On Sunday evening at 9pm, Spain will play England in the final of Euro 2024 team.

Not many people had picked Spain to get to the final, yet La Roja have cruised past European giants Italy, Germany and France with its young and less tiki-taka prone style of play.

The team has been notable not only for the performances of (literal) child prodigy Lamine Yamal, but for the way in which this modern, diverse team represents a changing Spain that now has generations of immigrants integrated into society.

READ ALSO: OPINION: Young black stars mirror migrants’ contribution to Spain

This change is recent in Spain and, for most people a welcome one. However, Spain is not only home to diverse communities coming from abroad, but also domestically too.

The two obvious examples are the Basque Country and Catalonia, two regions with strong identities, languages, histories and independence movements. They also have their own ‘national’ football teams, but they’re not officially recognised by Fifa.

So with the country preparing to play in another another major final, will Basques and Catalans be cheering on La Selección Española with the rest of the country?

Catalans

During the heyday of Spain’s national team that won Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup, and Euro 2012, the side had many Catalan and Barça players, a couple of whom had even openly backed the independence movement. Most famous of all is Barça’s Oleguer, who refused to play under Luis Aragonés despite being called up.

As the independence movement really gained momentum around that time, many Catalans (and even some players) refused to support Spain, with some even supporting whichever country was playing against Spain, as Scots and Irish (perhaps everyone) does against England.

In the case of Gerard Piqué, the former Barcelona defender, he was even booed by Spanish fans. However, in an interview with YouTuber Jordi Wild, Piqué stated that he saw no contradiction in being a Catalan separatist and playing for La Roja.

“I think that it is compatible to be independent and play with Spain,” he said. “There are players who are nationalised (from other countries) who play for Spain and they don’t feel Spanish.”

Nowadays there are less Barça players in the national team, just four in total, with Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Ferran Torres and Fermín López.

In terms of your average Catalan football fan, TV viewership figures are good way to measure this. During the semi-final with France, 1.7 million Catalan viewers tuned in, for a 67 percent share, up to 76.2 percent and 1,992,000 viewers in the most watched moments of the match.

These figures would suggest that the Spanish national team has a strong following in Catalonia. This has prompted Barcelona council to install a giant screen in Plaça Catalunya to watch the final on Sunday.

Other cities in Catalonia such Badalona, Castelldefels, Gavà, Terrassa and Santa Coloma had already done so, but not Barcelona, where the council begrudgingly said that it would only do so if Spain reached the final.

This tallies with the drop in support for Catalan independence among Catalans in recent years, especially among middle-aged adults. Catalonia’s regional elections last May saw pro-independence parties lose their absolute majority, which in many people’s eyes meant burying the 2017 independence push for good.

READ MORE: Which Catalans want independence from Spain? 

A 2021 survey found that 46 percent of people in Catalonia feel just as Catalan as they do Spanish, a figure which has probably increased since. 

Identity can be a complex matter, but when it comes to the success of a football team which includes players from your region or your team, it isn’t hard to understand why people are willing to put political differences aside and revel in the sporting victories.

Basques

Whereas in the past the Spanish national team was overflowing with Catalans from the great Barcelona teams of the Guardiola era, in this current squad there’s far more Basques or players from Basque sides in Luis de la Fuente’s 2024 side.

There are nine in total: Alex Remiro, Martín Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Mikel Oyarzábal (Real Sociedad) and Unai Simón, Dani Vivian and Nico Williams (Athletic de Bilbao), as well as French born Aymeric Laporte and Robin Le Normand, both developed in the youth teams of the Basque country’s two main teams.

The New York Times ran an article in late June titled “In the Basque Country, muted cheers for Spain’s football team”, in which its protagonist is a man from Seville on business in Bilbao who rightfully keeps his excitement for every Spanish goal under wraps, given the apparent lack of Spanish football fever in the air.

The Spanish men’s national team has not played in the Basque Country’s biggest city since 1967, even though the threat of terrorist ETA group is long gone. 

Andoni Ortuzar, head of the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party), openly said he wanted England to win the Euro rather than Spain.

When Spain played France in the semis, Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the EH Bildu party which has its roots in ETA, said “unfortunately today one of the two states that deny us Basques the right to play with our national team is going to qualify”. 

These are somewhat extreme views that not all Basques share, of course. However, there is a sense that hanging a Spanish flag from your balcony during the Euros, or wearing a Spanish football jersey, won’t get you into as much trouble as it would have done two decades ago in the Basque Country, but that you could still be met with some disapproving looks and comments.

Having a Spanish team loaded with Basque players, including star striker Nico Williams of Athletic Bilbao (who also contradicts the traditional Basque image himself) may be helping to win more hearts among the vascos.

Almost 63 percent of TV audiences in the territory watched the Spain-France semi-final, whether it was begrudgingly or not.

“Beyond ideologies, there’s a passion for football,” La Roja centre-back Dani Vivian, who hails from Vitoria-Gateitz and plays for Athletic, said when asked if he thought his Basque compatriots supported the Spanish side.

“People in the Basque Country value good football.”