Can politics (though I hesitate to use the word) ‘succeed’ where football has failed?
I raise the question in the context of a referendum on independence that the President of Catalonia, the region around Barcelona, seems keen to hold in November 2014, less than two months after a similar vote in Scotland.
For the moment, it is far from sure this Catalonian referendum will even take place, or be seen as legally binding, let alone whether Cataláns will vote in favour of independence if given the opportunity to do so.
But if it does, and it is, and they do, imagine what a hole would be rent, as a consequence, in the fabric of one of the greatest international football squads ever assembled.