a proxy for nationalist dreams of a Basque national team. It only signs players who have either come through its junior ranks or represented other teams in the Spanish and French Basque Country, or Navarre. (The French-born Aymeric Laporte, who plays in defense for Spain, qualified to play for the club through Basque family links.)

Despite its strict signings policy, Athletic is one of only three clubs — along with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona — never to be been relegated from the top division.

“In a globalized world where borders don’t exist, Athletic has maintained its borders,” said Segurola. “Athletic has made a virtue of this policy. This shows that soccer is more than a business.”

‘A propaganda strategy’

With its heavy reliance on Catalan and Basque players, the Spanish team poses a conundrum for nationalists from those regions: Should they support it in the World Cup?

Those who remember the febrile atmosphere in Catalonia during the height of the independence drive say support for Spain was muted. That has changed.

“Now there’s more willingness to celebrate the success of the national team and do so more freely,” said García, the columnist from La Vanguardia. “It’s not that you weren’t allowed to before, but it was frowned upon.”

Álvaro, the lawmaker from the pro-separatist Catalan party, says he has pro-independence friends who support the Spanish team despite their political opinions, because they enjoy watching Dani Olmo, Marc Cucurella, Pau Cubarsí and Lamine Yamal and other Catalan players on the biggest stage. However, he takes a different view.

“The Spanish team wants to convey a positive idea of Spain — it’s saying to Catalan and Basque nationalists: ‘This team can be your team too,’” Álvaro says. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a propaganda strategy. And there’s a problem with that, because those who are telling you that won’t let you have a Catalan team that competes on an international level, like Scotland does.”

Sixteen years ago, as the Spanish team disembarked in Madrid from the aircraft that had brought it home from its World Cup victory in South Africa, the bags of Xavi Hernández and Carles Puyol were each wrapped in the Catalan Senyera flag, in a subtle assertion of regional pride that stirred debate. Three years earlier, many claimed the duo had made a more provocative gesture by wearing their socks in such a way that the red-and-gold Spanish colors were hidden throughout an international game against Latvia.

But, with Catalan and Basque influence on the national team greater than ever and separatist tensions slackening off, such controversies are much less frequent.

Soccer, rather than independence, is now the talking point in Spain.

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