El Clásico or el clásico (; , ; ) is the name given to any football match between rival clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Originally referring to competitions held in the Spanish championship, the term now includes every match between the clubs, such as those in the UEFA Champions League and Copa del Rey. It is considered one of the biggest club football games in the world, and is among the most viewed annual sporting events. A fixture known for its intensity, it has featured memorable goal celebrations from both teams, often involving mocking the opposition. The rivalry comes about as Madrid and Barcelona are the two largest cities in Spain, and they are sometimes identified with opposing political positions, with Real Madrid viewed as representing Spanish nationalism and Barcelona viewed as representing Catalan nationalism. The rivalry is regarded as one of the biggest in world sport. The two clubs are among the richest and most successful football clubs in the world; in 2014 Forbes ranked Barcelona and Real Madrid the world's two most valuable sports teams. Both clubs have a global fanbase; they are the world's two most followed sports teams on social media. Real Madrid leads in head-to-head results in competitive matches with 101 wins to Barcelona's 98 with 52 draws; Barcelona leads in exhibition matches with 20 victories to Madrid's 4 with 10 draws and in total matches with 118 wins to Madrid's 105 with 62 draws as of the match played on 15 January 2023. Along with Athletic Bilbao, they are the only clubs in La Liga to have never been relegated. Rivalry History The conflict between Real Madrid and Barcelona has long surpassed the sporting dimension, so much that elections to the clubs' presidencies have been strongly politicized. Phil Ball, the author of Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football, says about the match; "they hate each other with an intensity that can truly shock the outsider". As early as the 1930s, Barcelona "had developed a reputation as a symbol of Catalan identity, opposed to the centralising tendencies of Madrid". In 1936, when Francisco Franco started the coup d'état against the democratic Second Spanish Republic, the president of Barcelona, Josep Sunyol, member of the Republican Left of Catalonia and Deputy to The Cortes, was arrested and executed without trial by Franco's troops (Sunyol was exercising his political activities, visiting Republican troops north of Madrid). During