The aim of this article is to analyze public diplomacy efforts of noncentral governments through sport. The object of the study is Catalonia, a Spanish autonomous region with its own government but without power over national foreign affairs. Public diplomacy links up with relationship building between governments of nation-states and other nation-states and its citizens. However, noncentral governments, as Catalonia, and other organizations with powerful national identity symbols, such as sports organizations, also develop public relations activities to build an international reputation of regions. In the field of sports, some of these territories were given the name of sport countries in the 2003 Barcelona Conference. This article concludes by considering the notion of soft power as coined by Nye to frame the role of sports diplomacy efforts of regional actors.
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