El control de la violencia deportiva en el fútbol profesional español (1985-995). [Sporting violence curving in Spanish professional football (1985-1995)].

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze how exerted and allowed violence was reduced in Spanish professional football in the nineties decade. In order to do so, a qualitative research was undertaken carrying on 31 in-depth interviews, including eleven footballers, eleven football managers, five journalists and three referees, all active during the period under study, and one historian. A theoretical sample was designed, and participants recruited through a snow ball technique. The interviews show that violence was part of the professional ethics, and that its reduction was made possible through the hardening of the discipline and the pressure from the media. This pacification was part of a new discourse of show business linked to the commodification process in place. Footballers’ identity was in turn less defined by a traditional masculinity, having to develop new cognitive skills to deal with the new context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)