In 1969, the dying months of the breakaway Republic of Biafra. A group of idealistic young football lovers gathered together in Valls, Barcelona (Spain) to honour the heroic self-determination struggle of the Biafrans against the Nigerian Govt.
🧵 orientdailynews.com/cover-story/th…
2/ They created a symbolic pennant and founded CF Biafra (Club de Fútbol Biafra) in order to draw world attention to the plight of Biafra, using one of the most potent methods known to humanity — #Football.
3/ CF Biafra had about a hundred players from Reus to Pla, from Nulles to Tarragona. They settled in El Vilar, within the federated amateur league and rode all the way to the Third Regional League.
4/ Biafra to those idealistic young men, was a mirror for their own struggles. In their perception, their own region of Catalonia was going through the same situation at the hands of the Spanish government as Biafra was experiencing, at the hands of the Nigerian government.
5/ The club existed until 1978 when its activities were truncated by lack of economic resources.
An exhibition on the history of the Biafra Football Club was held at the Patio de Sant Roc in June 2007.
6/ A delegation from CF Biafra in Barcelona led by Ramon Rovira and Oscar Gasso visited Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in Enugu.
They presented to him the official jersey and album of the history of CF Biafra.
7/ When the Biafra Hero died, a delegation of CF Biafra also flew into Nigeria and participated fully in the funeral rites of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in 2012.
8/ When they were leaving, they took a stone from Biafra land which they merged onto the commemorative plaque, twinning the Land of the Rising Sun with Valls forever.
On December 29th 2020, it was installed on the ground of the square where the CF Biafra players met in 1969.
9/ We, people of the Land of the Rising Sun salute the Catalonians of CF Biafra and thank you for all you have been doing to preserve our collective legacy and our sacred memories.
May your own shadow never grow dim.
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