SPAIN woke up to racism yesterday, groggily and belatedly. There was acknowledgement of the problem, most notably in the letter of apology sent by the Spanish football federation to its English counterpart, but the issue remains an unwanted distraction as the country turns to tonight’s tumultuous derbi between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

England’s match at the Bernabéu has stirred some debate, but this is a nation still largely in denial about the scale of abuse levelled at the visiting black players on Wednesday. The front page of Marca urged the Catalan public to use this evening’s occasion, one that will be watched around the world, to show that Spanish football does not beat with a racist heart.

The newspaper tried to reinforce the point by depicting Zinedine Zidane as black and Samuel Eto’o as white, but at a press conference yesterday, Barcelona’s Cameroon striker hardly painted La Liga as a tolerant place to make a living. Racism happens, Eto’o said. Get used to it and get on with your life.

“What can I say?” Eto’o said. “When I am on the pitch, a team-mate might say ‘negro’ to me. That’s normal. That goes on. So what? As far as the crowd making monkey noises, it does happen. It is part of Spanish football, but it is just part of the reality of life. If a white guy goes to Africa, they call him ‘whitey’ just to get him annoyed.”

Eto’o also reiterated his support for Luis Aragonés, the Spain coach, with whom he worked at Real Mallorca. It was Aragonés’s remark that Thierry Henry was “a black s***” that put the race issue on the agenda. “Look, the time has come to leave him in peace,” Eto’o said. “What I said about him the first time was true; he’s no racist.”

Frank Rijkaard, the black Dutchman who is the Barcelona coach, believes that the English media must share some of the blame. “Declarations in the press have provoked it and accelerated it,” he said. “It is important that people unite and think before they make further declarations, otherwise it just causes more reaction.”

However bad the problem is in Spain — there appears to be an air of casual tolerance, as if black players should not take the abuse personally — the issue has ensured even more interest in tonight’s match at the Nou Camp. Racist jeering of Roberto Carlos by Barcelona’s Boixos Nois is regarded as routine. Perhaps, in the glare of this week, it will not be so readily tolerated.

Whether there are racist chants or not, this match is rarely less than frenzied. Two seasons ago, when the game was interrupted because of missiles, including a pig’s head, being thrown at Luis Figo, the Spanish federation ordered Barcelona to play three matches behind closed doors. The punishment has yet to be enforced. “If it had been any other club, the stadium would have been closed,” Mariano García Remó n, the Real coach, said.

Even by the standard of these matches, this clásico is creating rare interest because it is the first time in years that Barcelona are overshadowing the aristocrats from the capital. Rijkaard’s team are four points clear of Real at the top, but lost their first league match of the Chief Football Correspondent in Barcelona season last weekend while a resurgent Real won 6-1.

It is hard to think that two teams have ever taken to the field more overloaded with attacking intent. Not only will Real have Raúl, Ronaldo, Figo and Zidane, but also a central midfield pairing of Guti and David Beckham, without a tackle between them. Barcelona include Eto’o, Ronaldinho, Ludovic Giuly, Deco and Xavi.

“This is a game you really must experience with all of its history,” Ronaldo said yesterday. “You have to experience it for yourself.” With that in mind, Michael Owen will hope to come off the bench at some stage. Privately, Real officials have expressed their disappointment to Owen and Beckham regarding Wednesday’s crowd behaviour and Jorge Pérez Arias, the general secretary of the Spanish federation, has written to the Football Association to condemn the abuse.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Uefa, the European governing body, yesterday increased fines on Sparta Prague and Seville, who had appealed against their punishments for racist chanting. There has also been a focus on the race issue in France after two black Bastia players were abused by their own club’s fans in the wake of a 3-0 defeat at home to St-Etienne. This weekend, every player in the top division will wear an anti-racism T-shirt.

They will hope that, unlike the experience of the England players in Madrid, the gesture does not provoke an even more extreme reaction.