Appetite for or resistance to consumption relationships? A trans-European perspective on the marketisation of football fan relationships

Abstract

Although most sport organisations are encouraged to better manage the relationships they maintain with fans, little is still known about the types of relationships that fans want to establish with sport organisations. Also, as most suggested management and marketing practices come from professional sport organisations and European contexts, it is questionable whether they can apply to all sports organisations, and whether they are received in the same way by diverse fans from various socio-cultural contexts. Thus, the study aimed to explore football fans' relational expectations towards their national football association 2 across Europe and attitudes towards this marketization. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with several casual and die-hard fans from three European countries chosen for their heterogeneity: Armenia, Lithuania and England. Overall, and possibly in contradiction with numerous publications dealing with club football, the fans from the three countries did not express clear opposition or resistance towards the marketization of their relationships towards their national teams and associations. English fans seemed quite neutral or indifferent although Armenian and Lithuanian fans presented many characteristics of brandom demonstrating an appetite for this marketization.

Sport brands' attraction factors and international fans

“…president or brand ambassadors), and non-playing personnel associated with the brands are also found to be important (Ross et al, 2008). In line with the recent work of Bodet et al (2018), who emphasised the importance of sport organisations and their representatives on fan relationships, organisational identity and values have also been identified as an important factor (Couvelaere and Richelieu, 2005;Foster and Hyatt, 2008) that can also be related to satellite fans' local clubs when they perceive a close link between the values promoted by the foreign sport club and/or their fans, and their own local club and fans (McDougall, 2013). In this situation, attachment to a local club and its values or features (e.g.…”

Sustainability Challenges in Professional Football: The Destructive Effects of the Society of the Spectacle

“…Secondly, exploiting its brand can allow a team to position itself in relation to other sports clubs on the market, develop and strengthen fan loyalty, and generate additional revenue, which has become very important in the context of the salary boom in professional sports. One of the most recent developments is the implementation of experiential strategies whose objective is to stage the football match and boost "marketisation" (Bodet et al, 2018), as companies stage their brands to develop consumption relationships. To do this, the clubs seek to awaken the senses of the fans (consumers) by playing on music and sight, in other words, to produce atmospheres at the match (Edensor, 2015).…”

No shame to play: Ludic prosumption on Brazilian fanvideos

“…community of fans), by producing and sharing videos on the Internet (Rahman, Wing-Sun, & Cheung, 2012). Thus, they establish relationships with the object of consumption (Bodet, Kenyon, & Ferrand, 2018) and often become spokespeople or brand lovers to the brands consumed by them (Castellano, Pinho, & Noronha, 2018). In addition, they show strong desire to create and engage to the fandom (Castellano, Pinho, & Noronha, 2018;Cristofari & Guitton, 2017;Fuschillo, 2020;Waysdorf & Reijnders, 2019).…”

“…Thus, since the immaterial work of fans can add strong value to brands, they undergo repeated attempts to be controlled by them through the creation of brandomsi.e. brand-controlled fan communities (Bodet et al, 2018;Fresco, 2017;Guschwan, 2012). However, fan production results from their freedom of creating things based on the genuine love they feel for the products consumed by them, rather than for profit (Parker, 2019;Sugihartati, 2020).…”