Sports, society and collective identity in contemporary Catalonia Authors Carles Santacana Universitat de Barcelona Abstract In Catalonia, the introduction of modern sports in the late 19th century was considered tantamount to a quest to modernise society. Clubs organised by civil society played a key role in consolidating sports as both practice and entertainment, and in league with Catalanism these clubs sought to put forth Barcelona’s candidacy to host the 1924 Olympics. The Franco dictatorship subjugated all sports activities and strove to eliminate the Catalanist and democratic meaning of organisations like Futbol Club Barcelona. The resumption of democracy rekindled all sports, with the drive for “sports for everyone” and the international recognition of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Downloads PDF Issue No. 7 (2014): Catalan Historical Review Section English Version License Submission of a manuscript to Catalan Historical Review implies: that the work described has not been published before, including publication on the World Wide Web (except in the form of an Abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis); that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that all coauthors have agreed to its publication. The corresponding author signs for and accepts responsibility for releasing this material and will act on behalf of any and all co-authors regarding the editorial review and publication processes.If an article is accepted for publication in Catalan Historical Review, the authors (or other copyright holder) must transfer to the journal the copyright, which covers the right —not exclusive— to reproduce and distribute the article including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions microform, electronic form (offline, online) or any other reproductions of similar nature. Nevertheless, all articles in Catalan Historical Review will be available on the internet to any reader at no cost. The journal allows users to freely download, copy, print, distribute, search, and link to the full text of any article, provided the authorship and source of the published article is cited. The copyright owner’s consent does not include copying for new works, or resale.In these cases, the specific written permission of Catalan Historical Review must first be obtained.Authors are requested to create a link to the published article on the journal’s website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: ‘‘The original publication is available on LINK at http://revistes.iec.cat/chr/. Please use the appropriate URL for the article in LINK. Articles disseminated via LINK are indexed, abstracted, and referenced by many abstracting and information services, bibliographic networks, subscription agencies, library networks, and consortia. ISSN: 2013-4088 (electronic edition); 2013-407X (print edition)