ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Ramon Llopis-Goig analyses racism and xenophobia in Spanish football. He shows that both issues continue to be serious areas for concern, as has been demonstrated by a large number and also high-profile attacks on various well-known Black professional players in recent years. He argues that the mediated incidents are only the tip of the iceberg and that the problem, which has persisted since the 1990s, and is deeply ingrained in football grounds. This chapter examines the evolution of racism in Spanish football and pays particular attention to its most recent manifestations and the most important legal frameworks. It also offers an ideal-typical sequential model (in a Weberian sense) that reconstructs the almost formulaic series of actions and reactions in the aftermath of racist incidents in the context of professional league matches. Subsequently, his critical analysis focuses on some selected initiatives that have been rolled out over the last two decades and aim to tackle the problem. After examining the power different stakeholders hold to tackle various forms of discrimination, the chapter concludes with a series of critical reflections on the main obstacles that stand in the way of eradicating the issue at hand.
