Clubes y selecciones nacionales de fútbol. La dimensión etnoterritorial del fútbol español

Abstract

The first part of this paper shows, from a general viewpoint, the historical simultaneity in the emergence and development of football and the building of modern Nation-States, as well as their next differentiation in the socio-economical context of globalization. This differentiation or institutional separation implies an alteration and readjustment of the identity dynamic associated to this sport. Above this historical and conceptual background we consider a research on the ethnoterritorial dimension of the Spanish football. After dedicating the second part of the article to study some ethnoterritorial keys of his historic development, in the third part we present the analysis of the Spanish case. The study is carried out in four ways. First, we present some data about the interest in football in the Spanish society. Second, we analyze the capacity of identity adscription of the Spanish First Division football clubs, in general, and we analyze in more detail the case of F.C. Barcelona. Third, we examine the symbolic ambivalence of the Spanish national football team. Fourth, we present some data about support to the creation of regional sportive teams, as well as assessment of international participation in the case of Catalan national teams.