Euskadi

dougzz
dougzz Posts: 1,833
edited March 2010 in Pro race
For some reason I was thinking about this earlier. Doesn't their policy of only employing Basque's break EU employment laws?

Comments

  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,612
    Sam Sanchez isn't Basque.


    Being Basque is a way of being, not where you're born.

    At least, that's what I was told at Uni.
    _
  • calvjones
    calvjones Posts: 3,850
    I don't think Igor Gonzales de G. is either?
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  • zippypablo
    zippypablo Posts: 398
    it's being Basque or cycling as a junior/espoir in the region that qualifies you. Didn't Atletico Bilbao have the same policy until fairly recently?
    If suffer we must, let's suffer on the heights. (Victor Hugo).
  • sonny73
    sonny73 Posts: 2,203
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Sam Sanchez isn't Basque.

    Definitely true that is, he was born in Oviedo, Asturias.
    The only Frenchman on the team this year is a Basque also I think.
    Pretty sure they all are apart from Sanchez, but calvjones may well be correct there.
  • sonny73
    sonny73 Posts: 2,203
    According to Wikipedia Igor Gonzalez was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country. Sorry calvjones, not meaning to be a smart*rse :wink:
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    zippypablo wrote:
    it's being Basque or cycling as a junior/espoir in the region that qualifies you. Didn't Atletico Bilbao have the same policy until fairly recently?

    No. Athletic Bilbao have never had a policy of only signing up players who had cycled as a junio/espoir. :wink:
  • dougzz
    dougzz Posts: 1,833
    Austurias is onlly up the road a bit :)

    Even allowing for Sanchez, given the almost total Basque domination it wouldn't stand up to much scrutiny as an employment policy would it?

    Is cycling just too small time for anyone to care?
  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    dougzz wrote:
    Austurias is onlly up the road a bit :)

    Even allowing for Sanchez, given the almost total Basque domination it wouldn't stand up to much scrutiny as an employment policy would it?

    Is cycling just too small time for anyone to care?

    It depends on what laws the Spanish Government has that are supposed to enact the EU directives, they are likely to be very different to the British laws that enact the same directives.
    To challenge them you need a rider who can say they should otherwise have got a place on the team but were turned down as they were not Basque enough, but since the teams don't advertise or hold interviews for places, and have no obligation to do so, it's hard to see how a rider could make such a case. They would have to persue a rider, offer a contract, then revoke it when it turns out he's really from Bath and they just mis-heard him.

    The non-sporting jobs in the team are probably advertsied and interviewed so they would be harder to keep all-Basque.
  • calvjones
    calvjones Posts: 3,850
    Sonny73 wrote:
    According to Wikipedia Igor Gonzalez was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country. Sorry calvjones, not meaning to be a smart*rse :wink:

    Fair enough. Him racing for Sainz foxed me!

    There's a serious point re EU employment law here, if anyone was prepared to follow it up.

    The issue is of course that clubs don't advertise vacancies for competition between potential employees; they effectively headhunt. therefore you have no explicit person spec so hard to prove any exclusion policy in a court. And I wonder whether Basque actually has any legal status as an ethnicity (rather than region/government) in Spain? If not, very hard to prove you were being (positively) discriminatory.
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  • dougzz
    dougzz Posts: 1,833
    I suppose you need a particular person to bring a case.

    But if you said the number of professional cyclists is X, and the number of those that are Basque is Y, what are the odds that a team could have 96% Basque riders unless they operated a policy based on being Basque. Seems a slam dunk of a case.

    Now, what shall we resolve next. :)
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Maybe the Basques would just argue that EU laws don't apply to them, what with them being a separate nation state and all that :wink:
  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    afx237vi wrote:
    Maybe the Basques would just argue that EU laws don't apply to them, what with them being a separate nation state and all that :wink:

    EU laws don't apply to anybody, they would have to argue Spanish laws don't apply to them, which they kinda have been for a while now.
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    Non-Basques can join the team, as long as they've raced in the region for a certain number of years. I presume that sports teams are allowed to represent a certain region if they choose to do so, just as it is possible to have national teams.
  • calvjones
    calvjones Posts: 3,850
    dougzz wrote:
    I suppose you need a particular person to bring a case.

    But if you said the number of professional cyclists is X, and the number of those that are Basque is Y, what are the odds that a team could have 96% Basque riders unless they operated a policy based on being Basque. Seems a slam dunk of a case.

    Now, what shall we resolve next. :)

    They could just argue they're a small team based in Euskadi who don't get out much and can only afford to advertise in the small ads pages of the Donostia Freeads
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  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    johnfinch wrote:
    Non-Basques can join the team, as long as they've raced in the region for a certain number of years. I presume that sports teams are allowed to represent a certain region if they choose to do so, just as it is possible to have national teams.

    nail, head (I think). The team is meant to be a publicity vehicle for the Basque region.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,150
    johnfinch wrote:
    Non-Basques can join the team, as long as they've raced in the region for a certain number of years. I presume that sports teams are allowed to represent a certain region if they choose to do so, just as it is possible to have national teams.

    But the England cricket team have to have a least two South Africans in the side at all times now.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • finchy
    finchy Posts: 6,686
    RichN95 wrote:
    johnfinch wrote:
    Non-Basques can join the team, as long as they've raced in the region for a certain number of years. I presume that sports teams are allowed to represent a certain region if they choose to do so, just as it is possible to have national teams.

    But the England cricket team have to have a least two South Africans in the side at all times now.
    :lol::lol:

    I think I just about get that one.
  • BikingBernie
    BikingBernie Posts: 2,163
    afx237vi wrote:
    Maybe the Basques would just argue that EU laws don't apply to them, what with them being a separate nation state and all that :wink:
    Or perhaps they took the same 'It doesn't apply to us' line as Britain did with regard the EU working hours directive, back in the days when Blair and co were arguing having a maximum working week got in the way of their plans to turn Britain into the low pay / long hours sweatshop of Europe. :wink:

    (Britain argued employees should be able to 'volunteer' to work more than 48 hours a week, something which now means that in many jobs if you don't 'volunteer' to give up your rights under the working hours directive, you don't get the job in the first place!).
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,641
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philminshull/2009/12/colour_barrier_finally_broken.html

    Good information on here
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    I'm not getting involved. I wouldn't want ETA after me!
  • EKIMIKE
    EKIMIKE Posts: 2,232
    I think it's good. Sport is clearly encouraged in their communities with a long standing tradition and equally prestigious sporting clubs/organisations to keep it that way. They have role models and it's something for them to feel proud about and sporting events are there for the community to enjoy (such as going to watch Athletic Bilbao).

    I think they are more lenient nowadays towards non-basques being signed (cycling and football). It rather more a case of they like to maintain the stream of Basque youths being intoduced to the sports. Unfortunately, certainly in football, this process is being interrupted by the 'big boys' in the sport. Scouts from Europe's major football clubs are always trying to poach talent away from the famous Bilbao Cantera's, much in the way that Arsenal and Man Utd poached Fabregas and Pique from the Barcelona Youth teams. Bilbao as a club certainly can't offer up the wages of a Chelsea or Man Utd.
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  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    Sammy Sanchez made the conscious decision to race only in the Basque region before turning pro, that's why he was signed.

    They could always get round the laws by stating that a rider has to speak/understand fluent Basque, of course.
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Tusher wrote:
    Sammy Sanchez made the conscious decision to race only in the Basque region before turning pro, that's why he was signed.

    They could always get round the laws by stating that a rider has to speak/understand fluent Basque, of course.


    Having done some racing in the Basque Country, I can only say good luck with that. A couple of phrases aside, that language was a complete mystery to me. It's completely unconnected to any other living language! Wonderful place though and the team gives the youth something to aim for, there was talk of the Basque power company sponsoering an F1 team in a couple of years too.

    Also, sorry to go all FF on you Tusher, but Sammy Sanchez is one of my least favourite Liggetisms. Samu is the shortened version to everyone outside his sphere of influence.
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • dougzz
    dougzz Posts: 1,833
    Yeah the language one is well weird, good on 'em. I think that the Navajo language is like too, sort out removed from any other known language. The US used Navajo speakers in WW2 as a form of 'secret' radio code.
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    No offence taken, disgruntledgoat, Samu it will be- I learn something new everyday. He's a great favourite of racejunkie.

    Having spend many hours drooling over David Duchovny, I can now only link native Indian languages with extra terrestrials. I may have to add the Euskies to my list. They probably already have an X-file anyway.

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