You may be surprised, but many football supporters in Spain feel this way.

Obviously, the sentence is false. There are international matches and Spain have a vital game with Sweden to qualify for Euro 2008.

However, if Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia or Sevilla aren't playing, the feeling is that no real football is going on.

I cannot explain why Spanish football supporters are not united behind Luis Aragones' team but, compared with the clubs, it has little influence and impact on the country as a whole.

It doesn't mean Spaniards don't want their team to win - of course, they want it. But I bet most people would prefer their club to win the Champions League than for Spain to win the World Cup.

Perhaps I'm wrong, and it's only my point of view, but I think not only FC Barcelona supporters will sign up to this.

With a quick Internet check, you can easily find evidence that the clubs are much more important than the Spanish team.

La Seleccion

Websites of all the Spanish sports papers have the badges of all La Liga clubs on their home page, and news about Barcelona and Madrid is always there.

If you are patient enough, you'll find La Seleccion - the popular name for the Spanish team - hidden behind La Liga clubs, Second Division clubs, Champions League matches, UEFA Cup and Copa del Rey (our version of the FA Cup).

Media reflects people's interests. So, we'll have to assume this is La Seleccion's place in the national thinking.

When I finally found the Spanish team pages on all the websites, I looked for some information on their next two matches - Sweden and Northern Ireland.

I'm sorry, but we are quite egocentric and just focus on ourselves.

Sweden and Northern Ireland are only mentioned twice - squads and match tickets!

Otherwise the Spanish Press concentrate on criticising Aragones decisions, discussing whether Raul deserves to be in the squad or not, debating the fitness of Torres, wondering how many Valencia players will be called up, taking into account the current crisis the club is going through, and so on.

And everyone agrees that Spain must achieve at least three points in order to qualify for Euro 2008.

Not qualifying would be such a failure for Aragones that he would surely be sacked.

Spanish supporters dream of winning some international tournament, but it's widely assumed that La Seleccion never go further than the quarter-finals.

I wonder if players also see themselves as Real Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia men rather than as a team - as the fans clearly do.

Maybe that's why they never achieve anything - football is a team game.

The Spanish squad contains six players from Valencia, three from FC Barcelona, two from Real Madrid, two from Atletico Madrid, two from Espanyol, two from Villareal, one from Arsenal, one from Liverpool and one from Mallorca.

Every coach has his own preferences, but it's weird that Madrid's captain, Raul, who has also been the Spanish captain for many years, hasn't been called up. Or that Barcelona goalkeeper, Victor Valdes, with the best record in La Liga over the last two years, has never played for the Spanish team.

I'm a Barcelona supporter and when watching international matches I only want my players to do their best with their national teams - Spain, France, Argentina or Cameroon.

That's why I was glad for Iniesta when he equalised for Spain in Iceland - but I would also have been happy if Gudjohnsen had scored.

For the same reason, I celebrated David Healy's goal in Northern Ireland's amazing 3-2 win over Spain. He scored against Casillas, Real Madrid's goalkeeper, that's why!

It's a matter of clubs, not countries, for me.

I don't know what a Real Madrid supporter would think, but maybe they'd prefer their Sergio Ramos to score the winning goal rather than our Xavi, although they will be happy as long as Spain win.

These are only some examples to show that, despite wanting the country to win, we tend not to see them as Spanish players, but from Madrid or Barcelona allegiances.

Another issue that may catch your eye are the stadiums where Spain play their games.

For instance, Spain are taking on Northern Ireland in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. You might think they are so sure they'll beat Sweden on Saturday that they are planning to go to the Canary Islands on holiday the following week - and maybe you're right - but it's usual for La Seleccion to play in small grounds, like Las Palmas, around the country.

Matches are often held in small towns where the local team is not playing in La Liga - Spain took on Liechtenstein in Badajoz and Latvia in Oviedo.

They want to make sure the stadiums are full and they also give an opportunity to local supporters to see the Spanish stars in a live match.

Only matches considered "very important" (muy importantes) are played in big stadiums - like next week's game with Sweden being played at Bernabeu.

However, it's rare for Spain to play at Camp Nou. It's too big - so it'll easily look empty - and Barcelona ticket-holders, Catalans all, just wouldn't feel politically comfortable.

There have only been eight La Seleccion matches at Camp Nou in 50 years - six of them friendlies - and the last one was 20 years ago.

When the Spanish team play in Barcelona - not very often, either - they play at the Olympic Stadium.

This is a picture of how international matches are viewed in Spain.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you embrace them here in Belfast. It promises to be an exciting experience.

So, as there's no football in Spain next weekend, I'll go to Windsor Park to shout for Northern Ireland!