The Manacor magazine that irritated Franco and ended up becoming a historic football team

ManacorIt was December 1970 when a postal envelope sent from Manacor arrived by motorcycle at the Palacio del Pardo in Madrid. After the mandatory security checks, the envelope, the size of a sheet of paper, ended up on the dictator Francisco Franco's table. Upon opening it, he discovered what they had already warned him about from Mallorca: inside was a subversive magazine, with articles in Catalan called Es Forat. Founded by Pep Lluís Fuster and Toni Riera, the publication aimed to offer a multidisciplinary look with articles on literature, cinema, and current affairs.

But this was not the main problem. On the fifth page and under the title Letter from an emancipated youth, an article that seemed to start well: “There is no doubt, we are people born amidst stars, grapes, and old gold wheat, ours is a proper homeland, we are admirable folk”, actually hid a denunciation dressed in irony. The text asked how in such a country, so brilliant, such deplorable events could occur as the unpunished death of three Granada workers at the hands of the Civil Guard, and without any judicial consequence.

The article was signed by Joan Parera, who would later become a professor and director of the Institut Mossèn Alcover in Manacor. It didn't take much to know that something would be punished. And even more so knowing that the one who had sent that beige envelope was not precisely the Mallorcan Francoist administration, but the editors of the new magazine themselves. "We were that innocent, we were 18 years old and we sent it to the regime's high officials like the provincial head of the Movement, Salvador Bauzà, and to the mayor of Manacor... everywhere!" recalls Biel Sureda, first president of the social side of It Hole.

With all the commotion stirred up and promoted, it was only a matter of time before some special agents from Madrid appeared in the pearl city: “Trench coat, high collar and cap, just like inspectors. They said in the town that they were looking for me. I was working at the central bank distributing letters,” says Sureda, who still remembers how he was summoned to the headquarters of"It Hole, a basement of the Bishopric located right in front of the truck stop, in Plaça del Cós, and where on the first floor the nuns made the consecrated hosts for mass.

“They sat me down at the other side of my table, they lit the table lamp and shone it in my face… I thought: that’s it!, suspect!”. “However, they saw me a bit young and… [smiles] and soon I realized what those who studied at the university were looking for. They went through everyone’s files”. Thus, the first reprisals were suffered by Biel Sureda himself, who was reported to the Public Order Tribunal (TOP) and forced to appear and sign every week as proof that that “communist cell” was kept under control.

A The Hole they kept the printing press and the desire to occupy a space of cultural resistance in Manacor. "Young people of 18 years like yourselves should not waste time on these things... let go of politics and start a football team," recalls Toni Perelló 'Confit' (first sports president) that the agents told them as a forced alternative.

“It was what we did… we had no other option”. It was an unexpected departure that had little to do with what they had initially thought… but it was the only one that would not involve further repercussions. Although Joan Parera, author of the article on the Granada crimes, was finally assigned as far as possible from Mallorca to do his military service: he would go to Ferrol, precisely, the Caudillo's land.

“We were already playing football as amateurs in 1969, but it was the 1971-1972 season that we started competing in the so-called Torneo de Educación y Descanso, a local league organized by the union, where Es Forat never had any problem winning it, because it was a thousand times better than the others, in the years it was there”, recalls Xisco Lladó ‘Frisan’, one of the club's co-founders. In 1973, they even reached the Spanish championship in Castellón.

Among the teams that competed were Can Tomeu (possibly the great rivals), the Tripolinos (from the mythical Trípoli bar), Can Costa, Sa Volta and the 1808 Royal Club, a grandiose name that represented the bar on the ground floor of Cine Goya. All matches were played at the so-called municipal sports field, in Na Capellera.

But at the end of the 70s, the regime's tournament, with the arrival of the Transition, died of wear and tear. A few years of inactivity that coincided with the start of the 80s, when the Lliga de Penyes (League of Clubs) was launched. In 10 years, Es Forat won half of the championships. “We were part of it until the 89-90 season, when we decided to take a further step and register in the business league, which was for teams from all over the Balearic Islands and had a level similar to the preferred league of those times, with many players who had played with Manacor and other third division teams,” adds Lladó.

From those years, the honorary presidency of Andreu Pasqual ‘Frau’ stands out, who also ceded the land of the dirt field where the club and business tournaments were played for two decades. Speaking of coaches, Es Forat started with Joan Morey ‘Lobé’, then Joan Febrer ‘Randa’, Pedro Sureda ‘Kocsis’, Miquel Reus, Sion Caldentey and Manolo Riera Guardiola, who had also been a great playmaker on the field before.

Joan ‘Beió’, the great goalscorer

However, if anyone stood out above the others, it was undoubtedly Joan ‘Beió’, a goal-scoring forward who had played for Atlètic Balears. “With him and Pep Pinya in midfield distributing play, it was very simple to play. Even though we only trained during the week, we had more than enough,” recalls Manuel Parera, part of Es Forat during the 80s and early 90s.

‘Beió’ seemed like the typical forward for whom football was secondary. One of those outsiders more concerned with alternative life than with taking care of himself and building a sports career of a certain level. “He had a lot of talent and scored goals until he got tired of it. He alone could hold the whole team… although many times they had to go look for him if you wanted him to show up,” explains Joan Sebastià Amer ‘Garanya’, who joined the team at just 13 years old and stayed there “they brought me out to run and bother up front,” he jokes.

The team from the last stage, the one that lasted until 2001, was possibly the happiest and most competitive. A club, at that time called Bar Can Miquel-Es Forat, capable of beating CE Manacor in more than one pre-season. A group of friends who played for fun and, competing in the tough company league football, achieved three championships, always in direct contention with the villagers from Ca Sa Miss Jotul and Ca Na Paulina, the other two dominant teams.

Es Forat even played in two more Spanish championships: one in Zaragoza in 1994 and one in Valencia in 1999, two years before disappearing permanently. “There are many experiences and anecdotes. From time to time we had offers from registered teams, but we weren't interested, Es Forat was much more fun. They never scored more than two against us in a match. They never thrashed us,” says Joan Salas, the starting central defender for the last decade.

“Once in Sa Pobla I was insulted… I remember my mother had just died and that really upset me. I punched him and left him on the ground. Of course, then everyone wanted to beat me up,” recalls Joan Vanrell, the other great goalscorer in the history of Can Miquel-Es Forat. A powerful forward, but precise in his finishing, there wasn't a week he didn't score two, three, or four goals without breaking a sweat. Vanrell ended up signing for Felanitx.

The shield, work of Pere Serra

“Suddenly we commissioned a shield, a symbol that defined us,” says Biel Sureda, who called his friend, architect Pere Serra, so that “he would make something distinguishable like Nike”. “And what should it be called?” Serra replied. “Es Forat, because the headquarters is basically a hole downwards”. “Pere nailed it, he drew a hand forming a hole with its fingers, like an ok… it was perfect!”.