In my diploma work I explored the football country of Spain. I focused on two of its regions, the Basque Country and Catalonia, and the Athletic Club and FC Barcelona. I was particularly interested in the position of both football clubs in relation to the regions they came from. I focused on three aspects: political, social and economic.
For further understanding of my diploma work, the introductory chapter presents the concepts of Basque, Catalonia, football, politics, identity autonomy and nationalism. I then researched and explained the history of Spanish politics of both regions and clubs. I also added an outline of the Spanish political system.
In my diploma work, I used a qualitative research method. Methods was based on research into existing literature and resources and their analysis. I used mostly secondary sources. I studied books, materials, professional articles, websites and video. The literature and sources from which I drew information are professional. They were mostly works by domestic and foreign authors, professional articles and websites.
In the framework of research and analyses I came to the following conclusions. The Catalan national aspirations were based on peaceful protests and warnings of their existence, while the Basque national aspirations also involved the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna terrorist group - ETA. The two clubs are quite similar from a social, political and economic point of view to the region because they share fairly similar goals and orientations. Both clubs do not express political opinions publicly. However, they are big promoters of the regions.
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