Of soccer in Ecuador: A sociopolitical analysis of the “Player number 12” applied to the capital

Abstract

Sociology and Sports have always been a complex combination from the study branches of Social Sciences, in the current amalgam of infinite studies within multiple fields, sports practices and their derivations (understood as effects) have taken a leap to other types of complexities that go beyond the body and competition logics that we had been taught within the role of the game. There is a very rich potential that responds through sport to various phenomena because it reflects other social and cultural behaviors that were not considered in the past.

For decades, several and various scholars on sport and society, began to investigate these issues, and also incurred in the office of research related to history, but also in violence in soccer to connect them from the social branches. In this sense, this analysis aims from the socio-political sphere to understand both the context and the dimensions of that ‘Player Number 12’ (fans / bars) in the city of Quito, as well as expressing other guidelines to understand the dimensions of violence from the perspective of Social Sciences. This research corresponds to a process dating from 2002 to 2020, and methodologically combines qualitative components, as well as the work with stakeholders of the fans of Liga, Nacional, Aucas and also analyzes source-secondary documents, and the press of the city. The main conclusion is that: the phenomena related to violence and football are not a product always linked to the bars or inflated, but also respond to other types of senses and logics that are often ignored or disseminated with explosiveness. Today we attend resignification exercises that should be considered and earn an academic space as we will see below.