Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Some of the most spectacular World Cup moments have been defined by the defiance of impossible odds. Beyond the sporting realm, the Principality of Andorra is something of an authority on the matter.<\/p>\n
For the past 748 years, the landlocked microstate has managed to survive in a corner of the eastern Pyrenees mountain range despite being wedged between its two larger and more powerful neighbors. Those nations, Spain and France, will face off Tuesday in Dallas in the semifinals of the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Unlike extinct realms like the Kingdom of Navarre<\/a> or the Duchy of Lorraine<\/a>, Andorra avoided getting annexed by Madrid or Paris by cannily swearing fealty to both of them \u2014 and playing them off against one another.<\/p>\n That’s because since 1278 the country has simultaneously recognized France’s king \u2014 and, later, its emperors and presidents \u2014 and the bishop of Spain’s Catholic diocese of Urgell as its co-princes<\/a>. Doing so has prevented both French and Spanish rulers from taking over the tiny country, because that action would inevitably bring it into conflict with Andorra’s other co-sovereign.<\/p>\n Preserving their independence has obliged Andorrans to spend centuries walking a delicate diplomatic tightrope, carefully avoiding favoring one neighbor over the other. But Marc Basco<\/a>, sportswriter for the Diari d’Andorra<\/a> \u2014 the microstate’s leading newspaper \u2014 said that neutrality is less evident when it comes to soccer.<\/p>\n “Historically, there’s been an inclination toward France,” he said. “Our country’s political and upper classes have generally had closer ties to the country, and the elites still tend to study there.”<\/p>\n But that trend shifted in recent years as the principality’s demographics changed with the arrival of immigrants from the south. “Of the 89,058 inhabitants<\/a> recorded in 2025, 20,216 are Spanish nationals, 8,777 are Portuguese, and just 3,665 are French,” Basco said. “And sporting preferences are very personal: they’re usually linked to your family origin, the language you speak at home, the clubs you’ve followed since childhood.”<\/p>\n “When it comes to football, the inclination toward Spain is clearly greater,” he said, noting that La Liga \u2014 Spain’s top professional soccer league \u2014 has a “massive following” in the principality, and that the country’s top club, FC Andorra, competes in the second division of the Spanish league. <\/p>\n But, he added, that preference is absent when it comes to rugby, which is also extremely popular in Andorra. When tournaments are held, the country’s residents tend to root for France, in part because so many of them studied in French schools where the sport is played.<\/p>\n The principality’s own national soccer team competes in the notoriously difficult UEFA qualifying section, facing heavyweights like England and Germany. Having failed to make it into this year’s tournament \u2014 or, indeed, any past World Cup \u2014 Basco said Andorra’s residents are likely to favor Spain in tonight’s semifinal match, but he insisted that doing so doesn’t imply ill will toward France.<\/p>\n “With Spain, and especially [the Spanish region of] Catalonia, the connection is more intense … Catalan is our official language, and the interactions are constant,” he said. “But France represents our other major historical axis and is a significant presence in our education system and institutions, and this Wednesday our parliament is due to vote on an agreement to strengthen relations<\/a> with Paris.”<\/p>\n Today, Andorra has no real fear of being devoured by its neighbors, and the sportswriter said the French president and the bishop of Urgell’s status as the principality’s joint heads of state is “primarily perceived as a unique historical and institutional feature.”<\/p>\n But, he added, inhabitants’ satisfaction with that arrangement could change following next year’s presidential elections in France, in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen is the front-runner<\/a>, or if the Andorran government carries out its promise to decriminalize abortion<\/a>, setting the stage for a major clash with its Catholic co-prince.<\/p>\n For now, however, Basco said Andorrans are happy to keep up their centuries-long status quo, preserving a “relationship with both countries that is very close and, generally speaking, based on pragmatism and a sense of good neighborliness.”<\/p>\n