Football in the context of social change
An interview with Ramón Llopis-Goig, author of the second volume of the
new Football in an Enlarged Europe book series published by Palgrave
Macmillan, on the interaction between society and football in Spain.
With the magical decade of Barça and the victories of the national team, Spanish football has been written about a lot in
recent years. To what extent does this book bring an added value to everything that has been said?
RAMÓN LLOPIS-GOIG: It is true that this last decade has been magical for Spanish football, due to the success of both the
Spanish national team and the FC Barcelona. In both cases, their success has lasted for a long period of time and was achieved
by using an extraordinary playing style. This latter aspect is very important, and the book dedicates a chapter on its
development.
Overall, rather than adding something new to what has already been said, this book sets out to do something that, from my
point of view, had not been done before. In Spain, many books have been published about the most famous footballers, the
history of the most important clubs, or the recent victories of the Spanish national team. The novelty of this book is that it
goes beyond the current stories or issues that the majority of these books address, by providing a sociological study of the
evolution of Spanish football in the past twenty years.
Precisely, your book is about ‘social change’. How is football linked to social change in
contemporary Spain? Does it precede/anticipate or reflect/follow it? Could you give an
example or two?
RAMÓN LLOPIS-GOIG: The purpose of the book is to explain the evolution of Spanish
football in the context of the social changes that have taken place in Spanish society in recent
years. My intention was to examine whether the same tendencies and currents of social
change that have appeared in Spanish society have also occurred in the space of football. The
answer is that in some cases it has, while in others it hasn’t.
Ramón Llopis-Goig
One example: the commercialisation processes of social life are probably much more
developed in football than in other areas of society, which means that football seems to be
anticipating what could happen in other settings. And an example in the opposite sense:
Spanish society has experienced great changes in gender relations that have produced more
heterogeneity and plurality. However, football is a space in which the masculine hegemony
continues to be reproduced, and where there are still unacceptable levels of machismo.
In 2015 Spanish society also finds itself immersed in dramatic political change. Do you think
the advent of new and different political parties will in turn have an impact on football?
RAMÓN LLOPIS-GOIG: Even though we still don’t know the exact electoral programmes of the two new political parties that
have emerged in the Spanish political arena, they have, over the past few months, launched some ideas and proposals
concerning football that could affect important aspects of it. Podemos has questioned the distribution of the television rights,
and it seems that they might propose some type of change concerning the national teams. They have also said they are in
favour of including women’s football games in the Quiniela pools, giving it access to this part of the revenues. And they seem
willing to reduce ticket prices and fix a salary cap for footballers. Coinciding on some of these points, Ciudadanos has also
proposed establishing a salary cap and a fairer system for distributing football broadcasting rights. They also say there should
be greater control over the clubs to bring them up to date on their social security and tax obligations.
What remains to be seen is to what degree these proposals will take shape in their respective electoral programmes for the
national elections that will probably be held at the end of 2015. Taking into account the influence these parties have acquired
in Spanish public opinion, it is quite likely that some of these questions will be applied and become reality. From my point of
view, some of them, though not all, would be extremely positive.
A word about the future: what do you think will be the most important evolutions or changes
ahead for Spanish football? Is it in a financial bubble that is going to explode sooner or later?
Will it undergo a feminisation process?
RAMÓN LLOPIS-GOIG: Of course, the future of Spanish football will be played out on these two
fronts: the economic question and the gender issue. These are two big challenges, and it is no
surprise that the two emerging political parties have expressed ideas and proposals in these
directions. The economic control over the teams has increased in the past three years; we cannot
say that nothing has been done. But I’m afraid there is still a lot to do to avoid a second bubble
here. Regarding gender, let me answer with a recent anecdote: after the elimination of the Spanish
women’s national team from the World Cup in Canada –it was the first time they had managed to
qualify for the final tournament – all 23 players signed an open letter in which they rebelled
against the obsolete training methods of their coach, who had held that position for 27 years. I
think that says it all.
www.free-project.eu, July 2015.