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: https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇳🇱" title="Flagge der Niederlande" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge der Niederlande">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇬🇧" title="Flagge des Vereinigten Königreiches" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge des Vereinigten Königreiches">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇪🇸" title="Flagge von Spanien" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Spanien">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇩🇪" title="Flagge von Deutschland" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Deutschland">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇵🇱" title="Flagge von Polen" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Polen">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇮🇳" title="Flagge von Indien" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Indien">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇧🇷" title="Flagge von Brasilien" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Brasilien">. Here are some key findings https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten"> #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& #39;s). But most important: & #39;consumers expect brands to focus beyond their core offering& #39;

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& #39;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& #39;t like football fan culture and 23% says there& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;s an imbalance there

That& #39;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">https://www.ecaeurope.com/media/480...