Paper Short Abstract:

The paper explores the relationship between football and the last years' demands for independence in Catalonia through the political positions of two key football clubs of the region: F.C. Barcelona, related to secessionist positions, and R.C.D. Español associated with Spanish unionist tendencies.

Paper Abstract:

This paper presents ongoing ethnographic research on the relationship between football and the self-determination process in Catalonia in the last decade. Football is the most important sport in Spain and is a contested political terrain at very different levels. However, its paramount importance lies in being a crucial platform for the expression and contention of national identities. Historically, this has been present in the conflict between Catalan national identities and the Spanish nation-state, which is symbolically represented in the confrontation between the two most powerful football clubs: Real Madrid and Futbol Club Barcelona. Since their origins in the XX century, these clubs represented the dispute between the two cities' political and economic power and the symbolic representation of the political and national struggles from hegemonic Spanish and peripheral Catalan nationalisms. But during the political process of independence demands in Catalonia since 2012 until the celebration of a secessionist non-legal referendum on October 1st, 2017-, the polarization between secessionist and non-secessionist positions inside Catalonia will be reflected in the difference of position of the two key football clubs of the region: F.C. Barcelona, related at secessionist positions, and Real Club Deportivo Español, historically associated with Spanish unionist tendencies.

The research reflects that there is indeed a connection between being an F.C. Barcelona fan and supporting the self-determination movement and being an R.C.D. Espanyol fan and not supporting the movement, but it also shows that some supporters do not share this simplistic political classification.