Spanish football clubs on social media: Use of social networking accounts in languages other than Spanish

Abstract

The objective of this article is to examine the utilization of social media accounts in languages other than Spanish by Spanish football clubs, within the framework of a broader inquiry into the social media visibility of sports entities. The research employs a strictly quantitative methodology, centered on the content analysis of the social media accounts belonging to the 20 clubs participating in the 2023/24 season of LaLiga EA Sports. The findings reveal that virtually all clubs manage accounts in languages other than Spanish. Among these football clubs, X emerges as the predominant social network for managing multiple accounts in different languages. Notably, following Spanish, English stands out as the most prevalent language, although other languages such as French, Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese are increasingly gaining prominence.