COLUMN: La Liga’s Retro weekend was a success, and a reminder of what we’ve lost

COLUMN: La Liga’s Retro weekend was a success, and a reminder of what we’ve lost La Liga’s first ever Retro Weekend was a lovely thing: the old kits, the walkout music, the big flashing ‘R’ for the TV replays. Villarreal dressed as Juan Roman Riquelme went to Bilbao to face Athletic Club who wore thick 1970s stripes. Beautifully nostalgic, although I imagine they flew.

Now that we fully understand how climate change works, footballers fly everywhere. Alaves (almost) reprised Spanish football’s best ever kit from their 2001 UEFA Cup final; I imagine data protection laws now stop them from printing the name of every socio on the shirt. Sevilla won, which was very old school of them.

Although, some of Atletico Madrid’s players on Saturday were so young they might genuinely have thought a kit from 2022 qualifies as retro. And, to top it off, legends such as Santi Cazorla, Iago Aspas, Kike Garcia and Christhian Stuani all appeared in their clubs’ match day squads! There was a lot of love for old style TV graphics and for the co-commentators such as Graham Hunter and Terry Gibson, who genuinely know stuff about Spanish football, gleaned from years of, you know, watching it.

How did we survive in a world without YouTube influencers-turned-football pundits who don’t own a TV? The referees joined in – but only as far as their outfits. Defenders weren’t allowed to crunch through the back of attackers (good thing) or use their arms for leverage while jumping in the penalty area (bad thing).