MP GAVIN: WE MUST REMEMBER THE DAY PAISLEY BROUGHT FOOTIE TO SPAIN
125th anniversary of team’s link to Buddies
As football fans look ahead to a long stretch with no live games, one MP is looking back fondly to a time when a team of Paisley men stood up to the might of Barcelona.
The SNP man for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, Gavin Newlands, tabled a motion in the House of Commons this week to recognise the Scottish influence on Spanish and Catalan football.
It comes as the small village of Borgonyà in the Catalan region of Spain celebrates its 125th anniversary of being founded by workers from Paisley.
The story stretches back to the late 1800s when the Coats family opened a mill in the village of Borgonyà.
In those early years, and for some decades to follow, it would be hundreds of workers from Paisley and the surrounding area who would work at the mill.
As a result, the Spanish town took on a mini-Paisley feel with many of the streets named after Coats, Paisley and Scotland.
A huge saltire still flies on top of the mill, which is now closed.
A football pitch was built to give the workers something to do which resulted in the formation of the local team, Association Torelló.
In March 1895, la Societat de Football de Barcelona, which was considered “an embyro” of the FC Barcelona side of the likes of Messi and Ronaldinho, invited the team to play a match in Barcelona.
The invitation was reported in the ‘sports notes’ of newspaper La Vanguardia, which emphasised and publicised the event as being the very first time two sides from different places had played one another in the whole of Spain.
And so the team made the hour- long trip to the Catalan capital to participate in the game the following month on April 25 at the Velanova Velodrome - a place of much significance to FC Barcelona.
Approximately 100 people attended the match, which ended in a victory for the Barcelona select side against the team made up entirely of Scottish factory workers - many of whom were presumably from the Paisley area.
The names of those who took the field for Association Torelló were: Cochrane (captain), Paton, English, Munro, Lyies, Gerard, Cooper, Al. Nicol, A.Tong, H. Tong, Rushtong and King (sub).
Later the Scottish team would morph in to CD Borgonya, who still play in black and white jerseys.
At that time these were the only two colours in which the factory thread was dyed, and of course, are the same colours as Paisley’s own St Mirren.
Gavin Newlands visited Borgonyá in 2018 and was delighted to see the strong links which still exist between the town and Paisley.
He told the Express: “The Borgonyá village story is one which Paisley can be proud.
“Coats, at that time one of the globe’s largest companies, making waves across the world representing Paisley.
“Of course, where Coats went, Buddies followed, and it’s no surprise that one of the first things the new settlers did was to establish a football team.
“When we view Barcelona greats like Messi, Cruyff, Romario, Stoichkov, Iniesta and Xavi we can take pride that we had a little hand in building not only that club or Catalan football, but football right across wider Spain.
“Borgonyá is a lovely little village full of colourful sma’ shotstyle cottages, and the residents are fiercely proud of their Paisley/ Scots heritage.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time there meeting the mayor, CD Borgonyá officials, and many other residents.
“I very much look forward to going back to strengthen the bonds between and, if possible, take in a game.
“It’s sad that, given current circumstances, we can’t celebrate the village’s 125th anniversary appropriately, but I hope we can find time later in the year to do just that.”