The ghost goal of 1962 against UD Las Palmas turned on the island’s stadium against Francoism

On the afternoon of March 4, 1962, Las Palmas’s Island Stadium was filled. Thousands -thousands throats contain the Hope a historical climb. Las Palmas Sports Union played more than a game against Córdoba: its place is played in the elite of Spain’s football and, without knowing it, it would be accidental protagonist of A Non -Political Outcreation from the Civil War In 1936, which certainly began in the capital of Grancanaria on July 18 of that year.

Under the surface of the sports fervor, another tension was beaten: that’s an island society that He began to ask his place within the Francoist state gear. An accidental nationalist movement has sowed a speech on the role of the islands for months, its lack of structure, institutional abandonment. In that climate, A ghost goal from Córdoba in the 87 minutesgranted by a distant and blind jury in protest, it became a symbol: An emotional trigger that bacted years of grievance and frustration.

Catalyst. For Nestor García-Lázaro, from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria’s historic science department, this football match f f fWhat is the catalyst for the first political protest in the public space of the Grancanaria capital space From the military uprising in 1936. Through a thorough analysis of these facts, the conflict of the moment has been shown This is not an isolated outbreak, but the constipation of a deeper crisis within an island society Trapped between the centralist of authoritarianism and its Autonomy aspirations.

The local press, usually carefully, reflects the scandal size. Antonio Lemus, Chronicler of Diario de Las Palmashe did not continue: “The Embarrassing yesterday should not remain in simply convincing the difficult criticismsBut it is necessary to carry the Canarian voice where it should be carried. “Thousands of fans broke their saying that they were providing: They attacked the farm, launched objects, and expanded protest on the surrounding streets. Police intervened with strength, injured, confined, and scandal spread.

On the same Monday, the authorities of the Franco regime acted with the Old Empire’s reflections: They called the Club’s board, They checked the beauty in the press And they released messages where, under a bright call to order, the fear of spreading dissent was detected. What happened was more than a sporting tantrum. This is an earthquake.

Thus it is understood as well as the nationalist movement, which again consists of symbolic action that week later. The security apparatus’s response was immediately: arrest, loss of movement, and ministerial visits to grease the ‘development’ machinery as a social balm. The ministry of motion even Study the accelerated application of the Canary Islands development plan and the approved law of Aguas, in an attempt to comfort the mood.

What happened on March 4 was passing out of the sport. This is a time of time where the The Insular Stadium, Space and Symbolic Unit, has become a political forum and battlefield. The years of caution and care became materialized in ninety minutes of football, for an inconsistent goal that ignored the spark of disappointment. As it often happens in history, it is a minimum of detail that released the forces from repressed.

The UD Las Palmas-Córdoba Party of 1962, therefore, was not a simple stage of arbitral injustice. It is, as it is described by critical history, The first massive socio -political conflict with Las Palmas public space since 1936. An outbreak of memory, identity and claim. A ghost goal that, incidentally, began to draw a map of the Canary Islands in Spain for years later successfully launched the transition to democracy.