Madrid - Just how politically active should a footballer be allowed to be?Should a player be completely free to make politically controversial statements, or should his club be able to prohibit him from doing so?
This debate has been raging at FC Barcelona for the past four years, and the man in the eye of the storm is Barca defender Oleguer Presas.
Oleguer, a solid rather than spectacular performer who can play in any of the four defensive positions, was signed by Barca from local club Gramanet in 2002. He soon caught the eye at the Camp Nou with his reliability, concentration and speed.
The controversy surrounding Oleguer centres on his off-field activities. He is a left-wing Catalan nationalist and usually refuses to speak Spanish in public. He has written in support of Catalan independence from Spain, and has also raised eyebrows by turning up at several infamous city centre squats in order to show his support of the controversial "ocupas" as they are known.
A certain sector of Barca fans support Oleguer in his political activities. The vast majority, however, appear to view him as a troublemaker who is damaging the club's image.
Needless to say, he has become very unpopular in other parts of Spain, particularly in Madrid, and is normally whistled and jeered throughout most of Barca's away matches.
Two years ago - just before the 2006 World Cup finals - Oleguer's Barca form was so solid that Spain manager Luis Aragones called him up to a national team get-together.
Oleguer made it clear he did not want to go to the Madrid training camp. However, Barca president Joan Laporta - worried about adverse publicity and about Oleguer being banned by the Spanish federation for refusing to show up - persuaded him to go.
In Madrid Oleguer apparently told Aragones that he wanted nothing to do with La Seleccion. He has not been picked since. Instead, he is the captain of the Catalan "national team", which plays a handful of friendlies every year, with little fan or media interest.
Oleguer is the poster boy of the campaign for Catalonia to have sports team participating in international competitions.
At the moment, Oleguer is up in arms about the Spanish federation prohibiting the Catalan team from playing a friendly against the United States on October 14, on the grounds that it coincides with Spain's European Championship qualifying matches.
Laporta - himself a Catalan nationalist, though of a more moderate stripe - has joined Oleguer in protesting about this prohibition.
The Barca president has normally defended Oleguer's rights to take part in nationalist and left-wing campaigns.
Indeed, Laporta has, to the irritation of many players, inserted a clause in their contracts requiring them to learn Catalan. Curiously, Barca's only foreign import to have done so is Lilian Thuram, who now tries to speak to his friend Oleguer in the local language rather than in Spanish.
Barcelona paper La Vanguardia now reports that Oleguer will shortly have to stand trial in Sabadell, accused of throwing stones at the police in a September 2003 riot after the police had come to close down one of his favourite bars.
Seven policemen were injured by the stone-throwing, and responded with rubber bullets.
Oleguer is one of 11 people accused of "resisting legitimate authority" - and faces up to three years in prison if found guilty.
Laporta has told Catalan television channel TV3 that he will give Oleguer "all the help he can, in order to resolve this case."
