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A few days ago, the @ECAEurope published a new piece of research about the Fan of the Future - Defining Modern Football Fandom.
Methodology: 14.000 respondents (2000 per market) across these countries:
. Here are some key findings 
#fanengagement
Methodology: 14.000 respondents (2000 per market) across these countries:
. Here are some key findings #fanengagement
1/ Many factors influence modern football fandom. A major factor is content & media as more OTT (or: direct-to-consumer) platforms are being launched with new content types (podcasts, video's). But most important: 'consumers expect brands to focus beyond their core offering'
2/ Hypotheses being researched were categorized into 3 pillars: affinity, engagement & consumption.
3/ Does football have more fans than other sports? Yes, it is the primary most popular sport in the world, followed by motorsports, basketball, and tennis. Interestingly, esports count for 12% of the world's population
4/ Younger fans are huge fan of football (54% within 13-15 age cohort. That interest drops significantly 16-24, which raises some eyebrows. An explanation given is that fans become more interested in other sports (20%), and that they dont like fan cultures (19%)
5/ One of the reasons for not ever having liked football (13+) is that there are more important things in life. Also, 24% doesn't like football fan culture and 23% says there's too much money in football. 11% says football is not making the world a better place
6/ Segmentation. Only 11% are football fanatics. Most fans are FOMO Followers (27%), Main Eventers (19%) or Tag Alongs (19%). This clearly describes a group that actively outweighs alternative entertainment options and doesn't become a fan for sportive reasons
7/ Female fans. Female fans are mostly still within the segments Tag Alongs (59% of which are female), Main Eventers (52%) or FOMO Followers (46%). Though, 30% of Football Fanatics are female
8/ Club choice. 33% of the fans say they support their club because of the style of play. Other obvious reasons are geographic location (25%) and parents influence (26%). Sidenote: in India style-of-play is more important reason for club choice than in any other country.
9/ Club choice (nation). In Spain, most fans (69%) support a team from their domestic league. In Brazil that's 63%. In India, most football fans have foreign club preference
10/ Club choice(-s). If a fan has chosen a club, does that mean it's all over? No. A substantial proportion of fans support two or more clubs. Huge implications for #fanengagement obviously as most activities are aimed at fans with first club-preference (except @telstar1963nv)
11/ individual player support. An often-heard argument is that younger fans follow individual players. Thats true, but that interest declines quickly over time
11/ #fanengagement method. Only 30% of fans attend live football games. Most fans watch games at home, read about football or watch live games out of home. It's surprising that content has far exceeded the live game interest
12/ football pricing. Fans find that attending live games do not live up to expectations. Sixty percent says they would attend more games if prices were lower and only 35% says ticket prices offer fair value for money. So, there's an imbalance there
That's it from my end. As mentioned at the beginning, this was only a small selection of many findings from this report. To find more interesting insights, you can find the report here https://www.ecaeurope.com/media/4802/eca-fan-of-the-future-defining-modern-football-fandom.pdf
