PROJECT STATEMENT
Spain is a country where football can be considered the king of sports, especially men's football. Nearly every town and city has a local team that competes in lower divisions, either within the regional football federation or the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
The First Division enjoys extensive national and even international media coverage, but as you go down the categories, media interest decreases. However, as media attention wanes, the involvement and loyalty of the fans to their club grow stronger.
Teams competing in lower categories often reflect local culture: neighborhood players who grew up playing in the park or schoolyard, academy players from the club or clubs in the same category, and, of course, packed stands. The local football stadium is a crucial space for understanding life in towns, as it becomes a meeting place and a source of leisure.
Fans know each other, dedicating Sunday mornings to cheering for their team from the stands alongside lifelong friends or neighbors. Matches transcend being a mere sport, turning into a social gathering, a place to have a beer and spend time together. Many fans even travel to nearby towns and cities when their team plays away, fostering ties with people from other areas. Rivalries between localities emerge, or bonds of friendship are forged between fans and clubs—rivals on the field who embrace before the match with the joy of reuniting.
Attending a 2 RFEF stadium means being surrounded by devoted fans: drums, chants, complaints, encouragement, joy, and resignation fill the stands with people of all ages, from children to the elderly. The players defend their team’s colors and crest as if it were the last thing they’ll ever do.
Therefore, the protagonists of this project must be the fans and the players themselves. The goal is to observe through them the interactions before, during, and after the match, as well as to turn our gaze to the stands to see how the fans experience the game and interact with each other.
The chosen category for this project is the 2 RFEF, a highly competitive league where all teams strive to give their best to move up and get closer to the Second and First Divisions. The 2 RFEF is divided into five groups covering different regions of the country. The selected group is Group 5, which includes the areas of Madrid, Toledo, and Extremadura.
The reasons for selecting this group over others are, on the one hand, to narrow the scope of work, and on the other, due to geographical and mobility limitations.
