Sunday in Euskadi. In the Frontón Bizkaia, Juan Martínez de Irujo was wearing a big Basque beret and an even bigger smile, holding the trophy with battered and heavily bandaged hands, another pelota triple crown his. In the Bilbao Arena, Bilbao Basket beat Real Madrid, knocking them off the top for the first time in 78 games. And in the Teatro Principal in San Sebastián, Athletic Club de Bilbao were about to take on Real Sociedad in the Bertso Derbi, a kind of Basque sing-and-joke-off. Not far away, down the boulevard and in from the beach, Anoeta waited in the rain for the main event: Athletic Bilbao versus Real Sociedad.

In the narrow streets of the old town, they had been having an informal Bertso Derbi of their own, in between the patxaran and the pintxos. Blue and white shirts and scarves were everywhere, even on a dog or two. There were red and white shirts too; fewer than normal, but they were there. The photos in Monday morning’s papers are familiar: a Real Sociedad fan kisses her Athletic-supporting boyfriend; groups of supporters drink together. The Basque derby is always a bit different; an “example” said la Real’s captain Xabi Prieto. And this weekend it was more different than ever, they said.

The last fortnight has been marked by the brutal killing of Jimmy Romero near the Vicente Calderón and this weekend was marked by it too. There has not been a single word from Ángel María Villar, the president of Spanish football’s governing body the RFEF, but there have been plenty from everyone else; self-flagellation, finger-pointing and false equivalency has been the dominant tone, a desire to act with an iron fist. Real Madrid expelled 17 members for offensive chants. Under pressure, Atlético Madrid, whose CEO Miguel-Ángel Gil Marín had said it was “not for me” to dissolve the Frente Atlético, have sought to dissolve the Frente Atlético, banning them from the stadium. Meanwhile, Javier Tebas, the president of the league, has talked about his plan to “eradicate ultras” from football.

Tebas didn’t define what he means by “ultras” – and Valencia’s Yomus group handily changed their name from Ultras Yomus to Supporters’ Club Yomus, which is alright then – but he was determined to come down hard. He was going to banish insults from the game, too. Clean it up. After last weekend’s matches, the league sent a series of reports to the Anti-Violence Commission demanding they take action against the chants that had been recorded. Chants like “Messi, retard”, “I hate Espanyol”, “Fucking Barcelona, fucking Catalonia,” and “Mucho Betis, mucho shit.”

The promise was to keep watching, keep reporting. Zero Tolerance was the phrase. Editorials demanded action and the league promised it. “The stadiums are going to end up empty; some of us we will be out too,” said the Barcelona manager Luis Enrique. “We don’t have that problem: our fans don’t insult others … they do sometimes insult us, though,” said the Getafe manager Cosmin Contra, although there were no insults at the end of this weekend’s game, a 0-0 draw with Barcelona. Across Spain, supporters sought alternatives; an outbreak of imagination may be upon us. During Real Madrid’s game at Almería, fans swapped the familiar “that Portuguese, what a son of a bitch he is” for “that Portuguese, I don’t like him much”.

At Atlético, in their first home league game since the killing, the situation was more serious; a division has opened up and it is not clear how it will be resolved. Diego Simeone’s messages have been meek and mixed. Some papers called it a “civil war”. There was a gap in the south stand where the Frente normally stand. Elsewhere, fans chanted “Atlético is us”, determined to no longer be associated, nor have their club associated, with the Frente. From the Frente, there were whistles in response. Later they chanted: “If you don’t want us, don’t sing our songs,” as if they have a copyright. In the midst of it all, Atlético lost at home for the first time in 27 games. “We need union,” Tiago appealed afterwards. “We could feel that it was a bit odd,” Gabi admitted.

In that context, the Basque derby had been held up as an example: an occasion where fans sit together and there is no trouble, even though the rivalry is intense. Noisy, never nasty. Not only this weekend, but especially this weekend. It was fun too: fast, tense, loud. At the end of the game, which finished 1-1, Real Sociedad’s manager David Moyes smiled. “I enjoyed that.”

Marca described it as a “great derby”. Again, an impressive first half from la Real gave way to a disappointing second; Moyes has encountered a squad whose physical preparation in the summer was frankly poor and now they are paying for it. “No fuel”, ran the headline in one local paper this morning. Carlos Vela was superb in the opening 45 minutes, the equalising goal was a belter from Óscar De Marcos, Sergio Canales hit the bar with a wonderful free-kick and had a chance to win it in the dying minutes too. It was a great chance, much as Iñigo Martínez’s header had been in the first half. “I don’t know what you call that in Spanish; in English, we’d call that a sitter,” Moyes said.

And yet Marca stood alone among the media and if Moyes had enjoyed it, others had not. Not as much as normal, anyway. The judgments were scathing. “Decaffeinated” … “the derby that no one deserved to win” … “the derby of mediocrity” … “grey” … “impotent” … “empty” … “the worst derby in recent years, by a long way” … “nothing here, nothing there either” … “sad” … “poor” … And so it went on. “These two teams are not even close to being the powerful, dynamic sides they were,” one report read. The front of the Guipuzcoa edition of El Mundo Deportivo chose a solitary word, in huge letters, to sum up la Real: “WORRYING.” It had been a derby “with no rock and no roll”.

The game itself did not help – although those judgements were more than a little harsh – but that was not the only reason, and probably not even the main reason, that the headline in El Diario Vasco described this as: “A fiesta, but less so.” Just as importantly, in doing so, they highlighted another issue, ignored by Spain’s footballing authorities.

If all the talk has been somewhat exaggeratedly focused on a terrible hooligan problem in Spain which does not really exist, at least not in the terms it has been presented – and frankly, there may be as many bad people in Spain’s directors’ boxes as there are in Spain’s stands – and if some of what has been said has reached a point that has been uncomfortably close to parody, this weekend again revealed that Spanish football has become fragmented and flat. There is little sense of the jornada or round of games any more. Stadiums aren’t filling. Fans are largely treated with disdain. And while the authorities are now belatedly acting to stamp out bad atmosphere, little is being done to foment a good atmosphere. Or any atmosphere.

The pelota and the basketball might not have helped and the fact that Athletic fans have spent money following their team in the Champions League this season might not have helped either. Nor did the climate or the 9pm kick-off on a Sunday night. Anoeta was not fill; 26,000 is a good crowd but not a massive one. Some season-ticket holders could not make it because they could not make it back and few non-season-ticket holders wanted to pay €60. Athletic Bilbao had returned half of the tickets they had been allocated and while fans gathered together in the old town during the afternoon, this time blue and white shirts outnumbered red and white ones.

“You feel empty after games like this,” Xabi Prieto had said and the effort was appreciated. The fans had shared a drink, some of the songs and the points. They watched the game together and they applauded the teams at full-time. Then they left the stadium together and headed home. It was cold and wet and it was late.

Talking points

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barcelona could only manage a 0-0 draw against Getafe. Photograph: JUAN MEDINA/REUTERS

• Córdoba 0-0 Levante. Now there’s a shock.

• This time it was far from easy, but in the end it was another win and another big one as well. It finished 4-1 against Almería, who were being watched but not managed by their new manager JIM (Juan Ignacio Martínez). That took Real Madrid to 20 consecutive victories but the scoreline flattered them. Isco gave Madrid the lead, Verza belted in a brilliant equaliser and Gareth Bale headed Madrid back in front. But at 2-1, Iker Casillas saved a Verza penalty that kept Madrid in the lead and then Cristiano Ronaldo added two in the final 10 minutes. He has now got 25 league goals this season … more than Leo Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez put together.

• “The only thing you have to fear is death,” Cosmin Contra had said before his team’s match against Barcelona, clearly forgetting about really bloody massive spiders. When it came to the football, though, he had a point. Getafe got a 0-0 draw against Barcelona and could even have won it too: the game’s best save came from Claudio Bravo and the referee blew the full-time whistle just as Getafe were running clean through. “I don’t want to stick my nose in where it’s not wanted but I can’t understand it,” Ángel Lafita said afterwards. No one could understand Enrique either. He claimed to have been satisfied with a desperately poor performance from Barcelona. “We played the same system as we have played all season,” he said. And which system would this be?

• Twenty-seven games later, Atlético were beaten by a solitary and superb goal from Vietto. The manager who gave him his debut? Diego Simeone.

• Eibar constructed a wall at the Sánchez Pizjuán and Sevilla could not get over it.

Results: Almería 1-4 Real Madrid, Getafe 0-0 Barcelona, Valencia 3-0 Rayo, Córdoba 0-0 Levante, Málaga 1-0 Celta, Epsanyol 2-1 Granada, Sevilla 0-0 Eibar, Atlético 0-1 Villarreal, Real Sociedad 1-1 Athletic. Monday night: Deportivo-Elche