The ‘club versus country’ debate: investigating English fan loyalty toward club and national teams

Hart, David (2017) The ‘club versus country’ debate: investigating English fan loyalty toward club and national teams. Soccer & Society, 18 (7). pp. 849-865. ISSN 1466-0970

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Abstract

The ‘club versus country’ debate, which refers to an individual’s allegiance to their respective club and national teams, has become an increasingly popular topic for debate in the context of English football. Whilst prior work in this area has focused on the tensions between club officials and national associations, this study investigated the attitudinal and behavioural loyalty of fans towards club and national teams. Data were collected from 647 football fans across 16 English club teams utilizing a survey approach. Findings suggest that those with high levels of loyalty to their club are more likely to be loyal to the national team, questioning whether this is a ‘versus’ debate at all from the fan perspective. In addition, Premier League fans display lower levels of attitudinal loyalty to the national team than lower league fans, which may reflect underlying concerns that club players may sustain injuries in national team matches.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	L300 Sociology L900 Others in Social studies
Department:	Faculties > Business and Law > Newcastle Business School
Depositing User:	Ay Okpokam
Date Deposited:	01 Sep 2015 13:17
Last Modified:	19 Nov 2019 09:47
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/23654

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