The Attractiveness of National and International Football Leagues: Perspectives of Fans of “Star Clubs” and “Underdogs”

Abstract

The goal of this study is to determine what factors affect the attractiveness of both national football leagues and the Champions League from the perspective of fans, and how these factors are perceived by fans of clubs at the top and bottom of the league standing. This is of interest as there are differences between the financial resources available to the clubs and leagues. Based on a review of sport consumer behaviour literature, we propose that four determinants are relevant to a league's attractiveness: stadium atmosphere, international success of the clubs, uniqueness of dominating clubs and perceived competitive balance. A total of 1,404 committed fans of 12 selected football teams from the English Premier League and German Bundesliga participated in the study. The research model was tested using partial least squares. The results show that the determinants significantly predict perceived attractiveness, and that even fans of financially privileged and successful clubs concede that perceived competitive balance is necessary for attractiveness to be maintained.

Notes

1. For a detailed description of these measures, see Brandes and Franck (2007) and the references we provide.

2. Manchester United has won ten national championships between 1993/1994 and 2008/2009, FC Bayern Munich nine, Glasgow Rangers nine, Celtic Glasgow seven (both Scotland), Olympique Lyon seven (France), FC Barcelona and Real Madrid six (Spain), Juventus Turin five, Inter and AC Milan four (Italy).

3. Also see, for example, the discussions of football fans in on-line blogs and chat rooms such as http://www.premierleagueforum.com and http://www.bundesligaforen.de.

4. A pre-test carried out for the purpose of this study showed that fans are able to evaluate the competitive balance of international competitions but have difficulty evaluating other determinants. For example, they can evaluate the competitive balance of an international competition if their team faces being knocked out early on. However, in this case, as international games occur infrequently, they have difficulty evaluating other factors such as stadium atmosphere, especially when making a generalized statement at one point in time. For this reason, the present study considers only competitive balance and perceived fairness in the distribution of income from television broadcasting fees for the attractiveness of the Champions League (see Figure 1).

5. By comparison, in the 2007/2008 season, the winner of the Bundesliga received approximately [euro]32.05 million and the club placed last received around [euro]16.72 million, a ratio of 1.9 to 1. In the Premier League, the winner received approximately £49.85 million and the club placed last received around £29.50 million, a ratio of 1.7 to 1 (Deloitte, 2008a; Ernst & Young, 2008).

6. In the present study, the perception of unequally distributed income from television broadcasts regulated by the federation is considered an external factor.

7. This study looks only at England and Germany. Other comparisons within Europe would also be possible, for example between the English Premier League and leagues that are even less privileged than the Bundesliga as regards revenue and the potential to win international championships, such as the clubs in the Swiss League.

8. Financial imbalances between clubs competing in international championships may be exacerbated by the system of distributing money between participants. For example, the winner of the Champions League in 2007 could receive a maximum of [euro]23.7 million from UEFA depending on the outcomes of its group games, while a team losing all its group games received [euro]5.4 million (UEFA, 2007).

9. As revealed by analyses of variance, there were no differences in the perception of the variables under consideration between the five match days for the subgroups of the sample of respondents from England.

10. The Internet sites used included: http://www.manutdtalk.com, http://www.villatalk.com, http://www.fulhamfc.com, http://www.boroforum.co.uk, http://forums.cfcnet.co.uk, http://www.redandwhitekop.com, http://www.premierleagueforum.com, http://www.soccerfans.de, http://www.fcb-forum.net, http://www.fanlager.de, http://forum.werder.de, http://www.forumaufschalke.de, http://www.dsc4ever.de, http://community.vfl-wolfsburg.de, http://www.eintracht.de and http://www.bundesligaforen.de.

11. Although the sample sizes for some teams were quite small, small groups were not eliminated as non-parametric tests showed that fans' perceptions in these groups did not differ significantly from the fans' perceptions in larger groups.

12. Besides measuring attitudinal and behavioural loyalty, we asked how much fans had spent on merchandise during the season so far, to capture the economic dimension of their loyalty to the club. On average, English fans claimed to have spent £121.14 and German fans [euro]69.98.

13. Other surveys conducted by the Bundesliga (DFL, 2009) and the Premier League (F.A. Premier League, 2008) themselves are not representative of the fan population in the respective countries.

14. In the present study, involvement in football is a variable that could potentially enhance the explanatory power of the model if it was included as another determinant. However, we would expect the involvement levels to be high for all committed fans in the sample and would not expect any differences between the fan groups under consideration (English versus German fans, fans of star clubs versus underdogs). For this reason, the variable was not included in the attractiveness models.

15. A two-factorial ANOVA confirms this result. The study also found that, overall, fans of underdogs evaluate stadium atmosphere more positively than fans of star clubs (β = 0.086, p<0.001); this finding is evaluated in greater detail in the discussion.

16. VfL Wolfsburg, a German club classified as “underdog” when the study was conducted, is a good example of the high degree of competitiveness in the German Bundesliga. In the 2008/2009 season, this team won the championship and, therefore, based on the definitions provided above, it must not be considered underdog any more.