Basque protest seeks team´s international recognition

Thousands of people marched through the northern Spanish city of Bilbao Saturday to demand the Basque football team be allowed to take part in international competitions.

Britain is allowed “to have teams from Scotland or from Wales play at international level and we are demanding that that same right within the states of Spain and France,” said Elisa Sainz de Murieta, the head of the Basque Solidarity political party.

She said the march was aimed at “demanding the official recognition of the Basque team … within a European framework,” and called for the “political will” to make this happen.

The demonstrators marched behind a banner reading “Basque Nation, one nation, one national team, one federation.”

A Basque football team, drawn from the Basque regions of both Spain and France, does exist but it is not officially recognised by the game's authorities, including European football's governing body UEFA, and is restricted to occasional friendly games.

Spain's wealthy northern Basque Country, which has its own distinct language and culture, enjoys a high level of self-government and polls show the majority of Basques do not want to secede outright from Spain.

However, the armed separatist group ETA has been fighting for 40 years for an independent state comprising the Basque regions of northern Spain and southwestern France.