Social Inclusion around Newly Promoted Football Clubs

Abstract

The research investigates the role of demography in fostering social inclusion around newly promoted football clubs. After addressing the role of being a 'fan', the literature review explains the sports-specifi c promotion/relegation system and how this can infl uence the coming together of fans in bonding ties with their local communities. Although the Null Hypothesis is invalidated, showing that a certain connection might exist between the variables, the regression results indicate that demographics alone are not suffi cient in order to explain if and how promoted clubs can support social inclusion. The Discussions expand on factors that have to be taken into consideration alongside demographics if social inclusion via football clubs is a matter of interest.