https://www.ecaeurope.com/news/eca-report-highlights-the-changing-face-of-football-fandom/The report quoted by the Real Madrid president to justify changing the length of games and the "super" league
Based on survey responses, the football fanbase can be separated into six distinct groups, which are categorised by their primary routes into the sport:
- 27%: FOMO Followers
- Moderate fans – claim to follow the sport closely, but don’t identify as “huge fans” and rather follow football for social currency
- 19%: Main Eventers
- Moderate fans – keep up to date with news and watch on TV, with engagement increasing around big matches/tournaments
- 19%: Tag Alongs
- Lightest football fans, with low emotional and intellectual engagement, and interest prompted by friends/family
- 14%: Club Loyalists
- Highly engaged, long-term football fans who are emotionally invested in their club, which helps provide their identity
- 11%: Football Fanatics
- Follow football in its entirety, with strong emotional engagement – football provides a sense of community which is key to their enjoyment
- 11%: Icon Imitators
- Moderate to strong football interest, which is increasing, following specific players and playing regularly themselves - preference for playing than watching
Given the fact that you are reading this on Charlton Life you, I guess, most likely fall in club loyalist or football fanatics
The report says that "T
he wide-ranging report, which surveyed 14,000 respondents across seven different markets globally" so may well not reflect English football culture from which most, but not all, of us are drawn.
How much of this is a "change" I don't know. I know people who fall in to all groups but it was ever thus in my limited experience.
Full report here
https://www.ecaeurope.com/media/4816/eca-fan-of-the-future-defining-modern-football-fandom_website.pdf
Comments
I fully agree with Henry that fan culture here may be different from elsewhere, and good research would be designed to tease this out and weigh up the differences (although e.g in CZ the response was just as furious as in UK, as it was seen to further marginalise clubs from smaller countries); and indeed it is very odd that it did not include China (or SE Asia, Japan) or the US. That is a baffling set of omissions.
Edit; I found another page on MTM's website that led me to more people than the two that appear on their front page, including people with MR experience, so they do indeed have to bear the primary responsibility for the design and implementation of the research.
The actual segments sound pretty realistic, though not quite sure how they justify the ESL nonsense!
Agree with Prague that it seems a major ommission not to include USA and China.
And to quantify properly, you'd also need to know what % of the population of the country fall into the segments, as there will be a large chunk of non-football fans. (Just seen this is in full report.)
On the Qs @Stig posted, it's interesting they include a neutral option. I prefer to design surveys where people can't sit on the fence - give a scale of four or six without a middle option. Makes for a more robust segmentation when you are combining and analysing the data.
It very much feels like a survey put together by a champage Arsenal fan who sees the match as a networking opportunity as much as a sporting event.
Agreed - and no middle option can lead to the person completing the questionnaire being disengaged. That's why I said it depends on the subject - emotive topics need to give the person a middle option 'opt out' (or, as I suggest with an even scale an actual opt-out if the person genuinely doesn't know or have an opinion).