From consensus to tiki-taka: redefining Spain's nationalism in printed media through football

Abstract

To what extent football might be useful as an element which articulates national identity? This question constitutes the background on which this paper aims to provide an analysis of the relationship between the Spanish football national team and the idea of nation, within a context characterized by the increasing territorial and identity tension that affects the country, after the outbreak of a profound political, economic and social crisis that begun to give signs of a considerable importance during 2008. In order to fulfill this task, the victories of the Spanish national team in the Euro cup 2008 and in the World cup 2010 –without precedents in the Spanish history of the national team- have been chosen as case studies. Methodologically, the analysis is carried out by studying the frames employed in the coverage of two of the main Spanish newspapers: El País and El Mundo.