Foreshadowing Apocalypse: Football, Politics, and Culture in Spain, 1920–36

Abstract

Spanish football was a barometer for Spanish society between 1920 and 1936. It was a pivotal time for the game as it built on its foundations in the last decade of the nineteenth century to become more politicised within the fabric of Spain’s cultural identity. Critical developments within football took place during an era which began with the struggling Monarchy of Alfonso XIII, and concluded with Spain’s descent into Civil War. Football, Culture, Politics and Violence became intertwined to blemish the game’s reputation and image. The article focusses on four key case studies; the Spanish team’s participation in the Antwerp Olympic Games of 1920; the closure, by Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship, of FC Barcelona’s Les Corts stadium in 1925; the advent of a national, professional football league in 1929; and the last season before the Civil War, 1935-36, when Spain stood on the brink of implosion. They reveal that football is inextricably linked to historically contested notions of Spanish history and political culture, and is a vehicle for the complex representations of alternative nationalisms which lie at the core of Spain’s centre-region dichotomy. The approach of the study is inter-disciplinary, drawing from literature, the arts, history and political ideology to elucidate the complex constructions and representations of the game during a period of seismic change.