How the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) plays the game: communicate football's social responsibility

Abstract

In this article, we seek to analyze how the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) communicates on the social network Facebook, considering social responsibility issues. Based on the idea that sport in general, and football, in particular, can play an essential role in social transformation, we try to understand whether football's governing body in Europe has used digital social networks to communicate actions aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To achieve this objective, we use a mixed methodology, which determines the nature of the research as quali-quantitative with the use of the content analysis technique in a particular case study since it specifically analyzes the UEFA Facebook page and 257 publications made during the year 2021. Thus, we seek to understand if the institution plays the game concerning social responsibility and what contents and objectives stand out in this communication.