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SPORT

Why is rugby not a popular sport in Spain?

Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who actually played rugger for his country, recently said that “being a rugby player in Spain was like being a bullfighter in Japan”. Why is it that ‘el rugby’ never took off in sports-mad Spain?

Published: 28 October 2023 10:31 CEST
why is rugby not played in spain
Why is rugby not a popular sport in Spain, and are attitudes changing? (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP)

The first rugby match ever played in Spain reportedly took place in 1911 in the Galician city of La Coruña in the northwest of the country, when crewmembers from two British ships docked at the port played each other in a Gloucester vs Liverpool face-off. 

That same year, the first Spanish rugby team – Club Deportivo Español – played French side Patrie in Barcelona. 

Rugby’s early beginnings in Spain seemed to be following in the footsteps of football, which was also brought over by British workers stationed in Spain in the late 1800s. 

READ ALSO: The Scottish roots of Spain’s oldest football club

In 1923, Spain’s Rugby Federation (FER) was established, which led to the first rugby tournament held in the country in 1925, el Campeonato de España de Rugby.

But as balonpié (the Spanish name football goes by) began to be played in every corner of Spain, and Real Madrid consolidated itself as the best football club in Europe in the 1950s, rugby remained a minority sport throughout most of the 20th century.

Nowadays it can’t claim to be among the top five favourite sports of Spaniards, with basketball, tennis, motor sports, cycling, athletics and even handball all having bigger followings.

Why did rugby never become a popular sport in Spain as it did in neighbouring France?

“I don’t know why rugby never took off in Spain because Spaniards love team sports and rugby is played in certain parts of the country such as Valladolid, Madrid, Barcelona, Guipúzcoa and Seville,” Spanish-English journalist John Carlin told sports daily AS back in 2010. 

“Perhaps it’s because Spain is a country where it’s very hot and the pitches are hard, something unsuitable for the big blows which take place in rugby.”

Carlos Bardem, brother of Hollywood actor Javier, who also played for Spain’s national youth rugby team in the 80s, agrees with Carlin’s statement regarding the fields. 

“The main problem when I played was the fields, which were mostly gravel. Going in to tackle or being knocked down on a dirt field was something that dissuaded people and it was difficult to create a youth base. 

Spain playing South Africa during the only Rugby World Cup they’ve ever participated in in 1999. (Photo by ODD ANDERSEN / AFP)
 

For Manuel Moriche Mostajo, a former Spanish rugby union player and commentator, “a lack of support from the State” as well as rugby not being played at school level, mean that it’s a sport that survives in Spain “because there’s a handful of loonies who play it and break their backs for it”. 

Other reasons that have been given by rugby lovers and sports journalists for Spanish rugby not getting the attention it deserves include the lack of coverage it receives on TV in Spain, Spaniards’ obsession with football and even the fact that the average Spaniard isn’t tall and tends to be slim, traits that aren’t ideal for such a physical sport. 

And then there’s the money, or lack thereof, which prevent Spanish rugby from taking the leap from amateur level to professionalism. 

Alfonso Mandado, president of Spain’s Rugby Federation between 2001 and 2012, said during his tenure that “the only formula for players to be able to dedicate themselves entirely to rugby, above their jobs or studies, is money”.

“We lack sponsors at national and at club level. And also more attention from the media, the showcase to attract sponsors.”

This hasn’t prevented Spain from gradually progressing up the ranks into the second European tier – what’s known as Six Nations B – alongside countries such as Portugal, Georgia, Russia, the Netherlands and Romania.

In fact, Spain has qualified for the last two Rugby World Cups. 

However, on both occasions they’ve been disqualified by World Rugby before the tournaments began for knowingly fielding foreign-born players who had not spent enough time in Spain to qualify for citizenship, a decision which discredits the federation rather than the players. 

It was referred to in the Spanish press as “the day Spanish rugby hit rock bottom” or “Spain keeps stepping on the same rake”. 

Spain’s now ex-coach Santiago Santos told El Mundo “some cheats have dashed the hopes of Spanish rugby”, frustrated about the fact that the Spanish Lions (as they are nicknamed) had beaten teams like Portugal or Uruguay who did qualify for the 2023 RWC.

Logically, the head of the Spanish Rugby Federation at the time, Alfonso Feijóo, resigned. 

Spain were thrashed by Argentina 3-62 during the pre-World Cup friendly at Atlético’s Wanda Metropolitano in August 2023. (Photo by Pierre-Philippe MARCOU / AFP)
 

This avoidable sporting gaffe also reflects how the REF has tried to fast-track Spain’s road to rugby recognition by ‘poaching’ players from abroad – for the most part French-born and developed players with Spanish heritage – something which isn’t necessarily harmful for growing a sport like rugby in Spain, if done according to the rules. 

Had Spain squared up against the likes of the All Blacks, the Wallabies, the Springboks or the Pumas at the 2023 tournament in Paris, there is no doubt that more young Spaniards would have tuned in, learnt more about the game and perhaps decided to try it for themselves. 

Despite the latest major setback, there are signs the sport is growing more popular among Spaniards and that the quality of play is improving. 

The national side has been ranked as high as 15th in the world, their main club league the División de Honor is more competitive, and they’ve even played at Atlético de Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano stadium.

As the 2023 Rugby World Cup draws to a close, Los Leones have already set their sights on the next tournament that’ll take place in Australia in 2027, and which will most likely include 24 teams rather than the current 20, increasing Spain’s chances of qualifying for their second RWC (their only qualification was in 1999).

At club level, the REF has decided its efforts will be focused on transforming the División de Honor from an amateur to a professional competition where players can make a living from the game alone, something that isn’t currently the case. 

With an estimated 12,000 Spanish children under 12 now playing rugby thanks to campaigns that are promoting the sport, REF’s hope is that they’ll be able to ‘Spanishize’ their top league in the coming years, as the División de Honor is currently made up mostly of Argentinian players.

The only way is up now for Spanish rugby.

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LEARNING SPANISH

Do people in Spain actually use the formal ‘usted’ form anymore?

It was once common in Spain, but nowadays the formal 'usted' (you) form is rarely used besides in some pretty specific situations. So why is the more informal 'tú' form becoming ever more dominant among Spaniards?

Published: 14 May 2024 11:12 CEST
Updated: 14 May 2024 12:58 CEST
Do people in Spain actually use the formal 'usted' form anymore?

If you live in Spain or spend time here, you’ve probably heard the word tú (you) a fair bit. It’s one of the very first words you learn when learning Spanish, and pretty crucial (obviously).

But you may have also occasionally heard Spanish speakers using the word usted (also meaning you) from time to time too.

It’s far more likely that you hear tú in Spain, but perhaps if you’ve heard a respectful younger Spaniard talking to an elderly neighbour, or their boss on the phone, or even watched something like a political debate or interview on TV, you probably heard usted used.

Similarly, if you have noticed usted being used while out and about in Spain, it could well have been from the large Latino population in Spain, and it’s likely that you heard Colombians, Venezuelans or other Latinos saying it.

READ ALSO: Why Spain has allowed regional languages to be spoken in Congress

Though they do sometimes use it, the use of usted among Spaniards is slightly different, much rarer, and saved for select circumstances.

In fact, it’s becoming so rare in Spain that some feel its usage is dying out completely, if it hasn’t already.

So, what’s going on here?

Usted vs tú

Firstly, let’s start with a definition. According to the Real Academia Española (RAE) usted is a:

“Form which, in the nominative, in the vocative or preceded by a preposition, designates the person addressed by the speaker or writer… [used] generally as a polite, respectful or distancing address.”

Eg) disculpe, ¿sabe usted dónde está el hospital? (excuse me, do you know where the hospital is?)

In understanding the usted form specifically in Castilian Spanish – Spanish spoken in parts of Latin America it can be slightly or very different, depending where you are – that last part of the definition is key: “generally as a polite, respectful or distancing address.”

It’s worth noting that with usted the verbs are conjugated as if they were third-person singular (el as in he or ella as in she), so it’s usted sabe instead of tú sabes. 

Usted is a form used to show respect or seniority: that you understand there’s a hierarchy (in which usted is at the top, so for example when speaking to your boss or someone interviewing you for a job), but also occasionally to mark social distance between two people (because tú could be considered overly friendly in certain situations) and then, finally, it’s also used more generally to show respect in terms of seniority, like when speaking to an elderly person.

Tú vs usted in Spain

Respectfulness is the key word here. In short, if you hear usted used in Spain, it’s probably for a reason.

In Spain, usted is generally only ever used with authority figures, the elderly and in some formal and/or professional settings, but many Spaniards will just skip over it and use the tú form. Tú can be used with everyone else: your friends, partners, neighbours (around your age or younger), siblings, co-workers, kids, and other people you don’t know but are roughly your age or younger.

In fact, in some cases people might actually be offended if you use the usted form because you could be implying that they’re old, a mistake or social faux pas that is somewhat similar to calling a woman señora and then being quickly corrected (usually with a scornful look) that is should be señorita.

In such cases, they may say trátame de tú (treat me as ‘less formal’ you) or me puedes tutear. 

The verb tutear actually means to speak to someone using the more informal tú form. 

The only part of Spain where the plural form of usted – ustedes – is used all the time is the Canary Islands and some parts of southern Andalusia, where locals prefer this form instead of the standard Castillian vosotros (you in plural). That doesn’t mean that they say usted instead of tú in the singular form, this exception only applies to the plural.

Do people actually use the formal usted form anymore in Spain?

Less and less. It’s dying out in Spain, has been for a while, and is now reserved for those rare occasions outlined above. It’s thought by linguistic experts that it began dying out in the 1970s and 1980s.

The use of usted in Castillian Spanish is now very rarely used in casual conversation. In many cases can only be heard in very formal or ceremonial settings, such as in judiciary, the army, or in certain academic culture contexts or events.

In day to day life, usted only really shows up (besides the examples given above) in advertising, something that generally needs to reflect cultural attitudes and keep up with modern day parlance, so now only really uses the usted form in some specific campaigns for financial services or medical products. As such, depending on the context and age of the people involved, you could also hear usted in spoken Spanish in banks and doctors or hospitals.

An article in Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia entitled ‘Usted is dying’ published back in 2012 looked into the disappearance of the formal form in detail. The fact it was published over a decade ago means that, if anything, the trends it discusses have deepened since then and usted is even lesser used than it was then.

“The use of usted has been reserved for very formal campaigns where a kind of protocol respect for the interlocutor is maintained,” Josep Maria Ferrara, founder and creative director of the Paulov advertising agency, told La Vanguardia.

But this was not the case twenty or thirty years ago. A study on the use of tú and usted in advertising at the end of the 1980s showed that the usted form was used for the most part and that only 11 percent of the advertisements analysed used the tú form.

Changing world, changing language?

So, what changed? Secundino Valladares, professor of Anthropology at the Madrid’s Complutense University, says that Spaniards have embraced tú to such an extent “that the phenomenon is now unstoppable; young people, educated in ‘tuteo’ [the use of the tú form] are sweeping to victory with the tú, and as society is dominated by the value of youth… many older people feel flattered if you tú them,” he said.

In Spain in the 1940s and 1950s the usted form was still well established in many parent-child relationships, and in teacher-student relationships until well into the 1970s. But a changing world and progressive, more egalitarian political ideas seems to be partly responsible for the change. Of course, in Spain, this linguistic shift may have something to do with the changing power and interpersonal dynamics of Spanish society as it transitioned from dictatorship to democracy around this time.

Headline by Spanish radio station Cope reads “Speaking to the teacher at school with the usted form must be brought back”.

Sociologist Antonio López pointed to this trend: “The tendency towards a more egalitarian society, towards the loss of hierarchical distances in social relations, means that it does not seem right to establish prior distances and that is why tú is used instead of usted, which for many denotes distance.”

In that sense, the decline in the formal usted form can be understood both in terms of the laid back nature of Castilian Spanish compared with countries in Latin America, but also in terms of language reflecting social change, similarly to how today, in modern day Spain, there is debate over the use of inclusive language and the dominance of the masculine form in Spanish grammar.

READ ALSO: What is Spain’s inclusive language debate and why is it so controversial?

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