After the Civil War ended on April 1, 1939, the Spanish League resumed its march on December 3. Barça and Espanyol faced each other in Les Corts, with the Blue and Whites 0-1. Post-war Barça was unable to beat its eternal rival until May 1942. Atlético de Madrid was then called Atlético Aviación, as a product of a merger with Aviación Nacional, a club formed in 1937, protected by the Air Force. . Thus began a period of success for the Madrid club, champion of the first two leagues of the Franco era.
The decimated post-war Barcelona faced its return to official activity in a supervised manner. Unlike its rivals, it was still under the control of a management board, waiting for a new president. The club was awaiting a police report, a document that was concluded, after eight months of investigations, on February 9, 1940. It was noted that Barcelona “has always engaged in politics, initially Catalan, and, for for many years, frankly separatist” and it was emphasized that “despite the good will of the members of the management company, FC Barcelona is surrounded by a largely separatist public.”
It is in this interim situation that the new Barça of Franco’s regime faced its return to the League. And very soon, on the fourth matchday (which was played on December 24, at three in the afternoon), the first trip to Madrid arrived, where the Barça club had not played since March 1936.
The significance of the match, which was played in Chamartín, but with At. Aviation as a rival, since the rojiblancos had their stadium, the old Metropolitano, practically destroyed. In the pages of Abc it was remembered that it was not just another game, but “the first visit to the Madrid fields after the war.” For greater significance, the president of the Barça management company, Dr. Joan Soler i Julià, decided to join the very small expedition, which in those times usually consisted of eleven players (or at most with a substitute goalkeeper just in case), plus the coach. (Patrick O’Connell), the masseuse and material manager. Not a journalist accompanied Barcelona, ??and in fact the historic Mundo Deportivo was still waiting for the essential permission for its reappearance. The trip was made by road, stopping to sleep in Zaragoza.
The match, as can be seen in the attached graphic documents (published in the weekly Marca, then published in San Sebastián and converted into a sports newspaper years later) attracted a small audience. Perhaps because of the inopportunity of the date, but also because of the incessant rain in the previous hours. Atlético Aviación won 3-0, with a penalty goal and the expulsion of Blaugrana Hilario. That was a Barcelona in a difficult state, with players gathered together to get by, which miraculously avoided promotion (and with bonuses to third parties). Not one of the eleven that played in the 1936 Cup final remained.
It was a very difficult match for Barcelona and it ended with a scandal. The Blaugrana complained about the refereeing repeatedly, even more so with the penalty that made it 2-0. They surrounded the referee, there was pushing, the game was stopped for several minutes and then it got tougher, there was a special tension. In the protests came the expulsion of Hilario. Then Emilín was injured after a tough tackle, and Barça lost its most recognizable footballer, on loan from Oviedo.
The response of the Madrid press was extraordinarily harsh towards Barcelona, ??a club identified with the losers of the war. In the Monday Sheet it was written that “the protest attitude of the Barcelona players was typical of other times, but inadmissible in current times.” More authority was demanded from the referee, “even going as far as the mass expulsion of the rebels.” And it was warned: “Such acts must be punished as they deserve, with perpetual disqualifications, so that the players do not show insolent attitudes.”
The ABC reporter also announced the path to follow: “I await the Federation’s decision with complete tranquility, because I am convinced that it will show that Barcelona will from now on adhere to a spirit of authentic discipline, incompatible with the attitude of almost everyone. the footballers who on Sunday expressed themselves with intolerable incorrectness. Before Hilario, wing half Soler deserved not to go out on a football field again.”
The demands of the capital’s reporters did not fall on deaf ears and that week the Competition Committee had a great time: a three-month suspension and a fine of 250 pesetas for Hilario “for angrily protesting the referee’s decisions and shaking him”, a fine of 1,500 pesetas to Barcelona, ??a warning to the entire team, a fine of 100 pesetas to O’Connell and, finally, a three-month suspension to the referee “for not properly imposing his authority.” Who was the referee? The Cantabrian Celestino Rodríguez, who from that day on was excluded from the First League not for three months but for three years and did not return to the elite regularly until October 1942. And then it was when he returned to referee Barcelona in a displacement. In Madrid. In Chamartín again. And the result has gone down in the black history of Spanish football: in the semi-finals of the Cup, on June 13, 1943, Real Madrid defeated Barça by eleven goals to one. Don Celestino was there too.