From ‘socios’ to ‘hyper-consumers’: an empirical examination of the impact of commodification on Spanish football fans

Abstract

Traditionally, the Spanish game has been analysed in scholarly studies in terms of the effect of crowd violence or the nationalist and regionalist implications of the Spanish clubs. Latterly analysis has also extended to include gender issues (and the process of constructing masculinity, in particular) and a spate of studies dealing with racism and xenophobia, both of which have blighted the Spanish game in recent years. Little attention, however, has been given over to the study of the effects on fans of the rapidly expanding influence of commercialization on football in Spain. With this gap in mind, this study sets out to examine, from an empirical perspective, the social consequences of the commodification processes of football in the discourse of the sport’s fans.