Sports and Politics in Spain – Football and Nationalist Attitudes within the Basque Country and Catalonia

Abstract

Nowadays, basing ourselves on the perspective of the ongoing process of globalisation, the mutual interaction between sports and both sociological and political dimensions cannot be denied. Currently, football is the global and widespread sport. Indeed, it has practically turned into a religion and has become a strong national identity builder in many countries (mainly in South America, Africa and parts of Europe). It is also the most important sport in the almost federalised and pluri-national Spanish state. However, it has not only been used traditionally to strengthen the Spanish national identity building process, but also to promote internal peripheral nationalism. Therefore, this research will analyse and substantiate the interaction between football and the regional and national cleavages (analysing the creation of national identities) in the Basque Country and Catalonia (within the Spanish periphery), compared to Madrid (as the main representative of the Spanish political centre). Thus, the Autonomous Communities (regional) selections, and the main clubs (Athletic de Bilbao, F. C. Barcelona) capacity for promoting national identity or nationalist attributed values, will be explored.