Mindshare and Hogarth: LALIGA’s MOOD

For over a decade, LALIGA and Spain’s top football clubs have stood firmly against racism and hate. While progress has been made on the pitch, the battle has extended beyond the stadium, into the fast-moving, emotionally charged world of social media.

It was time to take the fight to where hate was spreading fastest.

Online abuse has a devastating impact, particularly on players already under intense scrutiny. Analysis revealed that out of more than 8 million social conversations, a staggering 38% contained hate speech. Patterns were clear:

• Spikes during high-stakes matches like derbies or Clásicos
• Surges after controversial decisions
• Racial attacks when players or coaches were targeted

If LALIGA wanted to change the game, it had to clean up the conversation. Mindshare and Hogarth created “MOOD” — the Monitor for the Observation of Hate in Sport — a world-first AI tool that detects and analyses hate speech in real time during every match and matchday.

Using 100,000+ linguistic rules and sentiment algorithms, “MOOD” classified posts by emotional tone and context, producing a weekly ‘MOOD Score’. The more violent the language, the higher the score.

LALIGA shared the findings across its 230 million followers on 16 platforms, from TikTok and YouTube to Instagram and X. “MOOD” called out hateful behaviour and celebrated positivity. And proved that online abuse wouldn’t go unnoticed.

The impact

• Hate speech dropped from 38% to 18% — a 47% reduction
• Racist language fell from 11% to less than 1% — a 90% decrease
• 45m+ conversations monitored
• 10m+ hate speech instances identified
• 5m+ impressions, 2m+ video views
• Featured in 200+ media outlets, including El País, Forbes, and El Mundo

“MOOD” didn’t just reflect the tone of football, it reshaped it. And now, it’s expanding beyond the game.

The Spanish Government is adopting the tool to monitor hate speech across society, scaling its capabilities for wider cultural impact.