Far beyond the pitch: football, nationalism and social media

Abstract

This paper analyzes how fans of the national teams of Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Iran, the so-called Group B of the 2018 World Cup, got involved with their respective official Facebook pages and how the fanpages related to stakeholders. The strategy adopted is based on a quantitative approach to the data flows produced, between April 1, 2017 and May 3, 2018, by fanpages and their users. The sample consists of 3,068 posts and close to 11 million interactions on the network. Results reveal that offline social contexts highlight the opportunities and the involvement bans, in a logic in which football goes far beyond the pitch. Data show that the network of these pages is basically formed by institutions, and only a human actor is part of the TOP 10 of influencers.

Keywords:
Media; Football; Fans; Social media; Facebook