Jump to content

Club versus Country? A study into football fan loyalty


fanloyaltystudy
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone,

 

Apologies for clogging up the board, but I am hoping you can help.

 

I am conducting an academic study into football fan loyalty, in particular looking at loyalties towards both club and national football teams. I am also investigating the role of national identity in this process and have developed a survey (see the below link) to address these issues.

 

In order to gain a representative sample, four teams have been randomly selected from each of the major four divisions, and the Saints came out of the hat! I would therefore be hugely grateful if you could donate no more than 10 minutes of your time to completing the survey: it is simple to complete via drop down menus and tick boxes. In order to be eligible to take part you must:

 

• Be of English origin;

• Be at least 18 years of age.

 

No contact details will be collected and the survey is fully anonymous.

 

Many thanks for your time and I promise not to start any other threads to clog up your message board. The survey can be accessed at:

 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/fanloyaltysurvey

 

Cheers,

 

David

 

PS With extra apologies to the admin team: I tried to PM first for permission but I was not able to do so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Completed the questionnaire. However, there was little in there which really put you on the spot over which you prefer. Considering a managerial decision which is very likely to happen within 2 yeats I would end up being highly ambivalent over the national teams fortunes.

 

I support England at the moment but never ever at the expense of my club.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I think this thing is completely flawed. Saying that you will continue to be affiliated with England is nothing like saying you will continue to be affiliated with Southampton. Everyone English (likely) supports England - that's completely different from a club.

 

I would however opt for Saints to win just about anything over England winning anything. Mostly down to the people who play for England, and the way the fans are treated at club level in comparison to country level.

 

Being a saint is being part of a community - the national team will never have that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

im not at all interested in the england national team. in fact, major tournaments where i'm supposed to go down the boozer, put an england shirt on and pretend to be a die hard fan winds me up!! if you offered me a ticket for free to an england game at wembley i'd tell you to do one. however, there has been times when i would walk across broken glass for a ticket to watch saints.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

im not at all interested in the england national team. in fact, major tournaments where i'm supposed to go down the boozer, put an england shirt on and pretend to be a die hard fan winds me up!! if you offered me a ticket for free to an england game at wembley i'd tell you to do one. however, there has been times when i would walk across broken glass for a ticket to watch saints.

 

Not sure why that would wind you up so much mate? I've always seen it as an occasion, a novelty. A break from maybe the good or bad that is happening with your daily club. I've always enjoyed the gatherings in pubs to watch england, when it's a big game it's the next best thing to being there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still get up at 3am on a sunday morning to check if Saints have won....but I couldn't be arsed to watch England in the World Cup. That's because Saints are in my blood, whereas when I have bothered to watch England all I see is a bunch of overpaid prima donnas who don't give a sh1t. Maybe if they showed some pride, then I would regain my interest.

I don't think I would ever support anyone other than Saints, but if I felt the players we had were as indifferent to the club as the current international mob are to their country,...then I would definitely lose some of my interest too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I think this thing is completely flawed. Saying that you will continue to be affiliated with England is nothing like saying you will continue to be affiliated with Southampton. Everyone English (likely) supports England - that's completely different from a club.

 

I would however opt for Saints to win just about anything over England winning anything. Mostly down to the people who play for England, and the way the fans are treated at club level in comparison to country level.

 

Being a saint is being part of a community - the national team will never have that.

 

Just to be slightly annoying. We say we would rather Saints won everything above England, Premiership, FA Cup etc. However should we have a team which did that would it not be likely that wed have a heavy presence in the England team? Would this alter your view at all?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to be slightly annoying. We say we would rather Saints won everything above England, Premiership, FA Cup etc. However should we have a team which did that would it not be likely that wed have a heavy presence in the England team? Would this alter your view at all?

 

A very good point and obviously our interest in the England team might well be swayed by the prescence of a few Saints players.

 

My current attitude to the team is very negative, mainly due to the attitude of the prima donnas who represented us back at the WC. Having said that I could never place the needs of the England team over or above the needs of Saints.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am incredibly proud of my club, and incredibly proud of my country. I will support both through thick and thin. People should never be embarrassed to be British just as they should never be embarrassed to be a Saint. This is the greatest, most diverse country in the world and every day I'm thankful I was born into it... and particularly in Southampton!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's always club, if you're a long-term fan, born in the area etc. Can understand it being country if you're a southerner supporting Man Utd because they were good when you grew up. Always the same though generally, people like to feel part of something and tend towards the smaller group. I bet most Americans put state before country as well.

 

But that's because (like Canada) the United States is a federal system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...