This Friday (21 March) Plataforma per la Llengua spoke at a symposium on minority languages and football organised by the Welsh Government at Canolfan Yr Urdd in Cardiff Bay. The forum, which lasted all day, analysed the relationship between sport and the growth and vitality of minority languages, and explored the possibilities of football to give people the chance to improve their skills in minority languages and increase their social use.  

Representing the organisation was its international officer Maria de Lluc Muñoz, who spoke at a round table on the use of languages at professional football clubs. Specifically, Muñoz analysed the relationship between Futbol Club Barcelona and the Catalan language alongside Mirjam Vellinga, from the Afûk association, which promotes the Frisian language and culture, who spoke about Sportclub Heerenveen from the Dutch top division; and Huw Birkhead, the Welsh tutor at Wrexham Association Football Club. He is funded by the National Centre for Learning Welsh and his job is to teach Welsh to the club's staff, players and fans, and to boost the importance of the Welsh language in all areas and spaces at Wrexham.  

In her speech, the international officer at Plataforma per la Llengua also briefly analysed language use on social media by Futbol Club Barcelona, RCD Espanyol, Girona FC, RCD Mallorca, Valencia CF and Villarreal CF, the six football clubs from Catalan-speaking territories that play in the Spanish top division. Together with Girona FC, Futbol Club Barcelona is the club with the best social media language policy. However, Plataforma per la Llengua's representative revealed that Barça still face challenges in meeting commitments they made some years ago to Plataforma per la Llengua. For example, although the club's official language is Catalan, it still operates its main Instagram and X accounts in English despite promising to switch. 

Regarding the other clubs, Muñoz explained that Valencia CF and Villarreal CF also have specific X accounts in Catalan, although their main channels are in Spanish. Meanwhile, RCD Espanyol and RCD Mallorca each have a single account on X in which they mix publications in Catalan and Spanish (with Catalan predominating in the case of the former, and Spanish predominating in the case of the later). Girona FC has its main account in Catalan and a second account in Spanish.  

For Plataforma per la Llengua, involving football clubs in protecting and promoting Catalan is strategic, as they are social references and a good linguistic example from them can have a very positive impact. In this sense, Muñoz recalled that the organisation managed to get Futbol Club Barcelona to support the campaign to achieve official status for Catalan in the European Union, and that the club's president, Joan Laporta, was personally involved in asking the institutions for this. The organisation has also participated in a training programme for workers at the club's youth development centre, La Masia, to improve the standard and, above all, the use of Catalan, both among members of the coaching staff and when they talk to the young people who live and train at the centre. 

A day to analyse the relationship between football, identity and language 

As well as Plataforma per la Llengua, representatives of associations from North Frisia and the Basque Country also took part in the symposium. The president of the European Language Equality Network (ELEN), Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, professor of Linguistic Diversity and Cultural Industries at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, also took part. The Urdd Gobaith Cymru (Welsh Youth League) shared international and community experiences of football in Welsh based on the "Fel Merch" project, and there were round tables and talks studying the international success of Welsh national teams and the Welsh language; the relationship between politics, football and identity; language and football on social media; and language use by club fans.